Involvement with NGOs and HIV/AIDS related stigma among youth populations in Delhi, India

As the number of People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) grows in India, the way they are perceived and treated is increasingly important: HIV/AIDS related stigma has great bearing on the quality of life of PLWHA and heavily affects HIV prevention, care, and treatment efforts. In stigma reduction efforts worldwide, programmers are finding that levels of stigma are high within HIV/AIDS related organizations, affecting their ability to provide care, services, support and education. No data on HIV involvement and stigma has yet been systematically gathered and analyzed in India. A quantitative survey was administered on a snowball sample of youth involved with HIV/AIDS related programming (N=145) and non HIV-involved youth randomly selected from public spaces in north, south, east, west, and central Delhi (N=450). Tabular and regression analysis of survey data revealed no instance of HIV involved youth exhibiting significantly lower levels of HIV/AIDS related stigma as compared to the general population. In fact, HIV involved youth reported significantly greater levels of agreement assigning shame and blame on PLWHA in comparison to HIV uninvolved youth. Shaming and blaming was highest among beneficiaries of HIV programming within the HIV involved group. Further, females and more educated individuals report significantly less agreement with stigmatizing statements as compared to males and less educated individuals respectively. These data contextualize recent World Bank findings regarding fraud and corruption in HIV/AIDS programming in India, suggesting that an undercurrent of stigma is pervasive even among those currently working on HIV/AIDS issues in the nation's capital.