Date: Thu, 26 Jan 1995 13:35:33 -0500
From: vinay@mail.med.cornell.edu (Vinay Isac Varughese)

The following letter was sent to the editors of the _Village Voice_ by
South Asian AIDS Action (SAAA) in response to their "AIDS in India" article
a couple of weeks ago.

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We applaud the Village Voice for breaking the silence on a widely ignored
topic by giving prominence to Suketu Mehta's "AIDS in India." However, as a
South Asian AIDS activist organization based in the City, we wish to draw
attention to several areas where Mehta presented information using
frameworks that distort the reality of AIDS in India.

By focusing on high risk groups and thematically dividing the article into
discussions of the behavior of these groups, Mehta falls into a trap that
he himself states should be avoided in discussing HIV/AIDS. Mehta's
emphasis on these groups and his cursory mention of social classes other
than the very poor, gives a misleading picture of the face of AIDS in India
and the public health implications for the entire population. Even
international agencies, which are usually slow to see beyond the surface of
problems, have already acknowledged that directing HIV/AIDS related
services and education to high risk groups is an inadequate public health
response.

We also take issue with Mehta's treatment of women and HIV/AIDS. The only
women mentioned in the articles are prostitutes or the mothers or spouses
of victims which gives the false impression that it is only these women who
are affected and not women in general. Mehta himself states that "80 to 90
percent of transmission occurs during heterosexual intercourse" but these
women are not seen in his article.

Mehta should also be faulted for building a false dichotomy between East
and West. For example, by asserting that "Homosexuality in India is a
matter of self-definition" and "In India, whether you're a homosexual
depends on if you're fucking and getting fucked", Mehta suggests that this
is the "Indian" notion. Clearly this narrow understanding does not
recognize diversity in India and in the West. His portrayal of the West as
a place where people claim cars, washing machines and VCRs as birthrights
suggests his failure to understand the complexities of the societies he
lives in and writes about.

Our organization, South Asian AIDS Action (SAAA) is involved in HIV/AIDS
education and prevention within the South Asian communities of the greater
New York area. Our work includes distributing literature on HIV prevention
(both in English and several of the major South Asian languages),
conducting workshops, creating networks of concerned medical professionals
all with the goal of encouraging more open discussion of sexual and
cultural issues in the context of the health of the diaspora.

For more information call (212) 239-1451 ext. 6126.


South Asian AIDS Action.

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South Asian AIDS Action
P. O. Box 1326
Peter Stuyvesant Station
New York, NY 10009-1326
(212) 239-1451 ext. 6126