Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2003. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Bangkok Post - July 12, 2003
Dinesh C Sharma
The attack took place on July 4 in Kuppam, the home constituency of state chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu.
Ponnamma, 30, had lost her husband who was suffering from Aids, and she had also tested HIV-positive. Her neighbours first wanted her to leave the village, but when she did not do so they killed her.
"On that gruesome day, some persons attempted to carry away the bench on which she was lying. Sensing that her life was in danger, she tried to get up and run away. She was then chased, stoned and hit with the bench, killed and burnt," says R Meera of Women's Initiatives (WINS), an NGO which investigated the case after it was reported in a local daily.
"This is a glimpse of the dark underbelly of our society," observed Ms Meera.
The incident has been condemned by several organisations working for Aids prevention in India.
In a letter to President APJ Abdul Kalam, Brian Haill, the president of Australian Aids Fund Inc, said: "We ask you to offer your assurance to the people of India so that such a hideous response to the presence of HIV/Aids among your people can never be repeated, and we ask for your comfort for the family of the woman involved and the wide publication of this appalling event as part of your national response to the Aids pandemic."
For India itself, struggling to get to grips with its huge HIV infection rates, Mr Haill said, this dreadful act would do nothing to do away with the ignorance and fear associated with HIV/Aids and which must be confronted head-on for the sake of India's future.
India has close to four million HIV-positive cases, and Andhra Pradesh is among the states reporting high rates of infection.
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