DECCAN HERALD
'Breakthrough' in Drive Against HIV

Bangalore: The visuals, even though stereotype, are strong and convey the terrible condition that HIV positive women live in.

A multimedia campaign launched by Breakthrough - an international human rights organization, in association with Ogilvy and Mather (O&M) speaks about the exploitation of women living with HIV/AIDS (WLHA).

Speaking at the Bangalore launch, on Thursday, Sonali Khan, Director, Communications, Breakthrough, quoting UNDP figures on the number of HIV infected people in India, said, "Out of 5.2 million HIV positive people in the country, 40 percent are women. Nearly 80 percent of them have contracted the virus through their husbands or partners," she said.

Stark Facts

"Around 90 percent of these women are thrown out of their homes after the death of their husbands. While the general perception is that a majority of the WLHAs are sex workers, the truth is that they constitute less than one percent of the infected population," she added.

The campaign shows the misplaced aggression and violence against women. The images are the same, of women, at the receiving end, as voiceless and faceless entities.

"That's because the popular mass of the people should be able to connect with them. There are success stories, but they are few and far between,' said Sonali.

The Man Behind...

The man behind conceptualizing the multimedia campaign, Emmanuel Upputuru, Head of O&M, New Delhi, said that films have been shot to reach out to a larger audience. "Women are punished by their husbands and society," he added.

Shanthi Noronha, of Karnataka Network of Positive People, Udupi, shared her personal experience, of ostracism by the doctors, her family and society. She was infected by her husband, who died, leaving her with their two sons, who are fortunately not infected. Fighting her tears, she narrated her own story, from being turned down by everyone, to now, where she is treated on par with the others because she was able to win over her trauma.

Alika Khosla, Associate Director, Breakthrough, spoke about the organization's involvement with students in Utter Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka, in using education as a means to address issues of gender and communal violence, sex and sexuality.