Satyarth Prakash Nayak, New Delhi: The AIDS Bill was passed two years back. And since then many Parliament sessions have taken place but the bill has yet to see the light of the day. ‘I don’t know what is the delay about. The government hardly cares,” says an HIV positive patient, Raju Nagar.

Thirty-seven-year-old Raju is a worried man. Being an HIV positive and like the 2.5 million odd HIV patients in India, he has been waiting for the AIDS Bill to be introduced in the Parliament. But it has been more than two years now and there is no sign of the Bill.

“If the bill comes will help people like us a lot,” says Raju. The Bill fundamentally has a rights-based approach. An outcome of a consultative process involving affected communities, health care workers, NGOs, bureaucracy and lawyers it touches critical legal aspects of discrimination, safe working environment, inheritance and property rights, confidentiality and free and wide access to information and medication. And many other promises were made along with the Bill.

“About 10,00,000 people are going to be treated free of cost which is going to be a long way into eradicating the sigma and discrimination of AIDS patients,” says Union Health Minister, Anbumani Ramadoss. “It does take time to create a Bill.

Many aspects of the Bill have to be considered,” says HOD Dep of Immunology, AIIMS, Dr N K Mehta. The Ministry along with the Lawyers Collective may also spell out terms for making available the second line AIDS drugs in the Bill. Appointment of a 'Health Ombudsman' may also be part of the Bill.

“I think that the government is committed but right now the priorities are different. We have the Nandigram issue and the nuclear deal,” says Program Manager, World Vision, Sushma Cornelius.

Meanwhile, the government has launched the third phase of the National AIDS Control Programmed (NACP-III) spending over Rs 11,000 crore to reverse the HIV tide by 2011.

But experts say, just passing the Bill will not be enough. “It is not just about introducing or passing the Bill but about implementing it,” says Dr Mehta.