GUWAHATI, India, June 15 (AFP) - Twenty-seven-year old Jahnabi Goswami has a personal reason for campaigning to make pre-marital AIDS tests mandatory -- she was infected with HIV by her husband soon after they married.
"In India, a majority of parents visit astrologers with horoscopes of the bride and the groom to find out if the couple will stay happy after marriage," Goswami, a resident of the northeastern state of Assam, told AFP.
"But from my personal experience, instead of matching horoscopes, it would be wise if the couple go for a blood test to rule out being HIV-positive."
Goswami is one of the few women in India fighting to raise awareness of the disease and one of an even smaller number to have publicly declared that she is HIV-positive.
Government figures put the toll of HIV-positive Indians at four million -- second only to South Africa -- although unofficial estimates suggest the number is closer to five million.
India was among those Asian nations warned recently by the United Nations to take swift and decisive action to prevent AIDS from reaching epidemic proportions. A recent US study predicted there would be 20-25 million Indians infected with HIV by 2010.
Some 100,000 HIV-positive patients live in India's northeast, which borders the heroin-producing "Golden Triangle" of Laos, Myanmar and Thailand and has high rates of intravenous drug use -- a key cause of infection here by the Human Immunodeficiency Virus, which causes AIDS.
In 1994 Goswami married a wealthy businessman in Assams capital Guwahati "in traditional Indian style."
"Soon after my marriage I found that my husband was often taken ill, complaining of various ailments from herpes to fever and coughs," she said.
Her husband died in 1996 but he had already infected her with the killer virus.
"A few days before his death, he told me he had AIDS," she recalled.
And two years later in 1998, her daughter Kostorika too died of the diease.
But Goswami's ordeal was not limited to losing her loved ones.
"Soon after my husband died, my parents-in-law chased me out of their home and I went back to my parents," she said.
"My parents-in-law accused me of infecting their son with HIV although it was the other way round."
Now Goswami is a counsellor with the AIDS Control Society in Assam.
"I went public to say I was a woman living with HIV. The idea was to fight against the social stigma attached to the disease and help innocent women like me from contracting the virus," Goswami said.
But she faced prejudice after her brave admission.
"After I got the job, I returned to Guwahati and stayed in rented accommodation. But the moment the flat owner came to know of my HIV-positive status I was asked to vacate the house immediately," she said, adding she had to move a dozen times for the same reason.
"Today I am targeting students in Assam and trying to make them aware about how to prevent AIDS and how the virus spreads," Goswami said.
"I find even the most educated sections of the society lack awareness on AIDS.
"I want to live a life with dignity and show people how to avoid a silent and painful death."
She said her message was simple: "Enjoy life, but with a little bit of caution."
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