Özet:

Background: Women and girls accounted for about 48% of all new HIV infections in 2019. Women are still seen as the vectors or reason for the HIV infection and are blamed for their family’s sickness. Subsequently they suffer stigma, rejection and expulsion from family and community. The crisis deepens not only because of legal and economic differences but also because of limited access to health, education and social security services. Methods: This paper has been informed by ten completed interviews with the experts in the field of HIV and AIDS. The interviews, which were unstructured, took the form of guided conversations. They were conducted at a location and time nominated by the experts and lasted between two to three hours. The topics covered in the interviews included: woman empowerment, stigma discrimination, rights of woman, gender equality, awareness and government policies. The interviews were tape recorded and transcribed. Experts were selected in the study by taking into consideration their experience in HIV/AIDS practice for 10 or more years and those who have actively worked for women’s rights. Methodology adopted was snowballing where networking relationships of these experts helped identify another expert providing services in HIV and AIDS domain. Findings: Study findings suggest that HIV/AIDS awareness should lead to gender equality, empowerment and no stigma and discrimination. If HIV positive woman need to lead a dignified life in developing country like India, i) She needs to empower herself-economically, educationally and legally, ii) Women need to fight for gender equality. She needs to improve her knowledge about her rights and the disease itself, iii) Women need to utilize available policies and acts which can help them to fight with all the stigma and discrimination and give them what is their right; and IV) Families of infected women need to provide support to her which can make her moral high and also systems such as legal services need to be sensitized and be supportive to women who need legal services; also, opportunities must be created by government directly or through civil society organisations to make these women financially independent.

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