Failed by government, HIV-hit on hunger strike

They came from far and wide. From Muzaffarpur, Saran, Bhojpur, Sitamarhi, Siwan, Vaishali, Sheohar, Madhubani, Patna, Gaya and Begusarai. Some 600 men, women and transgenders affected by HIV. They gathered at Kargil Chowk in Patna, and sat on a daylong hunger strike to draw attention towards the indifference and fiscal mismanagement within the government system.
The Bihar State Human Rights Network last Tuesday used the fasting route to tell us that the state government, after announcing grand schemes for PLHA (people affected by HIV/AIDS) such as Antodaya Yojana, Parvarish Yojana and Bihar Shatabdi AIDS Pidit Yojana almost two years ago, has not delivered on those promises. Moreover, official letters issued by departments concerned following the Patna high court directives on essential services to PLHA such as short stay home, care centres, provision of medical services etc, appear to have been ignored.
“All these schemes came into effect in 2013-14. According to a reply to our RTI query, the government received applications from 6220 people till February 2015, but not a single person has so far actually received the benefit of the scheme,” spokesperson Sanjit Singh said and added the baseline examination facility as per the NACO guidelines is not available at any ART (antiretroviral therapy) centre in Bihar.
Rambabu Ram from Sitamarhi says, “The CD4 count has not been done for PLHA for the past nine months at Sitamarhi. The employees at the centre are sometimes very rude and even throw our ART cards.” A rickshaw-puller from Riga block in Sitamarhi spoke about how ever since his HIV status was disclosed, he isn’t allowed to draw water from the public water source in his locality. Several people from Hajipur and Vaishali district called for a social audit of the state of the ART centres. Facilities meant for patients are misused or nonexistent.
“For three months, the water purifier is empty.” “The ART centre employees are indifferent.” “We have to travel to the ART centre, but the centre employees shut down all the facilities by noon.” “The toilets are pathetic, unhygienic.” These were the voices from Vaishali.
The stories told by participants are too many to recount here. Shortage of essential medicines; nexus between doctors and local suppliers; refusal by doctors to treat patients; blatant discrimination and disrespect at government run facilities… and so on.
“We demand that the government should implement the commitment given to the high court; that short stay facilities be opened at all ART Centres; that the NACO guidelines be adhered to by all ART centres which stipulate that all tests should be free of charge; that all government hospitals be supplied adequate number of universal precaution kits and HIV kits regularly; and that all ART staffers be paid their salary regularly,” Sanjit Singh said, adding one reason for the apathy of the ART centre staff is that they haven’t been paid for three months.
“A daylong hunger strike is no big deal for us widows who are facing hunger every day! If the government doesn’t pay heed, it will have to face the next level of protest. We will leave no stone unturned. We will use the court, the RTI and every known method of struggle for our rights,” said Sushila Devi from Ara.