THE human ideals that are severely under threat, especially from the biotech industry. These same ideals have brought us out here in droves today, and all of society in resisting GM crops. It is not just the Europeans who are refusing to accept them; it is also India, Japan, and Brazil, the whole of South Asia, the entire African Region, South Korea, Thailand, Australia, and New Zealand. In fact, the more real knowledge people have, the greater their resistance. The debate has captured the imagination of the global civil society Patents on life-forms and living processes are thefts from nature. They also expropriate the inventive genius and knowledge accumulated by indigenous communities and by previous generations of western scientists who have worked entirely for the public good. These patents threaten food security, violate basic human rights and dignity, compromise healthcare, impede medical and scientific research, and are against animal welfare.

There is a lot of misinformation and dis-information put out by the biotech industry and our governments. Contrary to what they would like the public to believe, GM crops, animals, are neither needed nor beneficial. They are a dangerous diversion from the real task of providing food and health around the world. To put it bluntly: the existing technologies are crude, unreliable, uncontrollable and unpredictable; they don’t qualify as technologies, let alone patentable inventions. And they are inherently hazardous. Moreover, these technologies are misguided by a scientific paradigm which is fundamentally flawed, out of date and in conflict with scientific findings. They call that sound science. But it is the ultimate phoney science.

The promises to genetic engineer crops to fix nitrogen, resist drought, improve yield and to `feed the world' have been around for at least 30 years. Such promises have built up a multibillion-dollar industry now controlled by a mere handful of corporate giants.

But the miracle crops have not materialised. So far, two simple characteristics account for all the GM crops in the world. More than 70% are tolerant to broad-spectrum herbicides, with companies engineering plants to be tolerant to their own brand of herbicide, while the rest are engineered with bt-toxins from a soil bacterium to kill insect pests. A total of 65 million acres were planted in 1998 within the US, Argentina and Canada. The latest surveys on GM crops in the US, the largest grower by far, showed no significant benefit. On the contrary, the most widely grown GM crops - herbicide-tolerant Soya beans - yielded on average 6.7% less and required two to five times more herbicides than non-GM varieties.

The same GM crops have already given rise to herbicide-tolerant weeds and bt-resistant insect pests. Worse still, the broad-spectrum herbicides not only decimate wild species indiscriminately, but are toxic to animals. One of them, glufosinate, causes birth defects in mammals, while another, glyphosate, is now linked to non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. GM crops with bt-toxins kill beneficial insects such as bees and lacewings, and pollen from bt-maize is lethal to monarch butterflies.

According to the UN food programme, there is enough food to feed the world one and a half times over. World cereal yields have consistently outstripped population growth since 1980, but one billion are hungry. It is on account of corporate monopolies operating under the globalised economy that the poor are getting poorer and hungrier. Corporations already control 75% of the world trade in cereals. The new patents on seeds will intensify corporate monopoly by preventing farmers from saving and replanting seeds, which is what 80% of the farmers still do in the Third World. a major charity working with the Third World, concludes that GM crops will cause unemployment, exacerbate Third World debt, threaten sustainable farming systems and damage the environment. It predicts famine for the poorest countries.

It is clear that GM crops offer no benefits and cannot feed the world. There are also enormous risks. You know the children's joke of what do you get when you cross impossible things like a spider with a goat? Part of the joke is knowing you can't because there are biological barriers between species which only allow one to cross closely related species such as horse and donkey, for example. Genetic engineering bypasses all these barriers, so that is not a joke anymore. Genes are being transferred in the laboratory between any and every species. Indeed, spider genes have been transferred into goats in an attempt to make the poor female goats produce silk in their milk, and human genes have been transferred into cows, sheep, mice, fish and bacteria.

The most immediate dangers are random and unpredictable, basically because the genetic engineer cannot control where and how the foreign genes are integrated into the genetic material of the host. Genetic engineering animals are acts of cruelty, there are high failure rates and even the so-called successes are often monstrously deformed. Genetic engineered plants may end up having new toxins and allergens. Dr. Arpad Pusztai, an eminent scientist in the Rowett Institute of Scotland, lost his job when he released findings showing that two GM potato lines were unexpectedly toxic to rats.

A more insidious danger is horizontal gene transfer - the transfer of genetic material directly to unrelated species. In genetic engineering, many viral and bacterial genes are being combined in new combinations that have never existed before, and introduced into organisms by invasive methods that make the foreign genes (or transgenic DNA) more likely to transfer again to unrelated species. Such horizontal gene transfer can give rise to new viruses and bacteria that cause diseases and spread antibiotic and drug resistances among the pathogens.

It was because of these concerns that the pioneers of genetic engineering called for a moratorium in the '70s. Unfortunately, commercial pressures cut the moratorium short. Since then, drug and antibiotic resistant infectious diseases have returned with a vengeance. New viruses are appearing at alarming frequencies, while life-threatening bacteria are rapidly becoming resistant to all antibiotics and are hence untreatable.

Another hazard is that the transgenic DNA can jump into the genomes of cells, resulting in harmful effects including cancer. In its interim report (May 1999), the British Medical Association called for an indefinite moratorium on the release of GM crops pending further studies on new allergies, on the spread of antibiotic resistances and on the effects of transgenic DNA.

These hazards are acknowledged by sources within our Governments. UK scientists advising the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food are warning of horizontal transfer of genetically modified DNA.

Unless it changes direction, the whole biotechnology enterprise has little chance of success, not the least among the reasons being that the scientific paradigm promoting and misguiding the technology has been thoroughly discredited at least 15 years before. Genetics has changed out of all recognition, and yet the old paradigm is still dominating the scene. The old paradigm offers a simplistic view that the characteristics or traits of organisms are each tied to specific genes, which are unaffected by one another or by the environment. And that, except for very rare random mutations, the genes are passed on unchanged to the next generation.

Instead, scientific findings within the past 20 years reveal an immense amount of cross-talk between genes. Genes are nothing if not sensitive, dynamic and responsive, to other genes, to the cell or organism in which they find themselves and to the external environment. The layer upon layer of feedback between genes and environment, not only determine whether genes are active or not, but what function and structure they have. Genes can mutate, multiply, rearrange and jump around in response to the environment. They may even jump out of the genome of one organism to infect another one. Geneticists have coined the phrase "the fluid genome" to describe the situation. It is more accurate to see the genes as having a very complicated ecology, and that for genes and genomes to remain constant, you need a balanced ecology. So the new genetics is radically ecological and holistic.

 This hoax is perpetrated by an unholy alliance between corporate capitalism and the discredited scientific paradigm. Together, they mean to control every aspect of our lives, from the food we eat, to the healthcare we can receive or not, to the babies we can conceive and give birth to, and humans beings we can clone. Yes, the first so-called human clone has already been created by transferring the genetic material of a human being to a cow’s egg. Mercifully, they destroyed it at day 14, the current legal limit, before the real Frankenstein monster takes shape. And all done in the name of scientific progress and free enterprise.

Fortunately, the game is up, the bubble has burst. The tidal wave of protest is sweeping across the world. Many farmer unions in India are protesting against gm crops after devastating affect of cotton BT, in three major states Bt cotton has been wiped out completely leaving farmers in great economic and livelihood crisis. Not only the new pests and diseases emerged, the Bt cotton has failed to even prevent bollworm attack for which it has been designed. While Bt cotton is sold as pest resistant seed in India, it has proved to be more vulnerable to pest and diseases than the traditional and conventional varieties.

 The introduction of BT cotton upset these traditional practices. Farmers will be obliged to pay for seeds and to sign Monsanto’s infamous Technology Use Agreement. According to this contract:
• farmers cannot save seeds for replanting
• farmers are prohibited from supplying seeds to anyone else
• farmers must pay 120 times the technology fee, plus the legal fees of Monsanto, if they violate the contract. If such conditions arise then farmers will be over burdened and they have to choose the path of death and When the farmer dies, so dies India

While the `benefits' from GM crops remain illusory and hypothetical, the successes of sustainable, organic farming are well-documented, in the Third World, in Latin America, in Europe and North America. There is also an enormous `health bonus' in phasing out agrochemicals which are linked to many forms of cancer, to reproductive abnormalities and degenerative diseases. An organic revolution in farming is underway all over the world.

                 AIDS--------------SDIA

When AIDS first emerged, no-one could have predicted how the epidemic would spread across the world and how many millions of lives it would change. There was no real idea what caused it and consequently no real idea how to protect against it.

Now we know from bitter experience that AIDS is caused by the virus HIV, and that it can devastate families, communities and whole continents. We have seen the epidemic knock decades off countries' national development, widen the gulf between rich and poor nations and push already-stigmatized groups closer to the margins of society. We are living in an 'international' society, and HIV has become the first truly 'international' epidemic, easily crossing oceans and borders.

Just as clearly, experience shows that the right approaches, applied quickly enough with courage and resolve, can and do result in lower national HIV infection rates and less suffering for those affected by the epidemic.

Globally, we have learned that if a country acts early enough, a national HIV crisis can be averted.

It has also been noted that a country with a very high HIV prevalence rate will often see this rate eventually stabilize, and even decline. In some cases this indicates, among other things, that people are beginning to change risky behavior patterns, because they have seen and known people who have been killed by AIDS. Fear is the worst and last way of changing people's behavior and by the time this happens it is usually too late to save a huge number of that country's population.

Already, more than twenty-five million people around the world have died of AIDS-related diseases. In 2006, around 2.9 million men, women and children lost their lives. Many more than have died so far - 39.5 million - are now living with HIV, and most of these are likely to die over the next decade or so. The most recent UNAIDS/WHO estimates show that, in 2006 alone, 4.3 million people were newly infected with HIV.

It is disappointing that the global numbers of people infected with HIV continue to raise, despite the fact that effective prevention strategies already exist.

India is one of the largest and most populated countries in the world, with over one billion inhabitants. Of this number, at least five million are currently living with HIV. According to some estimates, India has a greater number of people living with HIV than any other nation in the world. ¹

HIV emerged later in India than it did in many other countries, but this has not limited its impact. Infection rates soared throughout the 1990s, and have increased further in recent years. The crisis continues to deepen, as it becomes clearer that the epidemic is affecting all sectors of Indian society, not just the groups – such as sex workers and truck drivers – that it was originally associated with.

In a country where poverty, illiteracy and poor health are rife, the spread of HIV presents a daunting challenge. Though Indian government is taking lots precaution s and creating awareness among common man ,but still there number of HIV infected people is increasing , it is generally seen in young people and illiterate people , young people because  they always want to discover more specially about sex which is like a mystery to them , because most of parents don’t want to speak about it or they hesitate to discuss these thing with there children’s  but now time has come our society have to  open SEX otherwise we will face nasty consequences which leads to add up new HIV infected people to population well if we look into the case of illiterate people we will find they are always surrounded by  myths and superstitions which makes it more difficult for them to understand about sex and HIV/AIDS.

The History of HIV/AIDS in India

At the beginning of 1986, despite over 20,000 reported AIDS cases worldwide ³, India had no reported cases of HIV or AIDS.⁴ There was recognition, though, that this would not be the case for long, and concerns were raised about how India would cope once HIV and AIDS cases started to emerge. One report, published in a medical journal in January 1986, stated:

“Unlike developed countries, India lacks the scientific laboratories, research facilities, equipment, and medical personnel to deal with an AIDS epidemic. In addition, factors such as cultural taboos against discussion of sexual practices, poor coordination between local health authorities and their communities, widespread poverty and malnutrition, and a lack of capacity to test and store blood would severely hinder the ability of the Government to control AIDS if the disease did become widespread.”⁵

Later in the year, India’s first cases of HIV were diagnosed among sex workers in Chennai, TamilNadu. It was noted that contact with foreign visitors had played a role in initial infections among sex workers, and as HIV screening centers were set up across the country there were calls for visitors to be screened for HIV. Gradually, these calls subsided as more attention was paid to ensuring that HIV screening was carried out in blood banks. ^{6 7}

In 1987 a National AIDS Control Program was launched to co-ordinate national responses. Its activities covered surveillance, blood screening, and health education. ⁸ By the end of 1987, out of 52,907 who had been tested, around 135 people were found to be HIV positive and 14 had AIDS. Most of these initial cases had occurred through heterosexual sex, ⁹ but at the end of the 1980s a rapid spread of HIV was observed among injecting drug users in Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland - three north-eastern states of India bordering Myanmar (Burma). ¹⁰

At the beginning of the 1990s, as infection rates continued to rise, responses were strengthened. In 1992 the government set up NACO (the National AIDS Control Organization), to oversee the formulation of policies, prevention work and control programmes relating to HIV and AIDS. ¹¹ In the same year, the government launched a Strategic Plan for HIV prevention. This plan established the administrative and technical basis for programme management and also set up State AIDS bodies in 25 states and 7 union territories. It was able to make a number of important improvements in HIV prevention such as improving blood safety. ¹²

.

By this stage, cases of HIV infection had been reported in every state of the country. ¹³ Throughout the 1990s, it was clear that although individual states and cities had separate epidemics, HIV had spread to the general population. Increasingly, cases of infection were observed among people that had previously been seen as ‘low-risk’, such as housewives and richer members of society. ¹⁴ In 1998, one author wrote:

“HIV infection is now common in India; exactly what the prevalence is, is not really known, but it can be stated without any fear of being wrong that infection is widespread… it is spreading rapidly into those segments that society in India does not recognize as being at risk. AIDS is coming out of the closet.” ¹⁵

In 2001, the government adopted the National AIDS Prevention and Control Policy. During that year, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee addressed parliament and referred to HIV/AIDS as one of the most serious health challenges facing the country. The Prime Minister also met the chief ministers of the six high-prevalence states to plan the implementation of strategies for HIV/AIDS prevention. ¹⁶

HIV had now spread extensively throughout the country. A 2004 NACO report revealed that the total number of people living with HIV had risen from 0.2 million in 1990 to 3.86 million in 2000. By 2003, 5.1 million infections had been reported. ¹⁷

Current estimates

There is disagreement over how many people are currently living with HIV in India. UNAIDS (the United Nations agency that co-ordinates global efforts to fight HIV) estimates that there were 5.7 million people in India living with HIV by the end of 2005, suggesting that India has a higher number of people living with HIV than any other country in the world. ¹⁸ On the other hand, NACO has established an estimate of 5.2 million people, which indicates that there are less infected people in India than in South Africa. ¹⁹ Either way, it is clear that the number affected by the epidemic is huge.

By the end of July 2005, the total number of AIDS cases reported to NACO was 111,608. Of this number, 32,567 were women, and 37% were under the age of 30. These figures are not completely accurate reflections of the actual situation though, as large numbers of AIDS cases go unreported. ²⁰

Overall, around 0.9% of India’s population is living with HIV. ²¹ While this may seem a low rate, India’s population is vast, so the actual number of people living with HIV is remarkably high. There are so many people living in India that a mere 0.1% increase in the HIV prevalence would increase the estimated number of people living with HIV by over half a million.

The national HIV prevalence has risen dramatically since the start of the epidemic, but a study released at the beginning of 2006 suggests that the HIV infection rate has fallen in southern India, the region that has been hit hardest by AIDS. ²² In addition, NACO has released figures suggesting that the overall rate of new HIV infections in the country is slowing. ²³ Researchers claim that this decline is the result of successful prevention campaigns, which have led to an increase in condom use.

Some AIDS activists are doubtful of the suggestion that the situation is improving, though:

“It is the reverse. All the NGOs I know have recorded increases in the number of people accepting help because of HIV. I am really worried that we are just burying our head in the sand over this.”

Anjali Gopalan, the Naz Foundation, Delhi ²⁴

For more detailed information on HIV prevalence and AIDS deaths, see our HIV and AIDS statistics for India page.

The HIV/AIDS situation in different states

Map of India showing the worst affected states.

The vast size of India makes it difficult to examine the effects of HIV on the country as a whole. The majority of states within India have a higher population than most African countries, so a more detailed picture of the crisis can be gained by looking at each state individually.

The HIV prevalence data for each state is established through antenatal clinics, where pregnant women are tested. While this means that the data are only directly relevant to sexually active women, they still provide a reasonable indication as to the overall HIV prevalence of each area. ²⁵

The following states have recorded the highest levels of HIV prevalence at antenatal and sexually transmitted disease (STD) clinics over recent years.

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh is a Hindu state in the southeast of the country with a total population of around 76 million, of whom 6 million live in or around the city of Hyderabad. The HIV prevalence at antenatal clinics was around 2% in both 2004 and 2005 - higher than in any other state. The vast majority of infections in Andhra Pradesh are believed to result from sexual transmission. HIV prevalence at STD clinics was 22.8% in 2005.

Goa

Goa is a very small state in the southwest of India, and is best known as a tourist destination. Tourism is so prominent that the number of tourists almost equals the resident population, which is about 1.3 million. The HIV prevalence at antenatal clinics was found to be above 1% in both 2002 and 2004, but was 0.5% in 2003 and 0% in 2005. This variation is likely due to the small number of women tested; the 2005 survey included only two antenatal sites. Prevalence at STD clinics was 14% in 2005, indicating that Goa has a serious epidemic of HIV among sexually active people.

Karnataka

Karnataka - a diverse state in the southwest of India - has a population of around 53 million. In Karnataka the average HIV prevalence at antenatal clinics has exceeded 1% in all recent years. Districts with the highest prevalence tend to be located in and around Bangalore in the southern part of the state, or in northern Karnataka's "devadasi belt". Devadasi women are a group of women who have historically been dedicated to the service of gods. These days, this has evolved into sanctioned prostitution, and as a result many women from this part of the country are supplied to the sex trade in big cities such as Mumbai. ²⁶ The average HIV prevalence among female sex workers in Karnataka was 18% in 2005.

Maharasthra

Mumbai (Bombay) is the capital city of Maharasthra state and is the most populous city in India, with around 20 million inhabitants. Maharastra is a very large state of three hundred thousand square kilometers, with a total population of around 97 million. The HIV prevalence at antenatal clinics in Maharasthra has exceeded 1% in all recent years, and surveys of female sex workers have found rates of infection above 20%. Very high rates are also found among injecting drug users and men who have sex with men.

Tamil Nadu

When surveillance systems in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, home to some 62 million people, showed that HIV infection rates among pregnant women were rising - tripling to 1.25% between 1995 and 1997 - the State Government acted decisively. Funding for the Tamil Nadu State AIDS Control Society (TANSACS), which had been set up in 1994, was significantly increased. ²⁷ Along with non-governmental organizations and other partners, TANSACS developed an active AIDS prevention campaign. This included hiring a leading international advertising agency to promote condom use for risky sex in a humorous way, without offending the many people who do not engage in risky behavior. The campaign also attacked the ignorance and stigma associated with HIV infection. ²⁸

The HIV prevalence at antenatal clinics in Tamil Nadu was 0.88% in 2002 and 0.5% in 2005, though several districts still have rates above 1%. Prevalence among injecting drug users was 18% in 2005. Tamil Nadu had reported 52,036 AIDS cases to NACO by July 2005, which is by far the highest number of any state.

Manipur

Manipur is a small state of some 2.2 million people in the northeast of India. The nearness of Manipur to Myanmar (Burma), and therefore to the Golden Triangle drug trail, has made it a major transit route for drug smuggling, with drugs easily available. HIV prevalence among injecting drug users is above 20%, and the virus is no longer confined to this group, but has spread further to the female sexual partners of drug users and their children. ²⁹ The HIV prevalence at antenatal clinics in Manipur has exceeded 1% in all recent years.

Mizoram

The small northeastern state of Mizoram has fewer than a million inhabitants. In 1998, an HIV epidemic took off quickly among the state's male injecting drug users, with some drug clinics registering HIV rates of more than 70% among their patients. ³⁰ In recent years the average prevalence among this group has been much lower, at around 5%. HIV prevalence at antenatal clinics has exceeded 1% in most recent years, but was 0.88% in 2005.

Nagaland

Nagaland is another small northeastern state, with a population of two million, where injecting drug use has again been the driving force behind the spread of HIV. In 2005, the HIV prevalence at antenatal clinics was 1.63%, and the rate among injecting drug users was 4.51%.

Who is affected by HIV and AIDS in India?

People living with HIV in India come from incredibly diverse backgrounds, cultures and lifestyles. The vast majority of infections occur through heterosexual sex, and most of those who become infected would not fall into the category of ‘high-risk groups’ - although members of such groups, including sex workers, men who have sex with men, truck drivers and migrant workers, do face a proportionately higher risk of infection. See our page on affected groups in India for more information.

HIV prevention

Educating people about HIV/AIDS and how it can be prevented is complicated in India, as a number of major languages and hundreds of different dialects are spoken within its population. This means that, although some HIV/AIDS prevention and education can be done at the national level, many of the efforts are best carried out at the state and local level.

Each state has its own AIDS Prevention and Control Society, which carries out local initiatives with guidance from NACO. Under the second stage of the government’s National AIDS Control Programme, which finished in March 2006, state AIDS control societies were granted funding for youth campaigns, blood safety checks, and HIV testing among other things. Various public platforms were used to raise awareness of the epidemic - concerts, radio dramas, a voluntary blood donation day and TV spots with a popular Indian film-star. Messages were also conveyed to young people through schools. Teachers and peer educators were trained to teach about the subject, and students were educated through active learning sessions, including debates and role-playing. ³¹

The next stage of the National AIDS Control Programme will see US$2.5 billion spent on fighting HIV and AIDS, most of which will be spent on prevention. Aside from the government, this money will come from non-governmental organizations, companies, and international agencies, such as the World Bank and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. ³²

The government has announced that this campaign will place a strong focus on condom promotion. It has already supported the installation of over 11,000 condom vending machines in colleges, road-side restaurants, stations, gas stations and hospitals, and plans to increase this number to 100,000 by the end of 2007. ³³ With support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the government has also initiated a campaign called ‘Condom Bindas Bol!’, which involves advertising, public events and celebrity endorsements. It aims to break the taboo that currently surrounds condom use in India, and to persuade people that they should not be embarrassed to buy them. ³⁴

In one unique scheme, health activists in West Bengal are attempting to promote condom use through kite flying, which is popular before the state’s biggest festival, Durga Puja:

“The colourful kites carry the message that using a condom is a simple and instinctive act… they can fly high in the sky and land at distant places where we cannot reach.” ³⁵

This initiative is an example of how HIV prevention campaigns in India can be tailored to the situations of different states and areas. In doing so, they can make an important impact, particularly in rural areas where information is often lacking. Small-scale campaigns like this are often run or supported by non-governmental organisations, which play a vital role in preventing infections throughout India, particularly among high-risk groups. In some cases, members of these risk groups have formed their own organisations to respond to the epidemic.

                                                                                                                BY CHETAN

feel the pain