How important is the role of celebrities in the fight against AIDS?

About eight years ago I made a public awareness film in my own capacity as an actor, going into a hospital and holding a young HIV infected girl to show that AIDS was not transmitted through touch. That was a very well constructed film and a lot of people had a strong response to it--I think because it was a celebrity sharing that message. It was an important step toward awareness building. But often times because the message is not thought through, the celebrity doesn't really convey vital information. You have to be careful in using celebrities.

This is not to belittle in any way activists who are really doing genuine work for AIDS awareness and whose work is little known. This is a dilemma that I face as a celebrity. I've gone through a crisis situation where my photograph has become more important than the message. I wanted to withdraw, but I realize that it is a process and I am a part of the process.

What work do you do for social awareness?

It is advocacy. My real work is in the slums. I work in housing, particularly with the poor. Now housing is not an issue that can be treated in isolation. You have to talk about women's rights, about health issues. My main interests lie in the area of women's health and reproductive health.

When diseases like tuberculosis are so much more prevalent in India, how do you argue for funding and focus on AIDS?

People do not realize that when a person has AIDS, other diseases like tuberculosis and malaria only get exacerbated. They are deeply connected and cannot be separated. But I think we have a problem with our health care system because we have two vertical lines--one which is dealing with HIV/AIDS and one which is dealing with tuberculosis so that you have two windows when actually they must be dealt with together. Official estimates say that 3.5 million people have HIV/AIDS and that if there is an increase of 0.01 percent there will be half a million more cases because of the sheer numbers involved--if that's not reason enough to focus on AIDS I don't know what is.

What is being doing India to fight AIDS?

Funds are being given to awareness programs and not to actual patients. I think it's ironical and dichotomous that the funds are going there and not to actually providing support to infected people. The fact that CIPLA (an Indian pharmaceutical company) has been working on cheaper AIDS drugs is heartening--and legislative support must be given to them so they can deal with TRIPS (trade related intellectual property rights) and the WTO and ensure that it is not disallowed from providing much cheaper drugs. We are still grappling with awareness. When you come to a conference like this you realize that the world has moved on, the region has moved on. We cannot negate the fact that in India we're still so low on awareness that until we build on it we cannot make all the advances that are necessary.

The Indian education system does not have a strong sexual health education program. What do you think?

Well finally we've managed to get the Prime Minister to make a commitment and say that we advocate sexual education. But the fact is that it was not so far in the past that a radio program on sexual health was banned because it was considered 'immoral.' So we need to have a huge mindset change, we need to remove the stigma, we need to talk about issues we normally sweep under the carpet. And it is of paramount importance that we give sexual education to adolescents. I find it strange that with satellite television available we act coy about this and worry about the 'evil' effect it can have. We have to create an enabling atmosphere so that adolescents can make choices based on the right information.

Does being a Member of Parliament help your advocacy?

Yes and no. Because I don't think health is on the agenda of any political party--women's health even less so. Although all the right noises are made and token measures taken, the fact is that the Indian Government has reduced the health budget. We have a long way to go. The government cites the human development index and talks about improving education. We are still talking about population control, we're not talking about sustainability. We have to make social investments--in health and education. We, all of us in society, have to make health an emotive issue. Ultimately unless you make things into an emotive issue, nobody's going to pay any attention, least of all politicians.

How do we, as civil society, work to change the mindset of people with regards to sexual health?

I think using every tool that you can. It's not an either-or situation. You need legislative measures, you need media advocacy, you need lobbying, you need to encourage partnerships between NGOs and the government. Often times there is such a wide gap between those working at the grassroots and the government that they're existing in two different worlds. We have to do whatever we can. We have to give support to all groups doing really good work at the grassroots level, and at all levels.

Women are really affected by AIDS, but the Indian government still has a strategy to target specific groups and women are not targeted. How can this change?

You have to see the lack of empowerment of women in our society as the root of this problem and address ways to improve their empowerment. Education, economic, legislative measures are needed and we need to change the mindset. The government doesn't want to hear about empowerment, it's 'too large an issue.' What they have to do is have an overview and then provide basic things like primary health care and address it at both ends. Villagers don't go to health centers because they don't know when it opens, the auxiliary nurse has 10 or more villages to tend to and no transportation- these are management problems, these can be addressed. So the government has to start somewhere to begin the process. When you talk about targeted intervention it's not the most favorable way of doing it, but you have to make a start somewhere.