SHILLONG: Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council chief HS Shylla said on Tuesday he did not intend to incite hatred or discriminate people living with HIV/AIDS even as his party, the NPP distanced itself from his statement.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Shylla said, “I spoke about the matter with a heavy heart, we empathise with the victims.”
“The government’s preventive measures against HIV/AIDS should be on a war footing. We don’t have any intention to incite hatred or discriminate them and it is impossible to even think (about doing so). It all comes down to the principle of hate the sin but love the sinner,” he added.
Shylla had said the carriers of the HIV-AIDS virus are truck drivers from outside the state and migrant workers and the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (Khasi Social Custom of Lineage) Bill is a way to prevent spread of HIV-AIDS among tribals.
However, NPP state president WR Kharlukhi said on Tuesday the statement is Shylla’s personal opinion and not the view of the party.
“We can’t stop people from expressing their personal views and we don’t have such stand,” he added.
Shylla, while defending his statement a day after Manbha Foundation termed it as “discriminatory”, referred to a 2012 report stating that Meghalaya is vulnerable to HIV/AIDS and said, “The report said that migrants, truckers and aggregation of factory workers in the mineral-rich state constituted the high risk group.”
He also referred to a news report on the emergence of HIV hotspots in Meghalaya. “The report was based on the answers provided by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to Parliament entitled ‘Health Ministry attributes rise of incidence in Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura to injecting drug users and unsafe sexual practices’,” he said.
Again, he pointed to the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) that has categorised injecting drug users, female sex workers with migrant labourers and truckers as the bridge population as high risk groups.
“The state of affairs can be judged from the directions of the Ministry of Health, the Governor and the Project Director Meghalaya AIDS Control Society (MACS) that the screening and testing of pregnant mothers should be mandatory. But screening and testing in majority of health centres has not started,” Shylla said.
He added that he has come to know from reliable sources that the anti-retroviral therapy drug, Nevirapine syrup, which is to be administered to HIV positive mothers and their babies, in stock with the state Health Department will expire by the end of August 2018 and even at NEIGRIHMS, the stock is exhausted.
“I call on my fellow MDCs along with myself to create and generously donate to a fund to help victims of HIV/AIDS,” he said, adding that HIV/AIDS infection is a threat that will put the small tribe at the risk of epidemic infection.
Third gender
Asked on the issue of third gender, he said the KHADC has not been approached by third genders.
“If they approach we will see what the laws talk about them,” he said.
Shylla had said the Khasi Hill Autonomous District Council will not recognise third gender in the KHAD (Khasi Social Custom of Lineage) (First and Second Amendment) Bills.
Senior NPP leader Rowell Lyngdoh, while talking about the recent political developments over the bill, stressed the need for respecting people’s opinion. He informed that the party has not reviewed and discussed the issues related to the amendment bills.
“In future, we may request the party authorities to discuss all these issues,” he said, adding that sometimes “when people are in power, they overdo things”.
