HIV

Centring the Margins: Sex workers continue to battle for identity, entitlements and dignity after COVID-19
Japanese koi pattern on blue background.
Centring the Margins: Sex workers continue to battle for identity, entitlements and dignity after COVID-19

Ensuring the protection of sex workers’ physical and emotional wellbeing, as well as safeguarding their rights to life, profession, labour freedom, health, and reproductive and sexual rights is fundamental within a constitutional democratic society.
By Kuhika and Meher
May 16, 2024
Centring the Margins: Sex workers continue to battle for identity, entitlements and dignity after COVID-19
AIDS, Melancholia & Queer memory
Debanuj DasGupta with Mathew Stuart Jarret. Stewart Jarret plays the character of Belize in the play & the Bethesda Fountain is one of the key Manhattan sites recreated on stage for the play Angels in America.
AIDS, Melancholia & Queer memory

In this essay, I revisit my early struggles with AIDS diagnosis during the summer of 2003. The recollections allow me to rethink how the New York cityscape and coming out about my HIV status to my parents in India shapes a racialised experience with HIV and AIDS, family relations, and transnational migration. Such a racialised experience is erased within Tony Kushner’s Angels in America.
By Debanuj DasGupta
April 16, 2018
AIDS, Melancholia & Queer memory
Aruvi: Questioning home and ‘innocence’
एक बच्ची (जिसकी पीठ और बाल दिख रखे है) पानी के झरने की और देख रही है, झरने क आस-पास हरियाली और पहाड़ है। बच्ची के बाल कंधे तक है और उसने हलके भूरे रंग की कमीज़ पहनी है
Aruvi: Questioning home and ‘innocence’

Over time, I realised that ‘home’ meant not just the physical and emotional space occupied by my parents, but also a set of practices or strictures, mostly dictated by parents, related to gender roles, religion, sex, marriage, friendships and ‘appropriate’ behaviour.
By Vani Viswanathan
March 5, 2018
Aruvi: Questioning home and ‘innocence’
Review: Nishit Saran’s ‘Summer in My Veins’
Summer in my veins
Review: Nishit Saran’s ‘Summer in My Veins’

In 1994, Delhi boy Nishit Saran left home to study filmmaking at Harvard University. By 1999 he had made the searing Summer in My Veins, capturing on camera his own trepidation at coming out to his mother. It is an important, lovely and poignant film.
By Divya Swaminathan
April 3, 2017
Review: Nishit Saran’s ‘Summer in My Veins’
How Do You Battle AIDS if No One Talks About Sex? KP’s Transgenders Speak Out
Photo of four transgender people.
How Do You Battle AIDS if No One Talks About Sex? KP’s Transgenders Speak Out

In Peshawar alone, the community consists of over 500 transgenders. At least 20 per cent of these have AIDS. Their risk of contracting AIDS is higher, since 59 per cent of khawaja saras report to have at least one sexually transmitted infection.
By Curated Content
April 18, 2016
How Do You Battle AIDS if No One Talks About Sex? KP’s Transgenders Speak Out
Issue In Focus: Is ‘Dhanda’ (Sex Business) Work? – I
A protest by sex workers. They are wearing sarees, holding red umbrellas, and placards reading "Stop policing our morals", "Sexual rights are human rights".
Issue In Focus: Is ‘Dhanda’ (Sex Business) Work? – I

Sex work is adult consensual provision of sexual services for money. What part of this definition challenges the notion of work? A service provided for money? A service provided by adults for money? A service provided consensually by adults for money? None of the above.
By Meena Saraswathi Seshu and Aarthi Pai
April 5, 2016
Issue In Focus: Is ‘Dhanda’ (Sex Business) Work? – I
क्या ‘धंधा’ (सेक्स वर्क) भी काम होता है? – भाग १
A protest by sex workers. They are wearing sarees, holding red umbrellas, and placards reading "Stop policing our morals", "Sexual rights are human rights".
क्या ‘धंधा’ (सेक्स वर्क) भी काम होता है? – भाग १

किसी व्यस्क व्यक्ति द्वारा अपनी इच्छा से पैसों के भुगतान के बदले दी जाने वाली यौन सेवाओं को सेक्स वर्क (यौन कर्म या आम बोलचाल की भाषा में धंधा करना) कहते हैं। सेक्स वर्क की इस परिभाषा का कौन सा भाग ‘काम’ के बारे में हमारी सोच का उल्लंघन करता है? क्या पैसे के बदले दी जाने वाली सेवाएं? या फिर किसी व्यस्क व्यक्ति द्वारा पैसे के बदले दी जाने वाली सेवा? या, वयस्कों द्वारा आपसी सहमति से पैसे के बदले दी जाने वाली सेवा?
By Meena Saraswathi Seshu and Aarthi Pai
April 5, 2016
क्या ‘धंधा’ (सेक्स वर्क) भी काम होता है? – भाग १
Why We Need to Bridge the Gap between Sex Workers’ Movements and Abortion Rights Activism
A leafless tree with red umbrellas hung on its branches.
Why We Need to Bridge the Gap between Sex Workers’ Movements and Abortion Rights Activism

Abortion and sex work share the distinction of being topics on which even feminist activists sometimes find it difficult to remain non-judgmental, confronting feminists with the question: to what lengths are we really willing to go to respect and enable women’s choices and bodily autonomy?

By Kristin Francoeur and Surabhi Srivastava
April 5, 2016
Why We Need to Bridge the Gap between Sex Workers’ Movements and Abortion Rights Activism
The Editorial: HIV and Sexuality
Still from film "The Lovedance" (2000). A bare-chested man smelling a woman's hair from behind. She wears a red bindi on her forehead.
The Editorial: HIV and Sexuality

On World AIDS Day, we published the first issue of this month’s In Plainspeak with the theme HIV and Sexuality. Global funding…
By TARSHI
December 15, 2015
The Editorial: HIV and Sexuality
Building Solidarity Amongst Diverse and Marginalised Communities at SANGRAM, Sangli: Part 2
Condoms are distributed by sex workers who work with SANGRAM and VAMP to educate and empower their peers.
Building Solidarity Amongst Diverse and Marginalised Communities at SANGRAM, Sangli: Part 2

This is the second part in a two-part series on SANGRAM’s work in Sangli. Read the first part here. Finding…
By SANGRAM
December 15, 2015
Building Solidarity Amongst Diverse and Marginalised Communities at SANGRAM, Sangli: Part 2
The Serious Dangers of ‘High Risk Group’ing in HIV and AIDS Prevention
In Plainspeak English Audit In Plainspeak English Audit 100% 10 Two blood bags. On top is written "Separate but equal". Screen reader support enabled. Two blood bags. On top is written "Separate but equal".
The Serious Dangers of ‘High Risk Group’ing in HIV and AIDS Prevention

Sex has always been at the core of HIV and AIDS since the virus was first identified almost 30 years…
By Sankhya Bommana
December 15, 2015
The Serious Dangers of ‘High Risk Group’ing in HIV and AIDS Prevention
Positive Power!
Professionals standing in a row on stage. They join their hands and raised them up in celebration. The poster on the wall behind them reads, "Positive power".
Positive Power!

On the occasion of World AIDS Day 2015, I could not help but ponder on what the day means to…
By Curated Content
December 15, 2015
Positive Power!
A World Away: HIV in Central Asia
Street with tin roof houses in a hilly area. Snow-capped mountains can be seen behind.
A World Away: HIV in Central Asia

In the spring of 2005, working with a medical NGO, I and five colleagues (two critical care flight paramedics, a…
By Curated Content
December 15, 2015
A World Away: HIV in Central Asia
An Indefinite Sentence: Love, Homophobia and the AIDS Panic in 1980s India
Dominic D’Souza, a young gay man. He is smiling at the camera. He wears a white vest peeking through this black-and-white striped shirt, and a red shawl thrown around his shoulders.
An Indefinite Sentence: Love, Homophobia and the AIDS Panic in 1980s India

I WAS 26 YEARS OLD in 1988, living in Delhi, where I had recently moved after several years as a…
By Curated Content
December 15, 2015
An Indefinite Sentence: Love, Homophobia and the AIDS Panic in 1980s India
Interview – Kiran Deshmukh
Meena Seshu squatting on the floor as an older woman sitting on the floor caresses her on the cheek. Several women stand around them, looking on. Seshu is wearing a purple kurta, and the older woman wears a yellow saree.
Interview – Kiran Deshmukh

किरण देशमुख वैम्प प्लस की अध्यक्ष हैं। हमने एचआईवी एवं यौनिकता के विषय पर किरण के साथ ईमेल के द्वारा…
By TARSHI Team
December 15, 2015
Interview – Kiran Deshmukh
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