Better employment opportunity lures residents of the poor states of India to migrate to industrialized regions in the south and west, like Mumbai or Bangalore. It is also the reason that several end up with AIDS with most men carrying it back home to their wives. Take the example of Biharis who usually work as taxi drivers, mechanics, security guards or domestic servants in India's big cities. Bihari migrants are estimated to range from two million to ten million.
Srivastava is one such Bihari migrant worker infected with HIV. 'I just did not think about what I was doing,' Srivastava, aged 48, told reporters in Patna, the capital of Bihar in eastern India. He adds how much he regrets visiting prostitutes while he was away from his home working in another state.Srivatsava’s wife, who is HIV-negative, kicked him out of the house after learning about his disease. 'My wife's action really hurt me,' he said, 'We were supposed to be life partners.'
On December 18, observed as the International Migrants Day by the United Nations', Denis Broun, India head of UNAIDS, the United Nations anti-AIDS agency, said 'You can't expect all these millions to remain celibate when working outside their state.'.
According to the United Nations statistics, India has the world's largest cases of HIV with about 5.7 million Indians living with HIV/AIDS.
At present, the state is classified under low prevalence with 0.3 percent of adults living with HIV/AIDS, or around 135,000 people but actual numbers may be higher as the surveillance techniques are not very good. Due to the stigma attached to the disease, many affected people suffer secretly.
'It is poverty that is fuelling HIV in this state,' said Bihar's health minister Chandra Mohan Rai. 'More than 42 percent of Biharis live under the official poverty line against an all-India figure of 26 percent,' he added. 'Use condoms,' Rai tells the crowd.
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Source-Medindia
PRI
