Pension remains a mirage for HIV patients

NIZAMABAD: HIV-positive patients, who continue face discrimination from society as well as from family members, have to contend with government apathy too. The meagre Rs 200 pension, promised by the government two years ago, remains a dream for the HIV-positive patients.
With a view to providing economic support to the HIV-positive patients, the government had decided to provide Rs 200 every month on a par with the physically handicapped, widows and destitutes, but the proposal remained only on paper.
Konda Lakshmi (name changed) rued the lack of financial support from the government as well as her family.
“We are left to fend for ourselves. A small gesture could have gone a long way in helping us financially,” she pointed out. Another proposal to provide free bus passes to HIV patients to visit anti-retroviral therapy (ART) centres every month to take medicines and undergo treatment free of cost has also been a non-starter. “Patients can at least visit the ART centre to take medicines if they are provided free bus passes,” Lakshmi said.
Several HIV patients alleged that the government had washed its hands of by merely issuing ATM cards to them. “Though the cards were issued three months back, not a single penny has been transferred to our savings accounts so far,” complained another patient Sunnam Gangadhar (name changed). He also criticised the government for selecting a meagre number of patients for the pension scheme when thousands of people were afflicted with the disease in Nizamabad district.
According to statistics, there are about 12,000 registered HIV-positive patients in the district. But the district authorities have selected only 1,250 patients for the Rs-200 pension scheme. As per the health guidelines, patients whose CD4 count is less than 250 and those who take medicines from the ART centres are eligible for the pension scheme.
When contacted, district medical and health officer (DM&HO) Harinath said that there was delay in transferring the amounts to the savings accounts of the patients. S Siddaiah, who runs an NGO, demanded that the government provide essential commodities like rice, pulses, oil, sugar and others free of cost to the HIV patients.
Recalling that HIV-positive patients were supplied 30 kg rice at Rs 2 a kg every month by issuing Anthyodaya card in 2009-10, he urged the government to take measures to protect the HIV patients.