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Bridging the Awareness Gap
Bulbul Sharma |
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| When I went to work with the slum children at Motia Khan,
the first reaction from my friends was "Better wash your
hands carefully, or you'll get AIDS". I got the same reaction,
when I was conducting art workshops at the Tihar Jail and took
a group of street children for an art camp. These responses
came from educated people who lived in metro cities who had
probably read many newspaper articles on HIV/AIDS, and watched
countless television programmes on HIV/AIDS prevention. |
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| The level of awareness in villages where I worked with women
on art and craft projects was even lower. "TV par dekha
hai. Koi angrezi bimari hai", "seen it on the television,
seems like some western virus" they said, unaware that
some of the men from their village who migrate for long periods
to work in the cities are also vulnerable to the virus. |
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| The level of awareness in villages where I worked with women
on art and craft projects was even lower. "TV par dekha
hai. Koi angrezi bimari hai", "seen it on the television,
seems like some western virus" they said, unaware that
some of the men from their village who migrate for long periods
to work in the cities are also vulnerable to the virus. |
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| Although a lot of work has been done by the health sector
to create awareness about the epidemic, I feel there is still
a great deal of work to be done, which would involve direct,
down to earth communication. There is an urgent need to educate
and spread awareness about HIV/AIDS, dispensing the right information
but taking care not to create a panic. However, Information
provision alone may not change behavior, we need to work with
people rather than just talk to them. We need to explore new
communication methods to engage people actively in their own
exploration and learning. |
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| This epidemic tends to generate fear, misunderstanding, misinformation
and discrimination against those living with HIV/AIDS. There
is often no support even from close members of the family, leave
alone from the community. They lose their means of livelihood
and are often thrown out from their homes. Most of them are
not even aware of the routes of transmission of the virus. They
feel safe to just pull the shutters down on the epidemic and
not to face the reality. This gives them a false sense of security,
which can make them even more vulnerable. |
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| Women, especially in the villages, remain blissfully unaware
that they too may be at risk. Women's dependency on men, their
generally lower level of education, awareness and access to
resources, particularly in the area of health care and their
incapacity to protect themselves from sexually transmitted infections
can contribute to the increasing spread of the epidemic among
women. |
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| HIV/AIDS and its vulnerabilities are hidden from
most of us, even though we live and work in cities and have
access to information. The situation in villages is even more
challenging. If we keep quiet, thinking this is not our problem,
HIV will change our lives irrevocably. We can make a difference.
Each one of us has to contribute in whatever way we can, to
pool our creative energies to deal with the virus. |
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| (All the views expressed in this column are entirely that
of the author) |
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