SIFY News
ASSAM, INDIA, June 14, 2003: It is common practice in East Indian culture for couples to have their astrology done to see if they will be compatible in marriage. However Goswami, a resident of Assam, feels that the public should be aware that it would be in their best interest if the potential couple go for a blood test to rule out being HIV-positive. From her own sad experience Goswami explains, “Soon after my marriage I found that my husband was often ill, complaining of various ailments from herpes to fever and coughs. A few days before his death, he told me he had AIDS.” By that time, Goswami had contracted the disease herself. Rather than hide from her adversity, Goswami went public with her burden in the hopes of making the public aware of the disease and she became a counselor with the AIDS Control Society in Assam. Some 100,000 HIV-positive patients live in the northeast which borders the heroin-producing Golden Triangle of Laos, Myanmar and Thailand and has high rates of intravenous drug use. Goswami herself faced much discrimination after going public about her illness, and she was forced to move more than a dozen times. Her in-laws even accused her of infecting her husband. However, she has persevered, and says, “Today I am targeting students in Assam and trying to make them aware about how to prevent AIDS and how the virus spreads. I want to live a life with dignity and show people how to avoid a silent and painful death.”