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A Nobel nomination

The South India AIDS Action Programme (SIAAP) has been doing service to society quietly for 17 years - it was founded in 1988 - but it suddenly is in the news with its programme director Shyamala Natraj being nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for Women by Swiss founders of the project '1000 Women for the Nobel Peace Prize 2005'.

Shyamala, a journalist in her previous avatar, had some background of looking into the reproductive rights of women and HIV infection. This led to the founding of the SIAAP to work with HIV positive persons - which was then a novel idea.

The amazing thing about SIAAP and Shyamala's mindset is that they evolved from merely fighting AIDS to going to the root cause of the whole problem: caring for people who were "systematically marginalised for centuries and who had become a sub-class". The organisation found that it was this class that was vulnerable to HIV and there was a need to "understand the alienation to heal that problem".

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"We are not merely into HIV prevention but into treating a whole lot of other issues that lead to this condition," says Shyamala firmly. She cites that the National Commission for Women had found that it was Dalits who were becoming sex workers. So it was not enough to fight against HIV infection but the poverty and alienation that was pushing these people into a situation where they became vulnerable to AIDS.

Another amazing thing about SIAAP is that it believes in working "with the government". We have it on Shyamala's word that Tamil Nadu has "the best bureaucrats in India" and that they are always ready to help NGOs. She has been working alongside such bureaucrats for several years and found that "everybody wants to do good".

It makes sense to work in tandem with the government because of the vast resources that are at its disposal and also the infrastructure. "We cannot even dream of raising such funds and also being able to deliver as much as we do now without government help," says Shyamala. But she laughs, "It takes many years and lots of grey hair to change the system, but it happens."

The talented team that surrounds Shyamala is into training trainers, trainees, government and non-governmental healthcare professionals. This has led to a sea-change in the way even a government doctor in a clinic for sexually transmitted infection relates to a patient. Today, anyone can walk into a government hospital and merely get treated for the condition arising out of sexual problems without being humiliated by the staff. All this has been possible because of intervention programmes that have been chartered by NGOs like SIAAP.

Shyamala is on a sabbatical now in a Melbourne University, Australia, doing a course on International Health and Ethics and says she is enjoying going back to class again. She was in the library when she got the news that she was one of the 100 women from India selected for the Nobel Peace Prize for Women and was elated.

Among her first callers was a woman from Nagapattinam with whom the organistaion had worked. "We feel we did it together. All the 99 other women who have been nominated and the women we have helped," says Shyamala. So she rushed back to India to be among the people who had made this nomination possible - the staff of the organisation and the women they had worked with in different districts.

It was not the first time she had got international recognition but "Everybody likes to be recognised. It gives us that extra energy that is needed to do our work. It is also a big boost for our families who make a lot of sacrifices in the form of time and money."

Just as the SIAAP has evolved from merely fighting AIDS to going to the root cause of the problem, Shyamala wants to come back to India and do something in the line of education. It is not enough for one person to be educated and literate and reach the heights of recognition, it is important for every Indian to be educated and literate, she says.

Education is the only tool that can help in the fight against any problem facing society. "People must get a chance to run their own lives," says Shyamala with great emphasis.

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