Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2005. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2005. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Reuters NewMedia - December 12, 2005
R. Bhagwan Singh
Critics of the plan by the Tamil Nadu government and India's National Aids Control Organization to put 500 machines in the capital of Chennai and 1,000 more across the state later say it would degrade women and corrupt the young.
"We must fight AIDS, but these machines at public places will only promote sex outside marriage among the younger generation," said M.H. Jawahirullah, who heads Tamil Nadu's largest Muslim group, the Muslim Munnetra Kazhagam (Muslim Progressive Party).
Over 200 Muslim women, many in veils, hit the streets of Chennai waving placards denouncing the plan and shouting: "Don't ruin our culture, Remove these machines."
"The government is spreading condom culture through these machines under the pretext of fighting AIDS," Fatheema Jalal, convenor of the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, a Muslim group, told the rally.
"By this, our society will get more permissive and our youth will be ruined," she added.
India has more than 5 million HIV/AIDS sufferers, second only to South Africa. But efforts to combat the spread of the disease have come up against deeply conservative traditions.
A popular south Indian actress was pelted with sandals, tomatoes and rotten eggs and hauled before a court in Tamil Nadu for saying recently it was okay for women to have sex before marriage, as long as it was safe sex, and that men should not expect their brides to be virgins.
While rejecting claims by some Muslim leaders that condoms were un-Islamic, Jawahirullah said his party would also start protests if the machines were put in place.
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