New Delhi: It's no secret that those living with HIV AIDS are at the receiving end of a lot of discrimination. Apart from the health angle, the disease has worse repercussions for those who are working.
Prejudice at the work place often leads to employees keeping their disease a secret so that they don’t become victims of discrimination and sarcasm. A lot of them quit to save themselves from dealing with the humiliation at office.
It's been three years since 24-year-old Seema (name changed) was asked to leave the IT company she was working in because her employers found out she was HIV positive.
Since then she's been working in an NGO, caring for others like her and struggling to support both herself and her HIV positive husband.
"People wouldn't talk to me, they wouldn’t eat with me. Then they told me in office that I shouldn’t come in any more," says she.
Positive cases occur mostly among working or employed people. The elderly or infant groups see a relatively lower level of infection. Unfortunately, they are also the part of the economy that need to work.
For the affected people, it's extremely important that they keep their jobs so they can afford the treatment and the medicines.
Thirty-six-year-old Andrew (name changed), who was working as a bartender at a five star hotel in Delhi chose to leave himself before his boss could tell him to go.
"I got the feeling that if they found out, it would be hell for me. I knew there would be loads of discrimination, people would say nasty things. So I didn't take a chance. I just quit on my own," says he.
With no law to back them in India, these people are the real victims of ignorance.
A lawyer with the Lawyer's Collective group, Savita Singh says, "The Constitution of India states that no one should be discriminated against but unfortunately there's no specific law in place as of right now to protect affected people who face harassment at the work place."
A draft bill called the HIV AIDS Bill 2005 is currently waiting for the green signal from the Health Ministry.
This bill will, for the first time, look at issues like discrimination against infected people at the work place.
But having said that, in a country like India, a level playing field for people like Seema and Andrew is still a long way off.
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