(HIV/AIDS) Harass HIV patients, face police wrath... Think twice before harassing an HIV-positive or AIDS patient in Bihar. Else you may land in trouble. The state police headquarters has directed all superintendents of police (SPs) in the state to register complaints and initiate legal action against those found harassing people infected with HIV or AIDS on one pretext or the other. The criminal investigation department’s IG (weaker sections) Arvind Pandey issued the directive on April 29. The directive even warned of stern action against police officials for discriminating or being apathetic when lodging complaints of such victims. “The SPs, including the superintendent of rail police, have been asked to ensure compliance of the missive on a priority basis in the police stations under their jurisdiction,” Pandey told The Telegraph. The SPs have been told to get victims’ complaints registered under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code. The directive came after a number of complaints about ill-treatment meted out to victims. “Such people are looked down upon not only by members of society but also by their relatives. Hurt by all this, many had tried to desert their families,” a senior police officer said. According to the Bihar AIDS Control Society, there are 12,000 AIDS patients in the state and around 22,000 are HIV-positive. However, the president of Bihar Network for people living with HIV/AIDS, Gyan Ranjan, puts the number of HIV-positive people in the state at 54,000. Most HIV-positive people are subjected to harassment, be it by family or at the hospital they are admitted for treatment. Consider the case of a 28-year-old widow from Fatuha, a sub-divisional town in Patna district. Her relatives have abandoned her. Her in-laws are eyeing her property in the state capital but all she gets from them is humiliation and torture. She got infected with HIV after coming in contact with her husband, who had AIDS. Ever since her husband died two years ago, she has been living alone in one of the rooms of her ancestral home at Kazibigha near Fatuha. Then, there is this 35-year-old HIV-positive youth who needs surgery after he fractured his right armpit in a motorcycle accident six months ago. But doctors at a government hospital in Bhagalpur have changed his operation date five times in the past six months. In fact, doctors had even refused to admit him at the hospital on learning that he was HIV-positive. Another HIV-positive youth had a tough time getting admitted to a private nursing home in Patna after he hurt his nose in an accident. Bihar Network for people living with HIV/AIDS chief Gyan Ranjan said, “Such complaints have become a routine affair.” Telegraph 27/5/13)
Posted on: Mon, 08 Jul 2013 08:35:24 +0000
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