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Mohammad Khairul Alam
THE view of poor and
developing countries is that women and adolescent girls are more vulnerable to
HIV infection on each sexual encounter because of the biological nature of the
process and the vulnerability of the reproductive tract tissues to the virus,
especially in adolescent girls. By a study ‘Rainbow Nari O Shishu Kallyan
Foundation’ also found that a substantial proportion of some young and single
textile, garment workers, tea garden female workers, house key-per supplement
their low wages by occasional prostitution. Consensual sex or non-commercial sex
exists in rural societies, particularly when husbands are absent for a long
time.
For example, young women are generally disadvantaged by gender disparities in
terms of food intake and access to health care. Growth patterns of girls are
often worse than that of boys. The inequalities become evident soon after the
birth, and by adolescence many girls are grossly underweight. Social, cultural
and economic forces make women more likely to contract HIV infection than men.
Women are often less able to negotiate for safer sex due to reasons such as
their lower status, economic dependence and fear of violence.
Rainbow Nari O Shishu
Kallyan Foundation’s reveal extremely high levels of infections among adolescent
girls, which are higher than those for boys. This is mainly because of the fact
that at young age, boys have sex with girls of similar age, while girls have
relations with older men, who are more likely to be infected. Sexual harassment
of schoolgirls by older men sometime may be the cause of HIV infection. Poverty
also drives many adolescent girls to accept relationships with ‘sugar daddies’
(older men who are prepared to give money, goods or favors in return for sex).
Adolescent girls in poor families in developing countries often do not have the
option to make real choices about their sexual and reproductive lives, such as
when and whom to marry, whether and when to have children and how many to have,
and whether to use contraceptives. Women tend to marry very young: nearly two
thirds of adolescents in most South Asian countries marry before 18 years of
age, and many even before 15 years, despite laws prohibiting such early
marriage.
In many poor regions women”s limited economic opportunity and relative
powerlessness may force them into sex work in order to survive through household
financial disaster. This exposes them to HIV infection and they in turn transmit
HIV to their clients. In those areas girls are particularly vulnerable to HIV
infections because of intergenerational sexual relationships, violence, and
limited access to information. In addition, discrimination and stigma obstruct
adolescent girls” access to health services. Poverty causes increased migration
to look for work.
Gender analysis in relation to HIV/AIDS has tended to focus on women of
reproductive age, and infrequently on young girls, because young women and girls
are increasingly being targeted for sex by older men seeking safe partners and
also by those who erroneously believe that a man infected with HIV/AIDS will get
rid of the disease by having sex with a virgin. So HIV/AIDS epidemic has been
fuelled by gender inequality or discrimination. Unequal power relations, sexual
coercion and violence are widely faced by women of all age-groups, and these
have an array of negative effects on female sexual, physical and mental health.
In many developing countries poverty and gender discrimination between women and
men are both strongly linked to the spread of HIV/AIDS. Gender and age analysis
shows the ways in which women and girls of different ages are vulnerable to the
infection, and it requires support to help the survivors overcome the financial
and social effects of the epidemic. The approach for checking HIV/AIDS and that
of poverty alleviation are interconnected. Therefore health and development
workers should work on a set of integrated policies and programmes to reduce
poverty and address HIV/AIDS. They should emphasise the need for special efforts
to protect women and girls exposed to the risk of HIV/AIDS and ensure that the
legal, civil and human rights of those affected and infected are duly protected
and that women have access to treatment, counselling and support on an equal
footing with men.
References: UNAIDS, World
Bank, Rainbow Nari O Shishu Kallyan Foundation
tag: female, male,
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women, consensual, premarital, exmarital, sexuality, empowerment, gender,
education, prevention, dhaka, india, pakistan, bangladesh, adolescent, teen,
teenage, truck drivers. trafficking, epidemic, street girls, knowledge, young
people, discrimination, nonconsensual, coerced sex, sexual partners, safe sex,
sexually transmitted diseases, stds, stis, sexual abuse, forced sex, risky
sexual behaviour, business, multi partner sex, heterosexual, injection,
intravenous drugs users,
prostitution,
men who have sex with men, msm, harassment, sugar daddies, relationships,
condom, polygamy, homosexuality, extra marital, relations, truckers, migrant
workers, gay, hijras, hermaphrodites, professional blood donors, heroin smokers,
hotel, brothel, street based commercial sex workers, casual sex workers, so
called sex workers, violence, exploitation, Rainbow Nari O Shishu Kallyan
Foundation, Mohammad Khairul Alam
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