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Law and Justice Minister Veerappa Moily has mentioned that he will hold talks with the health ministry on the HIV/AIDS bill, since people have been raising concerns about the missing of "key provisions".
Raman Chawla of the Lawyers' Collective along with a six-member panel from Network of HIV Positive People had held talks with Moily when Moily assured them to finding a solution for the issue.
"The law ministry proposed the third draft of the HIV/AIDS bill after deleting 38 key provisions that the Positive People Networks had demanded. Therefore when we met the minister we told him that these provisions must be reinstated in the bill and then passed by the parliament," Chawla told.
According to Daisy David of the Chennai Network of Positive People, they wanted the parliament to pass the initial draft of the bill.
"In 2006, the HIV/AIDS bill was prepared by the health ministry after intensive discussions with different stakeholders, including people living with HIV, sex workers and injecting drug users. That is the version of the bill that we want to be reinstated and passed by parliament," David said.
This 2006 version of the bill was sent to ministry of law and justice for vetting.
"However, a much diluted version of the bill was sent back by the law ministry in 2007. Protests followed later and then the law ministry again sent a draft of the bill - almost like the last one," David added.
Pradip Dutta of the Delhi Network of Positive People, mentioned that third bill draft had left off one major provision.
"A lot of times HIV patients are denied treatment in hospitals despite being an emergency. Therefore, we want a health official be appointed, as mentioned by the health ministry, who will give orders within 24 hours if such a situation arises," Dutta told.
"Also a lot of times we see that children whose HIV positive parents have died are denied their right over the family property. Therefore, there should be a provision by which the property rights of a child of HIV parents are protected," he added.
Chawla said: "We waited for the minister for more than three hours but didn't give up. We met him for about 10-15 minutes and although the conversation was a heated one, we came away with his assurance that the law ministry will talk to the health ministry about the provisions."
