Mohammad Khariul Alam
HIV/AIDS Programmme Consultant

The view of poor & developing countries, In generally we found that women & 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. For example, young women are generally disadvantaged by gender disparities. In terms of food intake, access to health care and growth patterns, girls are often worse off than boys. The inequalities become evident soon after 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, adolescent girls in the countries.

Adolescents in poor families 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 exclusion 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 with household financial disaster. This exposes them to HIV infection and they in turn will transmit HIV to their clients. In those areas girls are particularly vulnerable to HIV infection, 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 is a widespread phenomenon faced by women of all age-groups, and has 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 in require of support to allow the survivors to overcome the financial and social effects of the epidemic. In responding to HIV/AIDS and poverty alleviation approaching are interconnected. Therefore health and development workers should work on holistic policies and programmes to reduce poverty and address HIV/AIDS, and Emphasize the need for special efforts to be made to protect women and girls exposed to the risk of HIV/AIDS. Ensure that the legal, civil and human rights of those affected and infected are protected and that women have access to treatment, counselling and support on an equal footing with men.

Source: Rainbow Nari O Shishu Kallyan Foundation