Action: Report of the Commission on AIDS in Asia and Policy Lessons for India
Asian countries have a window of opportunity to avert large scale HIV epidemics. Unlike Africa, HIV in Asia is concentrated among specific population groups – sex workers and their clients, injecting drug users and men who have sex with other men. Among these, unprotected paid sex is the primary source of HIV infections in Asia including India. According to the report, men buying sex are the single largest group infected with HIV; with the potential of infecting wives, prospective wives and other female partners, in other words, to the rest of the population.
At the same time, it is possible to break this chain of transmission by implementing large scale prevention programs, covering more than 80% sex workers and clients. The Commission concludes that use of condoms in commercial sex will do more than any other intervention to prevent HIV in Asia.
Countries such as Thailand, Cambodia and the state of Tamil Nadu have successfully contained HIV through rigorous condom promotion in sex work. The Commission attributes this to structural interventions, that is, condom use policies in brothels and/or mobilization of sex workers – strategies supported by definitive evidence.
It is against these findings that the Commission advises Asian governments to ensure HIV prevention among sex workers and clients. It especially urges authorities to introduce pragmatic, non judgmental interventions for men buying sex aimed at encouraging condom use. Alongside, the Commission recommends a legal environment of decriminalization that supports health and safety in sex work.
Contrary to this, the Government of India is considering Amendments to the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956 ("ITPA") that intensify criminal sanctions against sex workers and clients. Despite objections from the Ministry of Health and the National AIDS Control Organisation, ITPA Amendments have neither been withdrawn nor sufficiently modified to address health concerns.
It is hoped that there will be more to the event than rhetoric; that findings and recommendations of the Commission will not be lost on the Prime Minister and the Government of India.
The report can be downloaded at:
Tripti Tandon, for Lawyer’s Collective