Manoj Kumar, 35, has been spending Rs 9,000 per month on his anti-retrovirals (HIV/AIDS drugs) since 2002. Son of a farmer from Varanasi, the treatment has forced his father to sell off land worth Rs 6 lakh.

Kumar’s case is peculiar as the anti-retrovirals provided by the Government don’t work for him and his doctors have put him on a higher level of drugs (second line of treatment), for which he has to pay from his own pocket. These include improved drugs like Tenofavir and Abacavir.

“I have two options — to live and pay huge amounts every month or just prepare to die,’’ said Kumar. “With the high cost of these drugs I don’t know how long can I afford to live anyway,’’ he added.

He is not the only one. At 10 am today, Kumar along with 20 people from across the country, began a protest sit-in at Jantar Mantar to get their voice to the authorities concerned. They will continue their protests till the morning of December 1 — World AIDS Day — when another 300 will join them.

“Their demand unlike most protesters is for their right to live,’’ said Naresh Yadav, president of the Uttar Pradesh Network of Positive People. These are HIV positive persons who have failed the first line of treatment and are in huge debts paying for the second line of treatment that costs them anything between Rs 9,000 and Rs 15,000 per month. According to the networks, there are about 4,000 patients registered in various hospitals across the country who need similar treatment.

... contd.