Nilanjana Bose, Chilakaluripet, Andhra Pradesh:  Thirty-five-year old Farida is HIV positive. She is a practicising sex worker, but none of her customers know that. Farida has been working in National Highway 5 in Chilakaluripet for 15 years now.

Home to more than a thousand sex workers, Chilakaluripet is the largest of its kind in Andhra Pradesh. "No, we don't tell our customers as our business would suffer. But we do insist on them using protection. If they refuse, we turn them away,” says Farida. The sex workers however, admit that sometimes they do give in to customers who don't want to use protection, especially those who agree to pay double or even triple the amount the women charge.

The sex workers are most neglected here and there is no process by which they can be rehabilitated and brought into society in a normalised manner. In the last decade, at least 10 women have died of AIDS in Chilakaluripet and more than 20 women are HIV positive. However, there are those who haven't come out in the open about their positive status.

And there are others who haven't even tested themselves. Forty-year-old Mallesh is one of Farida’s customers, who works for a car rental agency, ferrying tourists and businessmen across Andhra Pradesh. A stopover at Chilakaluripet is a must for Mallesh. But like many men, he believes that HIV can never touch him. "No I have never got myself tested. I am in perfect health so there is no need. I stay away from home for 15-20 days at a stretch. My heart pulls me in that direction,” says Mallesh.

Andhra Pradesh is one of the worst affected states on India's HIV/AIDS map, having more than 12,000 cases. And the biggest challenge for AIDS agencies right now is to curb the HIV infection, 90 per cent of which is sexually transmitted. However, in a state where HIV positive sex workers cant even tell their customers about their positive status because of extreme poverty, the warning signals are now getting too loud to be ignored any more.