A.I.D.S. (Am I Doing Something?)

Chalo janab. The day is finally here to do some activism. It is the first day of the final month. Today is December 1st, World AIDS Day. Now everyone would say that Mr. Durrani is a such a party-pooper. He would now ruin all the fun by telling us not to have sex just like he did for sexting. Well, yes I would poop in your party just telling that if you are so keen to do it, use a condom please. They are dead cheap (nobody is asking you to buy Durex all the time) and they are for your own good.


The theme this year for World AIDS Day is "Universal Access and Human Rights". As Pakistanis have a canny ability to stigmatize the victim rather than tackling the evil, the theme cannot be more befitting. We need to understand that AIDS patients are as human as we are. They may have special needs and they deserve a chance to universal access to life-prolonging drugs but we should remember that they are humans with hearts. We should not pity them or leave them out of our society. They can be good employees, good friends and even good spouses and parents. Recent scientific procedures have helped HIV-positive mothers to produce HIV-negative children. Extra care does not hurt anyone. We need to change the public thought on this matter.


Bhayee, if you say AIDS in Pakistan in any of your sentences, people make a run for changing the subject or you are suddenly in the butt of a joke. We have just swept this problem under our "Islamic" rug. Once I mentioned it on a forum and some guy made a wise crack that they need a live demonstration on how to use condoms (he meant from start till climax). An year later, I tried to talk it out with one of my friends and he replied that it is Zionist conspiracy to ruin our generation and make them more sex-oriented as it was not a problem in his parents' time. That explanation made me dizzy for a good two minutes. Such ignorance does not help the cause. An acquittance of mine would not use any condoms as he fears that it would make him impotent. Another guy thought that using condoms is just "cheap" and makes you look like a "professional" sex worker. When I asked them that how do they know that their partner is clean, they replied that they pick people from good families and they can tell that they are "clean". Rarely, I have been able to talk it out with girls but I remember that during my last year projects, two girls accompanied to a term paper on AIDS in Pakistan. Another girl of my university took the initiative last year and arranged a seminar on AIDS awareness.


During my term paper, I found out that Pakistan is located at a very tricky position when it comes to AIDS. Our neighboring countries India and China have alarming rates of infections whereas on Afghanistan has the cheapest retail rate for drugs in the world and yet to have a credible source of data on AIDS infection. As travel with India is more relaxed then ever, there is a chance of epidemic travelling into the country. Needle sharing during drug use is also a great cause of this disease. As cheaper drugs flow from Afghanistan, the epidemic can rise as well. These are plausible situations. It does not mean that we stop people with AIDS from both sides of the border to travel. In order to combat this threat, we need to improve our prevention strategies. We need to ensure that proper sex education is given to our children and not only just biological stuff but as well as the logical religious stuff. We need to crack down on drugs and disapprove its use in our mainstream lives.


Poverty has also been a indirect cause of this menace. In order to make the ends meet, both men and women indulge in prostitution. The client would pay less if he or she would be able to get it the way they want it. This does not only prevail in adults. I have been told that children are also "up" for sale. In Lahore, a child sex-worker would be available at even Rs. 50, sometimes lower. These children usually do it to buy glue. The scenarios for eunuchs is not much different either. International agencies like UNAIDS and USAID have been trying to safeguard children from this menace and rehabilitate their lives with the help of local NGOs. Gender Interactive Alliance and New Light Aids Control Society are also playing their part to spread awareness and help in rehabilitation among transgenders and homosexual men. Government of Pakistan has been keeping it under a priority and due to efforts by the government, blood transfusion are much safer than they were a decade ago. Advertisements campaigns in 90s have helped the numbers to be low.


Currently there are 97,400 HIV/AIDS cases in Pakistan and the number is rapidly progressing in drug users and male sex workers, possibly in homosexual men. These number are only reported cases. The estimated number of cases are much higher, sometimes touching the 200,000 mark. I know that quite a few people will accuse me of doing armchair activism but with AIDS, doing that is a tough thing. I have been doing trying to this since I was 17 years old and every year, I have faced more "jokes" than motivation. HIV/AIDS is a global problem and instead of looking what someone is doing, we should all ponder about A.I.D.S. or "Am I Doing Something?" You can start by making a pledge: http://bit.ly/hnzh4E