On the Verge: The Local Other*

 “Can you get HIV from living with someone who has HIV?”  “Will you get HIV from a mosquito bite?”  “How about from kissing?”  Sandesh Mahadik, an HIV counselor by day and aspiring actor by night, asked these questions to a crowd at Mumbai’s Juhu Beach on a balmy December evening. They had gathered around Mr. Mahadik as he and his fellow volunteers put on a street theater performance.  Earlier in the evening, informational health literature and condoms had been disseminated among beach-goers by members of Sanmitra Trust, a non-profit organization founded in 1999 that runs several projects for HIV prevention and for the care, support and empowerment of people living with HIV/AIDS. 

Mr. Mahadik, who has a bachelors degree in counseling and works at an AIDS hospital by day, believes that Indians are “dangerously” uninformed about HIV/AIDS and lack access to accurate information about prevention and treatment.  “In a country that is struggling to educate its youth and to achieve 100% literacy, HIV prevention is not viewed as a top priority.  But it must be.” Mr. Mahadik explains that the desire to inform fellow Indians has driven him to volunteer with the Sanmitra Trust, which, among other things, sponsors street theater relating to HIV/AIDS issues.  “We try to break down stereotypes and societal stigma associated with HIV/AIDS,” says Mr. Mahadik. 

 One of Sanmitra Trust’s street theater pieces tells the story of a carefree Indian youth who finds out that he has contracted HIV.  Faced with this news, he is confronted by his brother who tells the young man that he should leave their family’s home and live on his own.  “I’m not sharing a toilet with you,” exclaims the brother.  When their father gets wind of these developments, he is understanding; he sits the boys down and explains that HIV cannot be spread this way.  “Does anyone know how HIV is spread?” the father asks the growing crowd.

 Mahadik explains that the public has been receptive to Sanmitra Trust’s street theater performances, although noting that in Mumbai, the center of India’s film industry, “everyone’s a critic.”  He believes that there is still a great deal of denial in India about HIV/AIDS; however, people are beginning to recognize that the virus “is killing millions of our countrymen.”  Mr. Mahadik is hopeful that through the work of Sanmitra Trust and other local grassroots organizations and charities, India will be able to overcome the greatest public health crisis in its history.  (View Pictures)

*Written by Ameet Kabrawala, TDN Board Chairman, from Mumbai, India

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