This is what bad-ass woman of the day, Renuka Chowdhury, Minister of Women and Child Development, told millions of Indians on Monday. One of the ways that women in India are getting infected with HIV is from having unprotected sex with their husbands. Husbands who are contracting the disease elsewhere.
"You cannot trust men or your husbands, with apologies to the men present here," Chowdhury told the inaugural meeting of the National Women Forum of Indian Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (INP+), attended by a few men."If you believe that men will be careful, then you can forget about protecting yourself."
India has around 2.5 million people living with HIV/AIDS -- the world's third highest caseload after South Africa and Nigeria -- with about 40 percent of those infected being women.
India just launched a 28.5 million dollar campaign to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS with a heavy focus on condom usage. For states that are resisting, Chowdhury says it is a hypocrisy for the people to not talk about sex when the population is so high and AIDS/HIV are spreading at such a fast rate.
She said public figures and leaders should speak the language of the people so that they could clearly understand health issues, particularly HIV/AIDS. "We have a population of one billion and we don't want to talk about sex. We have to be vocal on such issues. If we don't then it will affect the generations to come," she said. Chowdhury said her ministry would be setting up hospices for HIV positive women abandoned by their families through the Rashtriya Mahila Kosh fund.
To be real though, if my man is having sex with other women and I don't know if they are having protected sex or not, that relationship would probably be over. I am thinking a lot of these women are either unaware that their husbands are cheating or they are not consenting to the sex in the first place.
via Reuters and Times of India.
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"To be real though, if my man is having sex with other women and I don't know if they are having protected sex or not, that relationship would probably be over. I am thinking a lot of these women are either unaware that their husbands are cheating or they are not consenting to the sex in the first place."
Most definitely. I would like to know the abuse rate though..how many arranged marriages, in-relationship unwanted forced sex, the stigma of divorce, or the occurrences of violence against women who try to assert that their husbands need to wear condoms. :(
I'm sure bias against the childless can't help.
I saw an Indian married couple on television a while back. The man was HIV positive, and both of them knew it. For a long time, they lived celibately, but, eventually, the pressure to have a child overtook them, and they decided to take their chances.
They now have a healthy, HIV-negative little girl. However, her mother is now positive.
Watching the documentary was a crash course in slow suicide.
"I am thinking a lot of these women are either unaware that their husbands are cheating or they are not consenting to the sex in the first place."
Or they know, and are powerless against it anyway. Either your man is on the DL or banging prostitutes or mistresses. What are you going to do, take your young children and live on the street? Even if she was childless I don't know how divorced women are looked upon but I can only imagine.
"To be real though, if my man is having sex with other women and I don't know if they are having protected sex or not, that relationship would probably be over. I am thinking a lot of these women are either unaware that their husbands are cheating or they are not consenting to the sex in the first place."
A lot of this is happening in RURAL areas where arranged marriages are still the norm, the daughter frequently abides by that (awful awful awful) saying that "A woman must depend on three men in her life. First her father, next her husband, and lastly her sons." In certain villages, divorce is shameful, speaking out against domestic abuse or leaving a man because of adultery is out of their social and socioeconomic power. Other women in these villages rarely help or support these women and rape is a near constant reality. Tragically, leaving is a luxury that still isn't considered acceptable to even a lot of upper class Indian women. Many times, their own families won't take them back. Marriage is the ultimate goal for many of these women and suddenly ending it because of a...terrible autoimmune virus...isn't reason enough.
Still, Renuka Chowdhury's hospices, hopefully with some work to help these women become more assertive, are going to be a big help in the (slow. very slow.) process of making a difference.
Niobe, Antahkarana, both excellent comments. Economic empowerment breeds social and relationship empowerment - the moment you don't need a man to feed you (and your children), then you can choose a harder line on condoms. My only problem is that, generally, if you are that dependent on your husband the likelihood of you persuading him to use a condom seems extremely low...
She IS the same minister who wanted registration for pregnancies and permission for abortions....
God Discusses Condoms: Papal Penis Proclamations Flawed
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I just spoke to God. He said, "My plan for the planet earth is a forty per cent reduction in homo sapiens to three point eight billion inhabitants, you know, global warming, famines and all that shit.
A large component of the math is the 'how many babies per couple?' formula.
This turns out to be one point two six children per do-it-yourself couple planet wide.
This takes getting a whole bunch of weenies and vaginee parts to leave each other alone. Ergo, he continued, I'm going to crank up production of my weenies of mis direction children , or WMDs as the Neo-Theos call them until at such time that the planet's CO2, oxygen, food, water, etc return to homeostasis. This I call 'harmony with the divine.'
Actually, I sent Mr. Darwin down to sort of explain it all, but that's another story.
Speaking of other stories, Mr. Kvatch on his blognonymous website gets a gold star for his comments on the need for and the long term benefits from non reproductive sexual behavior.
Given his well honed sense of humor, may I ever so deliciously point out to him that if the NeoTheos and Big Benny forwent the skinny dipping good, Papal Penii Protection Bad Proclamations and pedalled condoms worldwide like their bigoted, capalist, money grubbing asses were falling off, I would not have to alter your planet's sexual mores for, hmm, let me see, I've got my notes right here, the next thirty one thousand years.
"Christ, is that right? Thirty one thousand.....?"
Labels: blognonymous.com, Darwin, evolution, global warming, God, mis directed weenies, Pope, skinny dipping
Back North. While admiring the amazing growth and sparkle of the new China, let us not forget the grim cost of China’s economic miracle, even though in comparison with other recently developing countries in the region, this immense logistical challenge has been managed with some sense of planning and order. There are only a few slums, a significant achievement given that this is the biggest mass migration in the history of the world, with rural people move into cities creating a second industrial revolution. A massive building boom, unparalleled anywhere, is taking place. In 2003 half of the concrete used in construction around the world was used in China’s cities. In 1950, 72 million Chinese lived in cities; in 1997 the figure was 370 million and by 2020 it is predicted to be 800 million, perhaps 950 million by 2030.
The extreme example is Shenzhen, constructed at breakneck speed by ‘architects on acid’. In the 1970s it was a fishing village. Then the government established a special economic zone there and the growth was non-stop. Recent government estimates put the population at 10 million, well above the 7 million counted in the 2000 census. We hear little about the industrial and construction accidents of this expansion. Official estimates are that 11,000 are killed every year, but it is privately acknowledged to be more than 20,000 a year.
China competes on price in the global market and safety measures add costs to the bottom line. This speed of development means safety standards do not catch up and compensation is so low there is little incentive for operators to ensure safety.