Mandating HIV test before marriage?

We like to think we live an ideal world and try to create regulations that befit a well-oiled executive system. We have a done it again, this time to counter the dread of HIV. The government is contemplating on introducing an impractical law which will require the two people getting wedded to produce certificates pronouncing them uninfected by HIV.

What are we trying to prove by taking such a big bite? Introducing the law would mean that lab-facilities would be required to be set-up across the country. Do we have enough working primary health care centers (PHC) where this can be set-up? For the last 5 decades India has not been able to provide the type of penetration required to reach the 600 million who live in rural to remote areas.
Many PHCs exist only on records. Among the rest, a lot of them are either only 4-wall-and-a-roof enclosures or are manned by just a 'guard' with nothing more to offer. The lacuna in the need and the 'feed' of PHCs shows itself up whenever there is an epidemic or disaster like flood requiring relief operations. Recently, several TV channels also highlighted the lack of accountability and seriousness with which critical cases of H5N1 were handled in Maharashtra.

Seeing the falling female to male ratio in several states, mainly owing to female infanticide and female-foeticide, GoI introduced a ban on ultrasound tests determining the sex of the unborn. But today, especially in the northern states like Haryana, the sex of the foetus is the worst kept secret. The fault lies only partly with advances in technology which has made ultrasound equipment mobile and compact. The bigger issue is that of determining accountability and penalizing the set-up that condones such tests. The thought behind this is noble, undeniably and should be enforced as strictly as possible. I have no recommendations for repealing this law. But what is the point if there is no tracking mechanism in place which ensures that failures in compliance are not punished sufficiently enough for them to act as deterrents to future incidents? In the last 12 years since the law was introduced, there has been 1 conviction in Delhi, recently.

There is no tracking mechanism even to continuously identify the fate of the HIV infected people in the country, so how far will the certification of people wrt their infected status succeed or help. How difficult would it be to obtain an 'uninfected' certification? As easy it would be to buy a lunch for one.

The idea behind the law does not seem to be aimed at spreading awareness about HIV and the consequential AIDS disease. The governments - state and central are already doing much in terms of this by media messages and short documentaries shown in movie theatres. NGOs are doing their bit by educating the people in street plays and village meetings. If the government thinks much is not happening, it only makes sense to improve efforts to educate the masses. Why leap when small steps are what will get you there and the leap only opens more cans of worms?

What good is a certificate? The current level of advancements in curing the disease do not promise a full recovery, but only a slowing down of the immuno-dificiency process. What would a certificate do to help this? Is it more important then that while we spread the news about how the disease can kill, we should also educate people about how to deal with people who have contracted it? A mandated certificate can easily become a tool of oppression for the victim of the disease. There is bound to be stigmatisation of the person, probable loss of growth opportunities if not loss of employment itself. This, on top of the problems that the disease itself brings along with it.

While it may be argued that it might even be easier to talk about it 'because there is a law', there is bound to be an air of complacency around the whole process. It is therefore important that people are made aware of the dangers of the disease. If they do it 'just because there is a law' for it, there is bound to be a licensed spread of the disease, a counter affect to what was originally intended.

The Indian ‘system’ is not prepared for dealing correctly with an HIV certificate accompanying a marriage certificate.