“Ini oru vidhi seivom (Lets make a new beginning) – Lets make it right!”

Framing Information about HIV/AIDS in India

Mangala SubramaniamPurdue University

“Ini oru vidhi seivom (Lets make a new beginning)

– Lets make it right!”

Campaign - UNDP

This Study

Focus of paper:

- Discourses & Frames encompassed within each discourse

Questions explored in this research are:

1. To what extent and in what ways do organizations deploy specific types of framess (moral, economic, rights and/or health) that consider gender, and the social statuses of caste and class when dealing with the socio-cultural dimension of HIV/AIDS?

2. How have organizations, from their standpoint, used and/or adopted translocal frames (local-global connections)?

Framework (1)

In this paper, I examine three main strands in the discourse around HIV/AIDS information dissemination and the frames they encompass. The first manifests itself in the ‘medicalization’ of the issue by adopting a western lens to formulating messages through the involvement of international agencies based primarily in the developed world. These debates are anchored in the emphasis on hi-tech, urban based, and hospital centered prevention and care system that serves only those who can afford and access such assistance. This strand encompasses what I refer to as the health frame as well as a moral frame.

Framework (2)

The second strand of discourse emanates from primarily donors; bilateral and multilateral agencies and western government institutions, applying their global prescriptions (including providing technical experts) sometimes based on ideology, to adopt programs that are supposedly aimed at arresting infections. This discourse draws on multiple frames such as the moral frame, health frame and the rights frame. I analyze these frames as donor driven messaging.

The third strand of discourse focuses on the tools/mechanisms for information dissemination with varying emphasis involving local struggles which include conflicts and cooperation in the frames deployed. The various agencies and NGOs prefer certain cultural tools over others and thereby choose to focus on primarily health frames or rights frame.

ContextIndia, 2004: estimated 5.13 million individuals live with the virus in India: 3.13 million among men & 2 million among women. India has the second largest population of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHA), next to South Africa.

Total number of infections are greater in rural India (2.96 million) compared to urban India (2.17 million) (NACO 2005).

Almost 70% of the infections are concentrated in six states categorized as high prevalence states.

Tamil Nadu one of 6 categorized as 'high prevalence' because HIV prevalence rates exceed 5 per cent among high-risk groups and exceed 1 percent among antenatal women.

First known case of HIV reported in Chennai (South India) in 1986 This study focuses on state of Tamil Nadu.

Involving Youth: Red Ribbon Clubs

Street Play: Providing Information

ConclusionTranslocal messages: translocal connections can facilitate the sharing of ideas and expertise and foster technical collaboration and at the same time can involve the enforcement of western ideas/policies as standardized ways and practices with little recognition of local knowledge/context

Programs and interventions packaged in ways that overlooks local social and cultural needs should be critically examined before implementation to avoid the consequences as was seen in the TNAIDS3’s abstinence program for the youth.

Agencies must recognize the perils and politics of multiple and different messages. Significant variations creates a cacophony of voices which is of little use to the larger goal of disseminating information because it can lead to confusion in the minds of recipients and lead to assimilation of incorrect and/or misleading information.