Women's Low Status Spreads HIV in India

Many of India's pregnant women with HIV are monogamous housewives who acquired the virus from their husbands. In his book, "Sex, Lies and AIDS," Siddharth Dube wrote that the major reasons for AIDS' spread into India's general population are poverty, illiteracy, high rate of STDs, and government apathy. But unlike in Africa, where the large numbers of patients have spurred high-profile campaigns against the epidemic, the social stigma of AIDS in India has caused many Indians to accept the epidemic's devastation silently. Some villagers with AIDS have been lynched when their illness was discovered. Health activist Swatijha Manorama said the spread of HIV can be linked to the subordination of women and girls in India. Bombay prostitutes cut their infection rate by 14 percent by unionizing and insisting their clients wear condoms. "Sad as it sounds, married women don't have that bargaining power," she said. "In a way, prostitutes are safer."

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