AIDS Threat to Bangladesh from India
Mohammad Abedin -
Indian demand for corridor, under the guise of transit must be thwarted to keep it free from HIV/AIDS, as it will spread the menace in the country rapidly. India is now the largest AIDs and HIV contaminated country in the world. According to Feacham, Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, India has outstripped South Africa and has more people living with AIDS than any other country. Being the second largest populous country in the world, it will not be strange if India have already outstripped South Africa. While UNAIDS puts the Indian figure at 5.1 million, Feacham said that, with the speed at which the disease was spreading, the figure in India must by now exceed the South African figure of 5.3 million. Feacham suspected that the figure in India might already have crossed 1 per cent of the population and what really set the alarm bells ringing, as WHO, UNAIDS and Indian Council of Medical Research, some experts put the figure at 8 million (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-1105489,prtpage-1.cms).
On the other hand the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency has forecast the number of people with HIV/AIDS in India could touch 20 million by 2010.
The rapid spreads of the menace among the Indian security forces, particularly deployed in the India's Northeastern states having common borders with Bangladesh, indicates how seriously the disease is spreading in India, which poses serious threat to Bangladesh. Indian security forces, particularly, Assam Rifles, officially admitted the presence of HIV/AIDS virus among many of its jawans. Sensing the imminent danger, Indian Defence authorities have asked soldiers battling violent separatist insurgencies in India's troubled northeast to carry condoms to prevent contracting HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
Assam Rifles jawans top in the list to have endured with AIDS/ HIV while among the three defence forces Army jawans rank highest to have contacted with this dreaded diseases, said Director General of Armed Forces Medical Services (DGFAMS), V.K. Singh.Assam Rifles Chief, Lieutenant General Bhopinder Singh revealed that 141 of his jawans have been tested AIDS/HIV positive and presently are undergoing medical treatment while 32 others have died(http://northeasttribune.com/4805.htm).
As a preventive measure, on the other hand, India's President A J Abdul Kalam said all new recruits to the country's armed forces would be tested for the HIV virus after the deaths of some 200 soldiers due to AIDS in the past two years.
"The military will be testing for HIV in new recruits and undertake pre-natal examination of wives of personnel in the services," President Abdul Kalam said recently at an army seminar in Shillong in India's restive northeast where thousands of troops are posted to "fight separatist rebels." Officials said the HIV testing would start this October.
"HIV/AIDS has become a security threat to India ," Lieutenant-General Bhupinder Singh told the seminar. "AIDS is no less destructive than war itself. We want to keep our force fighting fit." Government records show more than 300 soldiers are currently infected with the HIV virus (http://in.today.reuters.com/news/NewsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2005-09-24T130634Z_01_NOOTR_RTRJONC_0_India-217221-1.xml).
To avert the disease, Vice Admiral V.K. Singh, Director General of the Armed Forces Medical Services, told soldiers at an army cantonment in the Meghalaya state capital Shillong to use condom during extra-marital sexual intercourses. "We have instructed our men to carry stocks of condoms to prevent contracting HIV-AIDS while working in vulnerable areas," he acknowledged.
The directive to carry condoms comes after army and paramilitary authorities in the northeast confirmed that scores of soldiers deployed in the region were struck by HIV, with promiscuous sex being the main reason for contracting the deadly virus.
The paramilitary Assam Rifles was the first to officially acknowledge the presence of a large number of soldiers afflicted with HIV-AIDS, although other army and paramilitary units in the Northeast are yet to come up with a formal
assessment(http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1215228.cms).
The instruction for precautionary measures and warning from the head of the state did not come without sufficient reason. But they deliberately bypassed one reason of taking so much precautionary measures, including testing the wives of the jawans. The most serious reason was the threat of the Northeast rebels. The Times of India in a despatch on September 26, 2005, said, "Insurgent groups in the Northeast are now threatening to use a new weapon against India's security forces."
The Assam Rifles has received threats from the militants that they would let loose HIV infected women to spread the disease among jawans posted in the region. The DG of Assam Rifles, Lt. Gen. Bhoopinder Singh acknowledged that they received threats from the insurgent groups fighting to secede their regions from India. "The insurgent groups will unleash women infected with HIV to spread the disease among our jawans as a way to neutralising the security forces. . Criminals groups are also trying to infect gullible young girls of this region with the virus in order to leave a trail of HIV in the region."
The Additional Project Director of National Aids Control Organisation (NACO) N S Dharmashaktu informed, "Insurgent groups are now trying new, less expensive ways to attack our forces. Biological warfare has become a reality. AIDS can be quite a deadly weapon. It does not need money, sophisticated weapons and manpower. All they have to do is infect young hapless girls of the region with AIDS and let them inflect our security forcers with the disease."
The precautionary measures taken by the concerned Indian authorities indicate that AIDS emerges as such a menace for Assam Rifles that it has already claimed the lives of 40 Assam Rifles jawans, while 139 other are lying infected. Assam Rifles is spending Rs. 2 crore annually on the caretaking programmme of the inflected jawans. It has established a three-tier HIV/AIDS control faciltieis in the regin. An AIDS centre at CPAR Hospital at Sukhoi is being set up. Over 40 treatment detection centres have also been established. It is also upgrading 30-bed existing unit to 50-bed nodal centres in Shilong of Meghalaya. Over 275 testing and reporting centres have also been built at all company posts where the samples will be collected. Knowledgeable sources believe that the situation in other branches of Indian security services are equally dangerous, which are kept hidden under the blanket of secrecy. Indian authorities for obvious reason do not disclose the deteriorating health situation in the Armed Forces. The comments of several officials, even the suggestion of the President, to test the jawans before their recruit and even their wives unveils the gravity of AIDS menace in the Armed Forces and the common people as well.
This also reveals the truth that Indian soldiers are morally bankrupt and India officially allows them to be bankrupt through commiting such immoral and illegal act of sexual relations. If the jawans are officially allowed to have illegal sexual transactions, the wives of these jawans will automatically indulge in same immoral acts with their boyfriends. The process will automatically lead India to a greater Bothell
Sex is now a booming industry in India. India now earns crores of rupees every by selling the flesh of its girls and young women. People of different age group from several countries particularly from Bangladesh and Middle Eastern countries throng India to buy sex. As a result, HIV and AIDS virus spread in India in an alarmingly way.
Security forces of any country, are to maintain generally restricted and regulated life. If the position of the Indian security forces is so serious the condition of the common people is more dangerous. The disease surely has spread among the common people more horribly. So being a neighbouring country Bangladesh faces a serious threat to HIV/AIDS virus. It can spread in Bangladesh in various ways. Indian truck drivers, helpers and labourers who illegally enter and stay inside Bangladesh territory near the land ports exchange sex with the local prostitutes.
About 2,000 Indian trucks enter Bangladesh daily. If even a microscopic number these Indian truckers, are infected with HIV or AIDS virus, it will surely spread in Bangladesh.
The disease can also spread in Bangladesh through the Indian businessmen and tourists and illegal Indians, who frequently enter Bangladesh. Indians can enter Bangladesh from three sides and all the states neighbouring Bangladesh have strong presence of HIV/AIDS.
Preventive measures should be taken immediately. Number of truckers, businessmen, tourists and illegal Indians must be restricted immediately.
Illegal intrusion should be stopped at any cost. Law enforcers should remain vigil to deter the entrance of the illegal Indians. Bangladesh missions in India must seek health certificates from the Indians before issuing visa.
HIV/AIDS virus testing machines, if possible, in all the entry point of Bangladesh to avert the spread of the disease.
Under this situation, if transit is given to India, Bangladesh will not be able to get rid of the menace of HIV/AIDS virus. So the pressure of providing corridor to India in the name of transit must be thwarted not only for economic and military reasons, but also keep Bangladesh free of the AIDS threat from India.
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