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Sunita, an HIV+ woman living in India, was infected by her husband. With
tears, she shares that her husband destroyed her life. Sunita has made the
decision to move forward and educate others about this disease.
Breakthrough's new campaign, Is This Justice? highlights the
social stigma many Indian women face after contracting HIV/AIDS from their
husbands. In India, 5.2 million people are currently living with HIV of which
2 million are women, a majority of whom have contracted it from their
husbands. ___________________________________________________________
http://www.breakthrough.tv/Campaign_detail.asp?cid=18&id=2
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Is
This Justice?
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 Breakthrough launches its
latest multi-media campaign, Is This Justice? on February 13,
2007. This campaign aims to bring public attention the growing incidence of
stigma and discrimination faced by Women Living with HIV/AIDS (WLHA), most
of who have been infected by their husbands or male partners.
This hard hitting yet sensitive campaign has been created pro bono by
advertising agency Ogilvy and Mather in four languages -Hindi, English,
Kannada and Marathi. Developed by Piyush Pandey – National Creative
Director and Emmanuel Upputuru - Senior Creative Director, the campaign
asks for greater responsibility from the immediate family.
Is This Justice challenges the way in which women in our society
are treated, especially women living with HIV/AIDS. These women are either
shunned by the family and community or are forced to live on the edge of
society after their husbands die of AIDS.
The increase of HIV/AIDS amongst women is just another example of women’s
unequal status in society. Sonali Khan, Director of Communications for
Breakthrough says,”women suffer various forms of violence all through their
lives. HIV/AIDS has now been added to these problems because women find it
very difficult to negotiate safe sex or condom use. The consequences of
contracting HIV/AIDS is severe – women face homelessness, increased
violence, loss of jobs and families and lack of access to treatment and
care."
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Consider
the statistics:
Nearly 40
percent of the 5.2 million HIV positive people in India are women and nearly
80 percent of them have contracted this infection from their husbands or
partners.
Almost 90 percent of these positive women are thrown out of their homes after
their husbands die of AIDS.
While the general public continues to believe that most women with HIV/AIDS
are sex workers, official numbers indicate that they make up less than one
percent of the 2 million female infections.
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