CNS: Articles of Swapna Majumdar

Showing posts with label Articles of Swapna Majumdar. Show all posts

The crown that won the HIV battle

Swapna Majumdar, CNS Special Correspondent, India

Barbara Kemigisa
Photo credit: Swapna Majumdar

She is not traumatised by it, nor does she want to hide it. On the contrary, Barbara Kemigisa wants the whole world to know that she has the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection. In fact, the 33-year-old flaunts it by wearing a victory crown made with empty bottles of antiretroviral (ARV) drugs used to treat the infection and leftover pills. “I’m not afraid of the stigma of living with HIV. I want people to know my status so that they can see that people living with HIV don’t need to wither away and die. By wearing this crown, I can attract attention without saying a word,” says Kemigisa.

Family Planning: Why should women pay the costs of inaction?

Swapna Majumdar, CNS Correspondent, India

At 1.3 billion, India’s current population accounts for a 17 per cent of the total global population of 7.6 billion. By 2022, India is set to become the most populated country in the world and pushing China to second position. It is expected to add nearly 273 million people between now and 2050 according to the UN’s 2019 report on World Population Prospects.

A self HIV test in time leaves no one behind

Swapna Majumdar, CNS Correspondent, India

Photo credit: Swapna Majumdar

It is easy to miss Hidden Corners, a community based organisation working with men who have sex with men (MSM). Tucked away in a narrow alley in a residential area in Quang Ninh in Halong, Vietnam, the building that houses Hidden Corners has no boards announcing its existence. Yet, this has not hampered their outreach. In fact, it is their low key, word-by-mouth approach that has helped to create a safe environment for the MSM community to come forward and seek services, especially those living with HIV. Considering that there are 11,000 new infections in Vietnam every year and, 30% of the 260,000 people living with HIV (PLHIV) are unaware of their status, the work of Hidden Corners has been crucial to reach out to MSMs- one of the most affected key populations.

No one has the right to dictate over a woman’s body

Swapna Majumdar, CNS Special Correspondent, India

Dr Natalia Kanem

The ongoing Rohingya refugee crisis, referred to as ‘ethnic cleansing’ by some, has divided the world. Women and girls, who account for more than half the 600,000 refugees who crossed over from Myanmar to Bangladesh, have been the worst affected. Reports of abuse and sexual violence against these displaced and vulnerable women and girls have led to outrage and calls for international sanctions against Myanmar. This is not the first time women have borne the brunt of political conflict and, considering the present troubled state in different parts of the world, it may not be the last either.

Women with disabilities: Are they nobody's children?

Swapna Majumdar, CNS Correspondent, India

Maria Cresta Anore at APCRSHR

Maria Cresta Anore cannot hear or speak. But her expressive eyes and animated fingers articulate her enthusiasm. Being at the 9th Asia Pacific Conference for Reproductive and Sexual health and Rights (APCRSHR) in Vietnam is a dream come true for her. It is not just the opportunity to engage with health and gender activists from the region that excites her. As a peer facilitator, Anore is keen to learn more about how to advocate for justice in sexual and reproductive health and rights, especially for women with disabilities back home in Philippines.

Swapna Majumdar, CNS Special Correspondent
December 31, 2012, will always be a special day for Sheila Devi. It was the day the 21-year old played a pivotal role in the closure of a diagnostic centre suspected of misusing technology to eliminate girls. It was because of her participation in a decoy operation that the police was able to swoop down on the clinic located near her village in Bakshi Ka Talab block of Lucknow district in the most populous Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.

Breaking taboos, reaping dividends

Swapna Majumdar, CNS Special Correspondent

Photo credit: CNS Image Library

Consider these statistics: Globally, 370,000 million children are married every day. By 2020, an additional 142 million girls will be married before their 18th birthday. 6 million adolescent pregnancies occur in South Asia-- 90% of them inside marriage. Further, 34% of all unsafe abortions in the Asia Pacific region happen to women below the age of 25.

Transforming Women’s Lives Through Radio and TV

Swapna Majumdar, CNS Special Correspondent

Photo Credit: Swapna Majumdar

In 2008, in De Mugogo, an impoverished village in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), voices of women were heard for the first time on a community radio-- Radio Bubusa FM was the first community radio set up by women in DRC’s South Kivu province. The radio station, exclusively for rural women, shared information on health, violence against women, HIV/AIDS, and food security with a community that had never before listened to a radio.

Swapna Majumdar, CNS Special Correspondent
Is there a cure for HIV? The success stories of Timothy Brown and the two Boston patients, who rid themselves of the HIV cells through bone marrow transplants, led to hopes that a cure had finally been found. This was further boosted by the fact that the transplants received by them were diametrically different; Brown a transplant with cells that were resistant to HIV and the Boston patients with non-resistant cells. They remained virus-free for months after stopping treatment. However, in December last year, the virus recurred in both the Boston patients.

No More Holding Back Women

Swapna Majumdar, CNS Special Correspondent

Two thirds of countries globally now have laws against domestic violence with several significant transformations in legal frameworks in Asia and the Pacific. This significant shift over the last decade has not only led 15 countries in East Asia and the Pacific to enact domestic violence laws but six Asian countries have taken the important step of outlawing rape within marriage.

Swapna Majumdar - CNS
It was just by chance that Renuka Prasad discovered a pea-sized lump in her breast in 1997. After ignoring it for a couple of days, she consulted a local gynaecologist in Bhatinda, Punjab, where her husband, an army Corp Commander, was posted. She was reassured when the doctor told her that the mammogram showed fatty tissues probably due to hormonal changes in her body – at 49, she was approaching menopause.

'Change the Girl's Journey and Change the World'

Swapna Majumdar - CNS

Kate Gilmour UNFPA

If all adolescents in the world were put together they would be the size of India, a country with a population of over 1.2 billion. More than half of the world’s young people entering their reproductive years live in the Asia Pacific. Yet, the young people in this region, many of whom live in poverty, are denied access to sexual and reproductive health information and services. "Their rights are violated, denied and betrayed. It is no wonder that South Asia has the highest levels of child marriage in the world. Six million adolescent pregnancies occur in Asia Pacific, 90 per cent inside marriage. Clearly, very few have autonomy over their bodies," said Kate Gilmour, Assistant Secretary-General and Deputy Executive Director (Programme), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

Swapna Majumdar - CNS
Over three million children died before their fifth birthday in 2010 alone in the Asia Pacific region. Thousands of mothers continue to die unnecessarily while giving birth with this region accounting for close to half of the nearly 500,000 maternal deaths recorded annually across the world. Many of these deaths can be prevented if sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services are accessible and affordable. It is here that innovative government health programmes can make a difference.

Photo credit: Swapna Majumdar

Swapna Majumdar - CNS

In India, 17 percent of female sex workers reported starting to sell sex under the age of 15 years.
In Maldives and Papua New Guinea, the median age reported among female sex workers ranged from 17-19 years (across surveyed sites), as compared to a range of 22-24 years of age in sites in Cambodia, Malaysia and Pakistan.
In Pakistan, 'hijras' (transgender persons) and male sex workers reported starting to sell sex at a mean age of 16 years.

Swapna Majumdar - CNS
[7th APCRSHR Images] Twenty years after the path breaking International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) held in Cairo, millions of women and adolescents, particularly the poor and marginalised, in Asia and the Pacific continue to face inequalities in access to reproductive and sexual health and rights.

Swapna Majumdar - CNS
Despite a 26% overall reduction in new HIV infections in Asia and the Pacific since 2001, the epidemic still outpaces regional responses. According to a new UNAIDS report on HIV in Asia and the Pacific, the rate of new infections remains the issue of most concern. According to the report, the fastest-growing epidemics in the region are among men who have sex with men (MSM). HIV levels are particularly high in this key population, with between 15% and 25% MSM living with HIV, largely in major cities.

Swapna Majumdar – CNS
"Why wouldn't you want to share my chocolate?" What would be your answer if a young five year old girl infected with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) asks this innocent question? The Indian government Department of AIDS Control (DAC) is hoping that thought provoking questions like this on HIV and AIDS printed on tickets to the popular annual international trade fair held from14 to 30 November in New Delhi will give visitors something more than just entry to the exhibition.

India has the world's third-largest population of people living with HIV (PLHIV) - 2.4 million. However, it has been able to make significant progress in recent years by thinking out of the box. This has led to a decline of 50% in the number of new infections over the past decade. For a country that UNAIDS once feared could eventually house the largest number of persons living with HIV, this is a big feat.

Swapna Majumdar - CNS
In Bangladesh, a man forced into marriage vents his frustration by beating his wife when she disobeys him. In Cambodia, a husband justifies slapping his wife on the grounds that she must have done something she shouldn’t. In Indonesia, some men believe that if a wife doesn’t look after her husband’s needs, she deserves to be punished.

The Unknown Seven Billionth Babies

On October 31, 2011, Danica May Camacho was welcomed as the world’s seven billionth baby with a chocolate cake in Manila, Philippines, and a gift certificate for free shoes. While Russia declared a boy named Alexander, born in Petropavlovsk- Kamchatsky city on the same day, as their seven billionth baby, in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh the birth of Nargis at a Community Health Center (CHC) in Mal was greeted by her parents, several non governmental organizations and state officials and accorded a ‘symbolic’ status of the seven billionth baby of the world.