Migrant labourers bring AIDS home

MALDA: It's a village with over 200 HIV+ people. Tucked away in an obscure corner of South Dinajpur about 15 km from Balurghat town, Baul village has already found its way into the country's AIDS map.
Baul and its surroundings are teeming with migrant labourers. The administration, which is aware of the unnaturally high HIV+ figures, blames the scourge on them."Many men of the area go to others states looking for jobs. Months away from the family and the lack of awareness often leads them to red light areas. That's how they catch the deadly HIV virus," said Swapan Bandyopadhyay, district magistrate of South Dinajpur.
Many patients fear ostracizaton and keep their HIV+ status secret, putting many others in danger. Dakshin Dinajpur Society for People Living With HIV/AIDS is the only organization of its sort in the area, which set up an office a year back. Sagarika Das, the society's district secretary, said, "We try networking with HIV patients. We try to convince them that life has not come to an end because they have contracted the disease." Herself an AIDS patient, Das, however, conceded that the response was not always too encouraging. "We have 73 members, but there are hundreds outside."
The society thinks that the official figure of 273 patients released by the health department was too low. In Chakbhrigu village, just outside Balurghat, the number of HIV+ victims has crossed 100, said society members. Gita Mandal, an AIDS patient who has joined the society, claimed, "There are many who refuse to reveal their HIV+ status. They choose to lead a family life, exposing their close ones to the dangers of infection."
The story is repeated elsewhere in the migrant labour belt. "The economy of South and North Dinajpur, Malda and Murshidabad largely depends on these migrant labourers," said a labour department official. "There are no records of their actual number. But it must be over two lakh in Malda alone."
Take the the Halder family of Sahapur , Malda. Babu and Chhaya (names changed) have had their first child. But the newborn - like both parents - is HIV+. "I went to work as a labourer in Himachal Pradesh two years back. There, I had relations with some women. After I returned home, I got married. The disease was detected much later."
What's more alarming, many refuse to reveal they are HIV+. "There's a tendency to domesticate the disease," observed Father Puthumai of Social Welfare Institute, Raiganj.