S.No.
|
Statements
|
Correct Factual Position
|
1.
|
He
was one of the first people in India to talk about HIV/AIDS as a human rights
issue and started AIDS Bhedbhav Virodhi Andolan (ABVA) in 1989-90 in New
Delhi, the first AIDS activist group in the country.
|
ABVA
was formed due to the collective efforts and commitment of a number of activists.
Many of the activists had been working together in various campaigns from
1984 to 1988-89 which made it easier for these activists to come together to
form ABVA. S.G. joined at this point of time. Giving credit to one individual
for starting ABVA is an insult to all the ABVA members both dead and alive. S.G.
was one of the members of ABVA. As a collective ABVA was one of the first
organizations to talk about HIV/AIDS as a human rights issue. To be fair
Ashok Row Kavi (Bombay Dost); Dr. I.S. Gilada (of erstwhile Indian Health
Organization); and Dr. Suniti Soloman (Chennai) were easily the earliest to
be active on these issues years before ABVA was formed. There must have been
many more. Most importantly PWH&A (people with HIV & AIDS) who chose
to maintain anonymity or carried pseudo-names. Perfectly understandable.
|
2.
|
ABVA
also initiated a petition campaign that helped prevent the passing of the
draconian AIDS (Prevention) Bill of 1989. Siddhartha’s work as a lawyer in
New Delhi strengthened these efforts.
|
The
said petition campaign was initiated much before S.G. became a lawyer. ABVA had members who had a
decade’s experience of using parliamentary techniques; their expertise was
valuable.
|
3
|
He
was responsible for bringing out “Less than Gay – A Citizen’s Report on the
Status of Homosexuality in India”.
|
There
were seven ABVA members who had co-authored the report; it was indeed a group
effort of all the ABVA members and not just these seven and certainly not
just one amongst these seven. The report is available at the following link:
the names of the seven
co-authors can be verified.
|
4.
|
Siddhartha
also worked with ABVA to publish a series of well-researched reports on the
status of other vulnerable groups of
people like women in prostitution, professional blood donors and drug dependents,
…
|
ABVA’s
report titled Women And AIDS – Denial
and Blame was authored by ten members including S.G. Another report titled
Blood of the Professional was
authored by just one member, Jagdish Bhardwaje. The report on drug dependents
titled This Sugar is Bitter was
conceived and brought out much after S.G.’s death!
|
|
S.No.
|
Statements
|
Correct Factual Position
|
|
1.
|
He
was one of the first people in India to talk about HIV/AIDS as a human rights
issue and started AIDS Bhedbhav Virodhi Andolan (ABVA) in 1989-90 in New
Delhi, the first AIDS activist group in the country.
|
ABVA
was formed due to the collective efforts and commitment of a number of
activists. Many of the activists had been working together in various
campaigns from 1984 to 1988-89 which made it easier for these activists to
come together to form ABVA. S.G. joined at this point of time. Giving credit
to one individual for starting ABVA is an insult to all the ABVA members both
dead and alive. S.G. was one of the members of ABVA. As a collective ABVA was
one of the first organizations to talk about HIV/AIDS as a human rights
issue. To be fair Ashok Row Kavi (Bombay Dost); Dr. I.S. Gilada (of erstwhile
Indian Health Organization); and Dr. Suniti Soloman (Chennai) were easily the
earliest to be active on these issues years before ABVA was formed. There
must have been many more. Most importantly PWH&A (people with HIV &
AIDS) who chose to maintain anonymity or carried pseudo-names. Perfectly
understandable.
|
|
2.
|
ABVA
also initiated a petition campaign that helped prevent the passing of the
draconian AIDS (Prevention) Bill of 1989. Siddhartha’s work as a lawyer in
New Delhi strengthened these efforts.
|
The
said petition campaign was initiated much before S.G. became a lawyer. ABVA had members who had a
decade’s experience of using parliamentary techniques; their expertise was
valuable.
|
|
3
|
He
was responsible for bringing out “Less than Gay – A Citizen’s Report on the
Status of Homosexuality in India”.
|
There
were seven ABVA members who had co-authored the report; it was indeed a group
effort of all the ABVA members and not just these seven and certainly not
just one amongst these seven. The report is available at the following link:
the names of the seven
co-authors can be verified.
|
|
4.
|
Siddhartha
also worked with ABVA to publish a series of well-researched reports on the
status of other vulnerable groups of
people like women in prostitution, professional blood donors and drug dependents,
…
|
ABVA’s
report titled Women And AIDS – Denial
and Blame was authored by ten members including S.G. Another report titled
Blood of the Professional was
authored by just one member, Jagdish Bhardwaje. The report on drug dependents
titled This Sugar is Bitter was
conceived and brought out much after S.G.’s death!
|
28 February, 1990
|
Protest against
the refusal of doctors at AIIMS, New Delhi to operate upon an
African envoy with AIDS at the ICMR headquarters.
|
30 November, 1990
|
Staged a
protest demonstration at the head office of the Medical Council of India (MCI),
urging it to remove from its
Medical Register the names of doctors who
refused to treat persons with HIV infection/AIDS.
About five months later, the Indian Medical
Association responded by publicly stating that a refusal
to treat patients with HIV infection/AIDS would be
against medical ethics.
|
18 March, 1991
|
Protested
outside the head office of the then New Delhi Municipal Committee (NDMC)
following refusal by the NDMC
Hospital at Moti Bagh, New Delhi, to treat children
with Thalassaemia who had contracted HIV infection through blood transfusion.
|
7 August,
1991
|
A 500 strong
sit-in was organised at AIIMS following refusal by
doctors at the premier medical institute of the country
to conduct a delivery on an HlV positive
pregnant woman.
|
6 December, 1991
|
Protested
outside the World Bank office
against the use of
loan/grant of US $80 million to the Government of India; ABVA feels that rehabilitation of HIV positive
persons should be an important part of management.
Any programme, which does not take this into
consideration, should not be
funded. No programme
should violate the basic rights of the individual.
|
6 April,
1992
|
On the eve of
World Health Day, ABVA and 37 other
concerned organisations protested outside the World Health Organisation (WHO),
South East Asia
Regional Office, New Delhi, against plans for
trials of AIDS Vaccine in developing countries.
|
11 August,
1992
|
Held the first
ever protest demonstration in India condemning
police atrocities on gay people, at Police Headquarters,
New Delhi, after 18 persons had been
arrested by the Delhi Police from the Central Park at
Connaught Place on grounds of being involved in ‘homosexual acts’.
|
30 November, 1993
|
Held a demonstration
at the New Delhi based office of the United Nations protesting
against the policy of
the Indian Government to deport HlV+
foreigners.
|
6 April, 1994
|
Organised a
demonstration at the office of the National Human Rights Commission
protesting against the
refusal of treatment to Deepak Biswas, suffering
from AIDS in Calcutta.
|
30 November, 1994
|
Organised a
demonstration at the office of the National AIDS Control
Organisation (NACO), New Delhi, protesting against the forcible HIV testing of
women in prostitution in Calcutta.
|
26 September,
1995
|
Held a
demonstration at the national Protest site Jantar Mantar, New Delhi to protest
against the supply of HIV infected blood to thalassaemic
children by the Indian Red Cross
Society,
Bombay.
|
30 November, 1995
|
Held a
demonstration at the office of the Union Health Ministry, Govt. of India demanding that the report oh the BIV vaccine trial
in Bombay be made public.
|
10 December,
1996
|
Protested at
the American Centre, New Delhi against the illegal BIV
Vaccine trial conducted at the behest of American vested interests.
|
7 April, 1998
|
Protested at
the Supreme Court of India against the ban on
Professional Donors.
|
30 December, 1998
|
Organised a
public meeting regarding rehabilitation of Professional
Blood Donors at National Gandhi Museum, Rajghat, New Delhi.
|
