SHILLONG, AUG 29: People living with HIV and people from the LGBT community today demanded the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC) chief executive member Hispreaching Son Shylla to tender a public apology for his ‘discriminatory’ statements.
“We demand him (Shylla) to tender an apology for his statements which were found to be stigmatizing and discriminatory in nature,” a representative of the people living with HIV in Meghalaya and drug users Barry Leslee Kharmalki told reporters here on Wednesday.
Shylla had stated that the KHAD (Khasi Social Custom of Lineage) Bill will also be one of the ways to prevent the indigenous people from getting HIV/AIDs while claiming that truck drivers and migrant labourers from outside the state are the main carrier of this disease.
Following criticism from several quarters, the KHADC chief said that the Council is also contemplating to come up with a fund to help “victims” of HIV/AIDS as it was time to wake up as a society by extending help and sympathy to them.
Slamming the political leader for his ignorance, Kharmalki said, “First of all, we are not victims for him to symphatize with us. His statement only reflects that he has complete lack of knowledge about the issue. It also seems those whom God wishes to destroy, he first makes mad.”
Informing that the Parliament had passed the historic Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) (Prevention and Control) Bill, 2017, he said that the Bill prohibits discrimination against people living with HIV on grounds of treatment, employment and workplace.
He went to point that the Bill also prohibits anyone to publish information or promote hatred against those who are HIV positive.
Asked whether they would seek action against Shylla, Kharmalki said, “We want him to apologize and take back his statements and if needed, we will also be consulting our legal experts on the matter.”
Further, the representative of the people living with HIV outrightly rejected the claim of the KHADC CEM that truck drivers are main carrier of the virus by reminding him that “HIV does not discriminate anybody (a tribal or non-tribal).”
Referring to statistics from ARTC, Kharmalki said out of 186 truck drivers (living with HIV), 129 are tribal indigenous while only 17 are non-Khasi adding that truckers are not high risk group, they are bridge population in which they can bring or are carrier of the disease.
Stating that HIV infection is not due to mixed marriage as claimed by political leader, he said out of 3102 (heterosexual) people taking Anti-retroviral Treatment (ART), 2478 are Khasis while 752 are non-Khasis.
“This clearly shows that people are infected not because of mixed marriage. Therefore I still forgive Shylla but instead of stigmatizing people living with HIV he as a leader should be more sensitive towards this issue,” he said
President of the Jaintia Network for Positive People Ridahun Ksoo said, “To say that the Bill will help to prevent HIV/AIDS is not at all acceptable to us because majority of the people registered with our organization do not have partners working as truck drivers.”
Meanwhile, Dona Marwein, vice president of the Shamakami, an organization looking after the welfare of the LGBT community, also expressed concern over Shylla’s insensitive statement that the KHADC do not recognize transgenders.
“We also demand him to apologize because such statement is absolutely wrong, hurting and discriminating towards us. If he is saying this then it only means that he is disrespecting the court’s judgement,” she said while referring to a Supreme Court ruling passed in 2014.
By Our Reporter
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