CHENNAI: The Tami Nadu government must bring a new law to override the Union government’s recent bill on rights of people with HIV and AIDS, the Tamil Nadu Networking People with HIV/AIDS has demanded.
Only on Tuesday, the Union government passed the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) ( Prevention and Control) Bill, 2014 in Rajya Sabha. But what has raised strong opposition is the wording of the section 14 (1) in the bill which said the governments will provide medical treatment to people with HIV and AIDS only “as far as possible.”
“There are over 1.5 lakh people taking anti-retroviral therapy drugs (a common medication for HIV/AIDS) in Tamil Nadu and these many people will be affected because of the introduction of the phrase ‘as far as possible’. So people living with HIV and AIDS might not get free drugs. Again, the ministry has promised a new rule to monitor if there is any denial of drugs to the affected. Again this will make our life difficult and we again have to explain about it to the people every time we face the problem,” said P Kaulsalya, president of Positive Women Network, a rights group working for people with HIV.
Speaking to the press, Daisy David, Tamil Nadu advocacy officer, Tamil Nadu Networking People with HIV/AIDS said “we oppose the section 14(1) of the bill and seek to remove the phrase ‘as far as possible’ for providing medical treatment,” she added.
The section says the measures to be taken by the Central or State governments under Sector 13 shall include measures for providing as far as possible, anti-retroviral therapy and opportunistic management to people living with HIV or AIDS.
“Just like bringing in an ordinance for jallikattu, the Tamil Nadu government should bring an ordinance to bypass this section, and later bring State Act,” said Daisy David.