AIDS - An Indian Experience

 AIDS : An Indian Experience – in a “Social Marketing” Perspective.

Madan was in his late 30’s when he got this job of driving long haul trucks on National Highway 8 between Mumbai and New Delhi. NH8 traverses 1,428 Kilometres and is the busiest cargo corridor in the  subcontinent. Every day hundreds of trucks move through this highway driven by people like Madan. Today Madan is an element in my subject as he is one of the major catalysts in increasing the HIV infected population in India! 

AIDS had been a neglected problem in India since the first HIV case was detected in 1986. Until early 1990s actually nothing was done as no one was taking it seriously. Indian societies being traditional and conservative at the core, had a natural reluctance to even utter the subject publicly. It was almost a taboo to discuss about AIDS. I believe in many sub-urban parts of India even today this stigma exists.

In 1992, while working for a leading Social Marketing agency in New Delhi, I had got an opportunity to handle the first anti-AIDS advertising campaign in India. I felt like sharing that experience, very concisely, considering the graveness of the AIDS havoc in the Southern Africa and for a growing nation of Zambia –  which might help people at the helm of affairs, in some way.

Late Russi Modi of Tata Steel Ltd.

We pitched to a corporate Tata Steels Limited, to include AIDS in their CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) programme and presented a proposal with hard facts from WHO to support the notion that AIDS was the next major public health challenge waiting to explode in India. That, to save multitudes of  people specially the youth, the fight against AIDS needed to start with a sense of urgency. After conclusion of the long presentation, we waited with bated breath for reaction from the Tata Steel official. It was none other than late Russi Modi himself – the celebrated ex-CMD. His response “Let people have some more fun, then we’ll see it”, actually stunned us for few minutes, grappling with words to convince him. We immediately realized that Mr. Modi’s satirical  reaction was due to the small number of 300 “reported cases” of AIDS.

We thereafter argued successfully  and convinced him that what was seen on the crust was only a glimpse of the real graveness of the problem. Most cases went un-reported due to the existent stigma attached to AIDS. The other aspect of not having real numbers was that people generally did not go for the free medical tests conducted by  health authorities, primarily for fear of  getting ostracized from society. The alarming part was the rate at which it was increasing. India with a population of 1.2 billion show very low percentile figures even in the majorly infected regions. However since the population base is huge, even the official numbers swell to give headaches to health workers. As per the last published figures in year 2012, the total HIV cases in India was 2.39 million. We need to remember that the un-official figure could easily be much higher – as is often the case in India.

Coming to the marketing communication plan, our research with adult samples was concluded on a few takes; First, while building up the message content it would not moralize on social behaviours like promiscuity – as adults would not accept it. Such messages possibly would only work when targeted at a younger impressionable age. Second, to present the hard fact that AIDS had no cure (at the time of the campaign). Third, to communicate to targeted audience about prevention methods -- as that was the sole solution. On these bases the actual ad campaign was developed.

During the marketing research it was found out that the major multiplier of the HIV infection was through promiscuity and heterosexual habits by people. Our truck driver Madan and his kind had been helping in spreading the deadly infection through their “mistresses of love” with whom they relaxed at each point of stop made along the 1,428 Km highway. The other factor which helped swell HIV infected population was found in the hilly states of Manipur (0.78%) and Nagaland (0.66%) where the infection spread through sharing of needles in “drug parties” prevalent among the youth in those regions.             

Everyday, seeing a disturbing trend of sex-based crimes, many of which involving young children in Zambia makes me think that this social menace itself could be a major contributor to the AIDS and HIV problem. The authorities should try to find out the exact connections between these crimes and social behavior patterns in urban and rural populations to gauge how these could be possible contributing factors.  Those findings should help in devising a comprehensive prevention & solution road map through partnership of various agencies at work. Though Couple of communication campaigns are currently visible, Zambia must do it with much seriousness at ground level, as lives of a huge young population, as also the future of a country is dependent on total eradication of AIDS.