A BRITISH colonial era law in India that criminalises homosexuality is not acceptable and scrapping it is fundamental to the fight against Aids, the countrys top official leading efforts to end the disease said.
Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in jail for men having gay sex.
This is not acceptable. Section 377 is quite an anachronism, Sujatha Rao, the chief of the state-run National Aids Control Organisation, said at the end of a four-day Asia-Pacific conference on male sexual health and HIV. She termed the law hateful.
The law, enacted in 1861 by British colonial rulers, is being challenged in New Delhis High Court by an Indian anti-Aids voluntary group. The challenge has been supported by Naco.
Activists say policemen use Section 377 to extract money from gay men sitting in parks or lanes and the threat of penal action only compounds the problems of social stigma and discrimination the sexual minority faces in India.
Naco estimates Indias population of men having sex with men to be about 2.5 million but says it could be far higher. It estimates that about 25 per cent of of men having sex with men are HIV positive.
It is important to end this (Section 377), otherwise it would be very difficult to reach out to men having sex with men and end the spread of this infection, Ms Rao said.
She said only about 6 to 8 per cent of gay men were covered by outreach projects, which include distribution of condoms.