CHENNAI: Two days after Vimala tested HIV positive last year, her in-laws asked her to vacate the house built by her husband Bhaskar in Namakkal. All she inherited from Bhaskar, a truck driver, was the deadly virus.
Vimala may not escape the HIV stigma but could get back her house, thanks to the legal aid cell opened by the Tamil Nadu State AIDS Control Society (TANSACS).
A pilot project in Namakkal, which has the highest prevalence of AIDS in the state, the legal aid cell will soon be replicated in all other districts.
“A large number of widows who contracted HIV from their husbands are discriminated against by their families and society.
We, in collaboration with the state legal services authority, will provide free legal aid to them, so that they get their due. This is more of an empowerment strategy than AIDS control,” TANSACS director Supriya Sahu told DNA.
Namakkal, a truck driver hub in Tamil Nadu, has been the epicentre of the deadly virus ever since the first case in India was detected in 1986.
“Usually HIV positive women face problems of property rights and custody of children, besides trouble from loan sharks. A vast majority of them were infected through their husbands who were truck drivers,” Sahu said.
TANSACS decided on opening the legal cells after a pilot study found that the aggrieved women cannot go to a separate office to air their grievances. “We did a baseline study with 50 women whose properties and children were snatched away. In six months, we were able to settle all the cases, some out of court. In another year, every district will have a legal aid cell,” Sahu said.
The next cell will open in Madurai, followed by Karur, Salem and Theni. Tamil Nadu is also the first state where the government is involved in the distribution of female condoms, as part of the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) AIDS prevention programme.
Other states that distribute female condoms include Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh.
