Religious heads pledge to combat HIV

Religious leaders attending a two-day interfaith summit on HIV & AIDS have jointly announced a declaration to remove stigma and discrimination against people living with HIV.

The first day of the summit 'Faith in Action 2010' saw the leaders take a pledge to work tirelessly to remove all forms of stigma, discrimination, isolation and marginalization of people living with and affected by HIV.

The discussion platform was shared by religious heads like Bishop Dr T Sagar, President of the National Council of Churches; Maulana Omar Ahmed Ilyasi, General Secretary, All India Council of Mosques and Imams; Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, founder of the Art of Living Foundation and others.

Leaders cutting across faith boundaries pledged to utilize their scriptures and traditions to actively promote these messages and talk openly about key issues on HIV and AIDS during religious discourses in their communities.

They also promised to work in partnership with organizations and networks of people living with HIV, the government, NGOs and other partners to enable a stigma-free environment to access HIV services in healthcare settings and defend their fundamental freedoms and human rights.

They signed a declaration that pledged to mobilize human resources from the faith communities to complement the efforts of the government to ensure that people from all communities can access services on HIV prevention, care and treatment.

Additionally, to mobilize communities to support all pregnant women to access formal healthcare and HIV testing services in recognition of the fact that HIV positive mothers can have children free from HIV- and can live for many years as healthy mothers, raising their children to adulthood.

A workshop attended for and by the religious leaders on the approach to remove stigma and discrimination reiterated their commitment to create a favorable environment for the HIV positive people.

Effective messages by HIV positive people including a Reverend living with HIV - J. P. Heath, who is also the Founder of INERELA +, motivated the religious leaders to commit themselves fully to support the national HIV response and bring the resources of the faith communities in halting and reversing the HIV epidemic.

The summit was attended by over 300 religious leaders across faith and states with a strong representation and participation from people living with HIV.

Also present were Chhagan Bhujbal, Deputy Chief Minister, Maharashtra; Rajeev Bindal, Health Minister, Himachal Pradesh; Ravi Aggarwal, Health Minister, Chhatisgarh; Thakodave, Home Minister, Arunachal Pradesh and Laxmikant C Hawla, Health Minister, Punjab.

India has nearly 2.5 million HIV positive people. A joint report issued by the World Health Organisation, UNAIDS, and UNICEF this week stated that over one million HIV/AIDS patients in India are without access to the much-needed anti-retroviral (ARV) treatment.