When she tested positive for HIV, the mother of four children even thought of committing suicide. She changed her mind after relatives consoled her. She decided to live for her children and the elderly in-laws also fighting with deadly disease. [break]
The HIV virus has debilitated her physically but she has no choice other than to work hard to feed her family. Matters turned worse for her after her elder daughter Basanti also tested positive for HIV.
Lawad, who was transmitted the HIV virus by her husband, who worked in India, said that the money she earns as a farmhand in the village barely keeps their family alive.
Her daughters, Parbati, 11 and Laxmi 8, and son Krish, 5, are third, second and first graders respectively. “My children go to school dressed in rags. I am not able to afford them good clothes,” she rued.
According to the District AIDS Coordination Committee (DACC), innocent housewives are increasingly becoming victim of HIV after their husbands bring with them the virus after engaging in unsafe sex in Indian brothels.
The numbers of children born out of the HIV infected parents are also increasing in the district. These children are orphaned at an early age and lack necessary support and protection.
“We suggest women whose husbands work in India and aboard to undergo a blood test. But they do not visit the local hospitals fearing social disgrace. They rather prefer to go other districts and cities for diagnosis,” informed Madan Bhatta, coordinator of DACC.
As per the latest data, 119 people are infected with HIV in the district. Eleven HIV-related deaths have been reported in the district so far.
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