‘Easy fund flow can distort any social intervention’

While most consider AIDS a crisis, some do find the silver lining thicker than the dark cloud. The city has a large number of people infected with the virus and a large number of them died last year.

There are many organisations — government and private — working for the cause.

Funds are coming in from many organisations, all wanting to do their bit. However, many feel that the money is not being ‘utilised’ properly.  “Easy flow of funds can lead to distortion in any social intervention,” says Pravin Patkar, a social worker.

Patkar feels that corruption has become an integral part of our system and it will sooner or later engulf all until and unless we take action against it. “HIV has affected many people across the globe. And since there are no clear-cut methods to verify the claims made by organisations, it is very easy to siphon off funds.

The people who do this won’t even have to answer to anyone.”
Ravi Duggal, a health activist, seconds that. “AIDS has a large reach and sees a large number of organisations like the World Bank, UN allotting a large sum of money for the cause.  It is the global factor that gets it a lot of attention and funds.”

However, Dr SS Kudalkar, project director at Maharashtra District AIDS Control Society (MDACS) is quick to clarify its stand. “We have a proper system through which a tab is kept on how and where the funds are being utilised. National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) allots the money to all government organisations and takes care of all its spending.”

Most social workers and activists feel that it is the easy flow of funds that sees a large number of organisations in the welfare sector jumping on to the AIDS bandwagon. “Though many have jumped in to help the cause, according to the Supreme Court judgement only government funded organisations are recognised and any private players are illegal,” adds Kudalkar. “The reason is simple, not many are aware of the treatment and procedure. The authorities don’t want private players to be involved in this.”

On the other hand, many wonder why other diseases are not given the same importance by government or others.

“One of my friends had contracted the killer disease, TB, while we were in college. Fortunately, he came through unscathed. During that time, the doctor-in-charge had advised us on the dangers and the widespread reach of the disease. It is shocking that only few organisations are working for it. Even the awareness level is nothing as compared to AIDS,” says Ajay D, a 29-year-old senior copywriter.

Nevertheless, Patkar feels that the reason why AIDS has more campaigns and organisations working for it because it is class neutral — anyone can get infected by the HIV.

However, Duggal thinks that it has nothing to do with social strata and blames the healthcare system in our country that is very fragmented. “There are too many independent programmes for AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis and many other infectious diseases.

This results in just a few of them getting the reach that the other diseases deserve.”

Many feel that awareness is more important as people suffering from AIDS or any other disease are still looked down upon in our country and don’t get the treatment and respect they deserve. “In most cases, the money actually donated is much lesser. In fact the focus should be to increase public contribution to these welfare schemes,” says Ramji Rajamani, a 40-year-old, senior specialist in instructional design.