By Malika Malhotra

Rajkumar and Sweta were the first HIV positive couple to appear in Indian television advertisements (produced by the BBC World Service Trust) on HIV and AIDS related discrimination. That was in 2003-04.

On the eve of World AIDS Day 2011, sitting across us at the BBC WST’s office inDelhi, Rajkumar recounted how their lives changed after talking openly about being HIV positive on national television:

“At the time there was no free ART [anti retroviral therapy]. we had no money and our families couldn’t afford to help us either. ART cost 4000 rupees per person per month (approximately double monthly minimum wage).

“No one really understood the infection. In 2002 a doctor at a hospital in Delhi refused to give me injections because he was afraid he’d get infected. My father had to do it.

“We decided to do the advertisement. We thought we’d help people understand HIV and AIDS. This was our chance to earn some money as well. But after we did the ad, our landlord threw us out and our community disowned us.

“It was very difficult and we thought that we had made a big mistake. Then one of my friends, Ravi, having seen the ad and understood that he couldn’t contract the infection by touching or living with us, invited us to stay in his one bedroom flat with his family. Others soon began to come around.

“Many other HIV positive couples started coming forward to talk about their lives. They said the ad made them feel more hopeful about their lives. The ad made them feel like they were not alone and that help and support were available.

“So it was worth it. That’s what I keep thinking.” 

Sweta is now six months pregnant. She visits her doctor every month, has her ART (which is free now) everyday and looks healthy and happy. The treatment is better, access to healthcare is better, there’s less discrimination in hospitals, and her family and community have by and large accepted them, she says.

Of course, there are also many who don’t know that the two are HIV positive and they feel it is better left that way. Rajkumar is convinced he will be fired from his job if his employers find out his status.

However, they both say that things are much better than before. They believe things will only get better with time provided that efforts to address discrimination continue and that free ART continues to be available.

And perhaps that is what we (all of us who are working on Getting to Zero) need to think about. Yes, we’re so far ahead from where we were when we began but in order for us to make it to zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS related deaths perhaps we need to continue a multipronged approach to the epidemic.

Will the AIDS free Generation 2015 see the light of day if we stop endorsing safe sex, stop providing free treatment,  shut drop-in centres for intravenous drug users or stop talking about routes of transmission?

Rajkumar travels to his village in Uttar Pradesh often and helps people living with HIV get the treatment and support they need. He says working with the BBC WST on the ad and then on two more programmes – Haath se Haath Mila and Jasoos Vijay – helped him to access NGOs working to support people living with HIV.

Sweta was head of the Delhi Positive Women’s Network. Being on the shows, she says, gave her the confidence and emotional support to speak openly about being HIV positive.

But Sweta reminds us that the battle against prejudice is not won.

“When was the last time you saw a TV spot about HIV and AIDS related stigma and discrimination?” she asks.

“A long time ago”, we say.

Malika Malhotra is a Project Officer with the BBC World Service Trust in India.