More on the female issue

India's Hidden Aids Epidemic

By Maxine Frith

The Independent, UK
19 November 2003


When she was 21, Kousalya Periasamy was forced into marriage with a man she did not like. She was told she had to marry him because his family owned land that supplied water to her father's factory. What Kousalya wasn't told was that her husband was HIV positive.

"He knew he was positive and his family knew too. I think my father suspected because he knew what my husband was like, but the marriage was all to do with money," Kousalya said.

"I knew nothing. I didn't like my husband but he forced me to have sex with him and his family said it was my duty. I became ill and my husband's family said I should go for tests, and that is when I found out I was HIV positive." Kousalya's story is tragically common in India, and goes to the heart of its burgeoning Aids epidemic.

While the country is becoming increasingly wealthy from foreign investment, and the growth of call centres and its hi-tech industry, the status of women has remained hugely unequal. Women have few rights to property, or control over whom they marry. Rape within marriage is legal, and domestic violence is condoned rather than condemned.

Low-caste women are often forced into prostitution, and even those who are better off can find it difficult to receive health care because they are put under pressure not to leave the house alone.

Campaigners say the inequalities are adding to the rapid spread of HIV and Aids. A report by the British charity Voluntary Service Overseas, to be published this week, will warn that unless women's rights are improved India could face disaster.

The Indian government insists that only 4 million people have HIV or Aids - about 0.4 per cent of the population. But most aid agencies say the real figure is much higher. The Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington has estimated India will have 25 million cases by 2010.