Financial Assistance to PLHIVs In the last financial year around 300 PLHIVs were provided financial assistance @ Rs.6000/- per annum by the state government. The same will be implemented this year also and we expect that the no. of PLHIVs to whom this financial assistance will be provided will be more in number.

Free Legal Aid Clinics for PLHIVs: JKSACS has set up two Legal Aid Clinics one each at Jammu & Srinagar for PLHIV/CLHIVs. LAC are required to provide HIV related legal support services such as resolution of disputes, intervening in situations where human rights of PLHIVs are being violated and to provide assistance in linking PLHIVs with relevant welfare schemes of Govt.

Free Transportation for PLHIVs initiated: JKSACS has got free transport services for PLHIVs/CLHIVs implemented in Jammu by the Regional Transport Officer, Jammu. Bus passes for free travel have been issued to the PLHIVs/CLHIVs from Jammu Division to avail the service.

What is GIPA? GIPA is not a project or programme. It is a principle that aims to realize the rights and responsibilities of people living with HIV, including their right to self-determination and participation in decision-making processes that affect their lives. In these efforts, GIPA also aims to enhance the quality and effectiveness of the AIDS response. Some Important Facts

1. Only one in 10 people who are living with HIV have tested for HIV and know their status. Global HIV.
2. Gender inequalities in access to education and services, domestic and child care responsibilities, and financial dependence on men prevent many HIV-positive women from becoming involved.
3. Discrimination can occur in many areas—even after death through refusal to handle the body.
4. Nearly 40 million people in the world are living with HIV.
5. People living with HIV are entitled to the same human rights as everyone else, including the right to access appropriate services, gender equality, self-determination and participation in decisions affecting their quality of life, and freedom from discrimination.
6. All national governments and leading development institutions have committed to meeting the eight Millennium Development Goals, which include halving extreme poverty, halting and beginning to reverse HIV and providing universal primary education by 2015.
7. GIPA or the Greater Involvement of People Living with HIV is critical to halting and reversing the epidemic; in many countries reversing the epidemic is also critical to reducing poverty.
8. The idea that personal experiences should shape the AIDS response was first voiced by people living with HIV in Denver in 1983.5 The GIPA Principle was formalized at the 1994 Paris AIDS Summit when 42 countries agreed to “support a greater involvement of people living with HIV at all…levels…and to…stimulate the creation of supportive political, legal and social environments”.
9. In 2001, 189 United Nations member countries endorsed the GIPA Principle as part of the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS. The 2006 Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS unanimously adopted by 192 Member States at the 2006 High Level Meeting on AIDS also advocated the greater involvement of people living with HIV.

 

Why GIPA?

• Many people living with HIV/AIDS without knowing that they are infected and also indulging in multi-partner sex without perceiving the risk - As testing is voluntary many people not testing their blood. Not all those tested their blood and found positive disclose their status - Voluntary disclosure confidentiality even disclosure will happen without their concern
• Those want to disclose: whom to disclose, where to disclose and how to disclose
• Those disclosing their status will face different psychosocial and economical and legal issues
• The degree of social stigma and degree of discrimination also differ individuals to individuals.
• The legal issues of women living with HIV/AIDS differ from other
• The access and availability of legal remedies - Lack of institutional support - lack of expertise of individuals and lack of follow up and regular meetings and deliberations on legal and ethical issues. So that HIV/AIDS is no longer only medical and social issues but also a legal issue

Objectives of GIPA

• To provide counseling for those infected and affected in order to access and avail legal remedies
• To protect and promote Human Rights of those living with HIV/AIDS v To create a greater sense of urgency about HIV/AIDS epidemic among legislature elected members, executives and judicial officers
• To mobilize lawmakers to adopt effective laws - and to take legal and establish committees to address legal and ethical issues
• To establish effective liaison with PLWHA, NGOs - Academic Institutions Corporate Sectors and Government Institutions
• To publish concept papers on issues - Examine Best policy and creating largest awareness of the challenges

Duties of GIPA

• Voluntary Treatment of life of dignity
• Duties of Health Care practitioners
• Duty of due awareness
• Duty to diagnose
• Duty to treat
• Duty to Counsel
• Rights of Health Care workers

Against Discrimination:

• PLWHA cannot be denied employment in public sector/state
• Education
• Housing
• Health Care settings
• Obtaining insurance coverage
• Violent attacks and Social obstracism
• Need for anti-discrimination (constitution and other statutes)
• Social Security: To obtain medical care
• Pay one's debts after death
• Provision for spouses and children
• Developing insurance schemes and legal resume
• Preventive Counseling
• Test related Counseling
• Supportive Counseling
• Special Case Counseling
• Limited access to resources
• Information Education
• Consent
• Rights of compensation
• Whether there is a role for criminal law in relation to HIV/AIDS and
• Whether any form of criminalisation is warranted in relation to the public policy arguments
• Whether existing criminal law provisions are adequate to cases of willful transmission

Meetings Held Under GIPA Jan. 2105 to Feb. 2016

S.No.	Type of Meeting	No. of Meetings	Venue
1.	Support Group Meting	64	VIHAAN Jammu
2.	Advocacy	8	Jammu (Different Venues)
3.	Discrimination response Team (DRT)	3	VIHAAN Jammu
4.	Coordination Meeting	12	ART Plus GMC Jammu