Mumbai (Bombay), Maharashtra, India.

High risk groups for HIV infection exist throughout India. In Bombay, as in most major cities around the world, these people living dangerously can be seen more readily and on the surface of the society. This collection of images focuses on the lower echelons of Bombay society. The behaviors they are engaged in exist throughout India, and are part of the reason why India is ranked number two in so far as number of HIV infected people. The frightening part of all this is the denial of the danger and extent of this epidemic. Prof. Dr. Alaka Deshpande, M.D. and head of the Department of Internal Medicine of J.J. Hospital, Bombay’s biggest government hospital, incidentally where Prime Minister Vajpayee recently underwent knee replacement surgery, believes the figures projected by NGOs (Non Government Organizations) which say the official figure of five million infected people is much too low, are unfounded and exaggerated. According to her, HIV and AIDS is “not as big an epidemic” as they would have us believe. Yet her hospital is brimming over with AIDS patients, some of whom have to sleep on mattresses on the floors and balconies of different unrelated wards and have to bring a family member with them to compensate for the lack of care takers in the hospital. Patients who come in for out patient treatment in the allotted two hours of two days a week (for all!) have to struggle and fight to see a doctor, because there are so many of them waiting to be helped. The waiting room looks more like a busy train terminal than a hospital. The denial of HIV and AIDS has several reasons in India. The current paradigm on AIDS is that people catch the deadly virus by acting in an immoral way, according to Hindu and Muslim ethics. There fore only bad people get the illness. HIV and AIDS are rarely talked about, which will have serious repercussions in the future.
Sex Workers, thanks to the work of local NGOs have started to educate their clients about safer sex practices. Supposedly they refuse a man who does not want to use a condom, even if he offers more money. A question arises in this mess: why do NGOs and sex workers have to take on the responsibility of educating the masses?