Forced HIV testing of staff members by Suraksha, an NGO in Karnataka, India

Dear Friends and supporters,

Greetings from present and former staff members of Suraksha and Sadhane!

We are a few of the sexual minority and sex worker community members belonging to Suraksha and Sadhane. This is to bring to light serious human-rights violations by the Executive Director of Suraksha.

Sadhane is a community organisation of HIV positive sexual minorities and sex workers formed in 2006 and registered during 2007. Sadhane got the HIV prevention program funding from Karnataka Health Promotion Trust (KHPT) (www.khpt.org) through USAID. This project was awarded to Sadhane as Suraksha agreed to support program implementation.

Suraksha was implementing the Sadhane program by through Executive Director. Initially there weren't many issues. Gradually, Sadhane Board and staff experienced discomfort with Suraksha since they were not involved either in important decision making or in terms of the programme.

Whenever any doubt or clarification is raised by Sadhane Board members, there was no proper response. The Board members role was limited only to signing cheques. Making Sadhane staff to undergo HIV test was an important decision taken by her which was not discussed or brought to the notice of Sadhane Board members.

Suraksha is an NGO formed in order to provide awareness on health and sanitation issues to the slum dwellers and to protect the human rights of sexual minorities, sexworkers and PLHIVs. Later during (2002 - 04) with the financial support of KSAPS, implemented HIV-AIDS prevention program in Kamalanagar slums of Bangalore.

From the year 2004 till date, Suraksha is implementing HIV prevention program with the financial support from KHPT through Bill Melinda Gates Foundation in Bangalore Rural, Ramanagar and Dharwad districts of Karnataka working with 3000 Female Sex Workers and 3000 Sexual Minorities in these districts.

 
Suraksha along with Sangama was providing support to Samara, Sadhane, Karnataka Sex Workers Union and Karnataka Sexual Minorities Forum (community organisations) in their districts from the time Mr. Elavarthi Manohar became the Executive Director of Suraksha in 2006.

There was lack of support from the current Executive Director of Suraksha both in terms of programme and to the community organisations. Forced HIV testing is also one of the vital reason for which staff and ex staff members are fighting for justice.

We are all very angry, upset and frustrated not just because we were forcefully tested and test reports kept with her. But we are very agitated because even the internal inquiry committee of Suraksha tried to sweep everything under the carpet and protect the erring management and the Executive Director.

We would also like to bring to your notice the high-handed behavior of some NGO heads and responsible officers who are behaving like ``Hitlers''. Some of them are treating the community with scant respect and for years we have been bearing this and digesting the insults. But time has come for all of us to stand united and bring this kind of injustice to the notice of all.

The ED's behavior and attitude apart, the action to coerce and force the staff members of both Sadhane and Suraksha to go for HIV testing is gross violation of our rights.

We understand the importance of testing and unless one is tested, providing treatment, care and support would not be possible. In our day-to-day activity and work, based on this principle we go out and do the outreach to bring our peers to the clinics not just for Sexually Transmitted Infection testing but also to persuade and encourage all the sexual minority and sex workers about the importance of testing and early treatment.

However, as advocated by NACP III http://www.nacoonline.org/National_AIDS_Control_Program/ ) and mandated by NACO (http://www.nacoonline.org/NACO ). We strongly oppose any kind of forced testing and breaking of confidentiality. 47 members from sexual minorities and sex worker communities gathered at the Indian Social Institute (ISI) in Bangalore to condemn the `forceful' HIV tests done on the staff of Suraksha.

Outcome of 28th Aug 2010 press conference DNA Bangalore edition news paper published the news on 29th http://www.dnaindia.com/print710.php?cid=1430207 followed by NDTV telecasted the news on 30th Aug 2010 http://www.ndtv.com/video/player/news/bangalore-employees-allege-ngo-forcing-hiv-tests/160928

Later on 2nd Sept 2010 The Karnataka State AIDS Prevention Society (KSAPS) initiated a inquiry committee to probe the matter. Mr. Vijay Hugar M&E officer of KSAPS, Mr. John Anthony head of Technical Support Unit of KSAPS, Ms. Maya Mascarenhas from MYRADA (NGO) and Ms. Swetha to document the inquiry, visited Chennapatna drop in center of Suraksha and met with 47 members including the ex-staff of Suraksha from all the three districts.

The inquiry team recorded the statements with an electronic voice recorder and took signatures of staff members who clearly stated that they were tested forcefully. Later the team visited Ramanagar Sadhane project and head office, and met all the staff members who gave complaint to Suraksha against forceful HIV testing and took their signatures and recorded their statements.

We requested the KSAPS team to interact with all the Suraksha members from all the districts to get down to the truth and not just the people recommended by ED.

 
We were under the impression that the Suraksha Board would give us justice. Now that the Board had failed to resolve the issue, we, the staff and ex-staff members of Sadhane and Suraksha are expecting your support.

As we have explained you about the injustice happening to our fellow beings, we kindly request your cooperation to fight against this in-human attitude.

Sadhane being a PLHIV Human Rights Organisation, the Board is providing its complete support to the current staff and ex-staff members of Suraksha and Sadhane to fight against this severe Human Rights violation.

Do show your support by pressurizing the concerned Suraksha board members to take action against the Executive Director at the earliest.

For more details kindly contact: Manjesh - Ex staff Suraksha (095917 25003), Karishma - Present staff Suraksha (099005 11304), Mahesh Patil - Ex staff Suraksha (095351 44614)

Suraksha can be contacted at Suraksha_khpt@yahoo.com

Kindly support us.

In solidarity,

Manjesh
Community Spokes person

Staff and ex-staff members Sadhane and Suraksha