Kumaraswamy stays in HIV positive couple’s house

As promised, Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy spent a night at the house of a HIV positive couple at Ingalgi village in northern Karnataka’s Bagalkot district.

Rudraiah and his wife Shobha Mathapathi hosted the Chief Minister’s overnight stay at their modest two-room house, which had been whitewashed for the momentous occasion. The district administration had built a toilet in the house of the HIV positive couple for the Chief Minister’s visit, which was aimed at dispelling the stigma attached to the disease.

After a bumpy ride through the muddy roads of rural Bagalkot, Kumaraswamy reached Rudraiah’s house around midnight and stayed there till the wee hours of yesterday. Hundreds of residents of the village stayed awake to receive the Chief Minister and hail his gesture to instill confidence and courage among the affected people.

Ingalgi, a village with a population of more than 3,500 people, has about 100 people sufferring from the dreaded HIV/AIDS. The Chief Minister also addressed affected people and the village health community members yesterday.

Mohan H L, Director of Karnataka Health Promotion Trust, an initiative of the State Government’s Health Ministry, said the Chief Minister’s decision to stay overnight at the house of a couple, who had diagnosed positive for HIV, will help “open the minds the people in the State and outside”.

Pointing out that no Chief Minister in India had ever taken such a step, Mohan hoped Kumaraswamy’s gesture would help dispelling discrimination and increase social acceptance.

The young hosts of the Chief Minister – Rudraiah, 26, and Shobha Mathapathi, 20, - had discovered their HIV status when Shobha consulted a doctor to find out why she was not conceiving. During the blood test, the doctor found that she was HIV positive. Without disclosing her status to her, the doctor advised her to send her husband to the hospital. Rudraiah also tested positive.

Rudraiah, who was earlier a truck driver before taking to running a flour mill, is presently not in a position to earn for the family. His parents, who hold a small piece of land, are working in the fields of others to look after the sick couple.

Shobha had delivered a baby boy a little over a year ago. As the child has to be at least eighteen months old to conduct a test for HIV, the couple is keeping their fingers crossed and praying that he tests negative.