New law to protect those with HIV/AIDS
Over five years after the Union health ministry finalised the draft of the HIV/AIDS Bill, it is likely to see the light of day. On Thursday, World AIDS Day, health minister Ghul-am Nabi Azad said the government would soon enact legislation to
end discrimination against HIV/AIDS patients. The draft bill is lying with the law ministry, and the minister said his officials would initiate the process to revive it.
“The government will soon bring in a law to ban discrimination against HIV/AIDS patients,” he said at a World AIDS Day event. The health ministry had finalised the draft in 2006 and sent it to the law ministry in 2007. The latter returned it after truncating 32 provisions. The health ministry was not happy with the truncated version, and sent it back again.
After some NGOs protested, the law ministry asked the solicitor-general to examine the draft bill in November 2009, when the senior law official advised reinstatement of the deleted provisions.
Activists working in this field had recently demanded that a strong law to outlaw discrimination against HIV/AIDS patients be enacted in the ongoing session. Several NGOs and Lawyers’ Collective, a legal advocacy group, which helped draft the bill, said the matter was urgent due to the “large-scale” discrimination faced by the HIV-positive people.
The minister also said the government would soon start “red buses” on the lines of Red Ribbon Express to create awareness.
Post new comment