HIV – Stigma and Discrimination
When explaining the two terms stigma and discrimination, ‘stigma’ is the devaluing of one’s personal experiences by others, be it about an illness or even a petty crime. Discrimination is an act. In it there is an unknowing effort made by the so called society to steal and take away the humanity of a person! Stigma and discrimination are often seen together.
Even if we take a look around the society using our common sense, we will see stigma and discrimination between people based on various things. Discrimination occurs on one or more grounds such as caste, religion, gender, race, region, language, caste. But the sad thing is that we do not use conscience. Perhaps we are unconsciously blaming the other person by applying our own reasoning!
Therefore, on the basis of all these traditional things, it is seen that there is more discrimination regarding HIV. This discrimination can be seen right from the rustic, uneducated villages to the highly educated metro city living class to doctors and government and semi-government employees who provide ART. Unconscious discrimination can be seen due to superstitions and prejudices about HIV.
If we study where HIV discrimination takes place, it is at home-family, school-college, friends-community, workplace, use of public property, private-government clinic, ART supply center. And the most important thing is to look at yourself with a tainted feeling. This is what we call self stingma. This time, ‘Why is this disease me?’ This is the most common question that arises in the minds of people living with HIV.
After HIV infection, patients often experience less physical pain. However, discrimination in our system is very disturbing and heartbreaking.
Although discrimination occurs for many reasons, HIV discrimination is widespread. Because it is ‘sexually transmitted’ and in our social system we don’t want to talk about sexuality, this kind of mentality. So, as soon as people realize that they have HIV, a moral lens is automatically put on their eyes!
why But HIV discrimination has a history. Earlier there was discrimination of STD (Sexually Transmitted Diseases). HIV is an STD. That is why HIV is called a secret disease. But this is not a secret disease. We don’t even have to talk about pelvic organs! Some communities in Indian society remain untouchable. This community has experienced untouchability due to many reasons ranging from caste to dialect. Exactly the same way some parts of our body are untouchable, parts that are not talked about but are very important, that is sex!
There is a lot of untouchability in our society about gender and vagina. The hygiene of these organs or the disease they cause is not often talked about. That is, doctors are talked to about ears, noses, eyes are talked to but doctors are not talked to about the problems of their sexual organs, what’s more, a wife does not talk to her husband about her menstrual period either! All this is the spectacle of morality designed by the society here, which every person wears in the name of culture and walks in the society.
If we look at it now, we are no different from the society. There is nothing wrong with us. Society is you and you are society! Our structure is also formed from this environment and it is inherited from time to time. So not to talk about sex, not to talk about sexually transmitted disease, because sexually transmitted disease – HIV has a big discrimination!
Further ignorance and unscientific attitudes are the reasons for discrimination against HIV. Which approach, if we have technical knowledge about a disease but we are baised (biased). Ignorance and misconceptions are removed that people do not discriminate and some people act purposefully because of their selfishness.
Even doctors discriminate due to lack of scientific approach. There is a difference between technical information and scientific approach. Sometimes doctors are technically gifted but not always have a scientific eye. On the surface, it can be a form of discrimination that may seem positive, but it can also be a form of discrimination, i.e., too much sympathy, ‘Oh poor thing, poor thing’, because doing so makes the person seem inferior and abnormal.
A biased view that if a person gets HIV, it must be through sex, that these people have behaved badly, unknowingly sneaks into people’s minds. But; Because we are so prejudiced, people are unknowingly hurt, we unknowingly cause them to suffer prejudice. That is, even if there is technical information or there are no such things as previous birth sins, but he must have gone to four wives, he must have behaved badly, which is a biased approach, so the person is stigmatized unknowingly.
In a male-dominated society, the construction of gender biases towards men. That is why women face more discrimination. Therefore, because of our biased or thinking from one side, women are more likely than men. One has to endure stigma or bias in the journey even without knowing it!
We should take care that all this does not happen even from educated people like you. Because sexuality is his private matter. It is one’s personal freedom how often to have a relationship with someone. We have to inculcate this value in ourselves and until we inculcate this value in ourselves, we cannot have the confidentiality of people living with HIV.
Well why do this, there are a couple of reasons behind this. Either we are acting unknowingly it has a very bad effect on people’s minds. People who face discrimination have thoughts of suicide, feel lonely, depressed, feel weak, feel insecure and many other psychological effects are taking place on their damaged mind.
The second thing is that this should never be done by us, because it is their right. Not only in their interest but they have that right given by the constitution and we should respect the constitutional rights and values.
So it has a legal cover too…! The law is, ‘Right to Privacy’. Although there is a cover of the law, no one takes the cover of the law about HIV. Because there is a case on the board, then the whole world knows, ‘I have HIV’. So no one uses it. Currently, some organizations act irresponsibly in their efforts to make a name for themselves and socialize the status of people living with HIV. They post photos on social media and mention that they are ‘HIV infected’. As a result, such people face problems in society in future. Be it at work place or relatives.
Now where does the issue of privacy come in? ART centers and social service organizations maintain the confidentiality of their clients, but many times some staff of the organization or ART providers unknowingly discriminate against them because of their prejudices as mentioned above. At the place where we work, a person around us, a relative or an acquaintance comes to do ART, even if we keep that person’s privacy properly, but that person has a constant fear, ‘Oh father, what will happen now, if this person sees me here’. ? Make a proper plan for that. Take him into confidence and promise, ‘Baba Ray is part of my work, and I cannot and will not say this anywhere’.
It is the job of the ART centers, staff as well as NGOs, social workers who are there to give confidence to the clients. So that he becomes emotionally empowered. Clients may be lost to follow-up when confidentiality breaks due to personal reasons. (Can stop taking pills). ART centers play the most important role in all this. Don’t shout, get angry, get angry at him to relieve the stress of your work. Because that client doesn’t know how much work load you have. Outside, he gets discriminatory treatment, but when the ART center gets good, belonging treatment, he will feel comfortable and safe to come here.
- light human,
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