Controversial circular on AIDS withdrawn

  • 05/02/1998

  • Pioneer (New Delhi)

Ministry of Health and Family Welfare of the Maharashtra Government has abruptly withdrawn a controversial circular seeking to isolate HIV-positive women in the State and carrying out compulsory Aquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) tests on them. The move follows an uproar by over 100 non-governmental organisations which opposed the circular on grounds that it violated Constitutional provisions and "promotes the breach of bodily integrity without the consent of the concerned individual."