Three years ago, a Pune-based woman who was fired by her company following an HIV diagnosis, got her position as a trainee-operator back on Monday, December 3. According to the Hindustan Times, the Labor court has ordered the company to reinstate her position and provide her with all the back wages.
Court asks the company to reinstate HIV affected employee
Reportedly, in 2015, after the revelation of her being HIV positive through the documents submitted by her to claim medical benefits, she was asked to resign within 30 minutes. Speaking to ANI she said, “I was asked to provide a document for the medical claim, and when I did that, they asked me about it (HIV). I told them I got it from my husband and within 30 minutes, they forced me to resign”. She also claims that she been working as a trainee operator with the company for five years.
As per a Times Now report, the company claimed that she had resigned herself, however, the document provided to her stated “Absenteeism” as the reason for her termination. On the other hand, the woman claimed that she was verbally informed that the reason was her being HIV positive.
“An employee was terminated on the basis of being tested positive for HIV; however, the company claims that the employee resigned herself”, the victim’s advocate Vishal Jadhav told ANI. The three year long trials revealed that she was terminated because she was tested positive. Moreover, the court observed that an employee cannot be terminated for merely testing positive for HIV. It can only take place under the frame of law, which was not done in this case. Reportedly, she was boycotted by her in-laws while her husband died due to the sexually transmitted disease.
The Logical Indian take
Countless government awareness programs and strategies have come into existence to make people aware of The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) ever since it was first reported in India. According to 2017 UN AIDS data, HIV infection in India has decreased by 46% and deaths due to HIV Infection by 22%.
Reportedly, in 2016, India had 80,000 new HIV infections compared to 1,50,000 in 2005, and 62,000 AIDS-related deaths compared to 1,50,000 in 2005. Overall, the data has shown a 66% decline in new infection from 2000 to 2015.
While these statistics show government’s effort to achieve “zero new infections and Zero AIDS-related deaths” in coming future, the sad news is that people living with HIV infection is still huge in numbers and more than the disease, society is making their lives even more challenging than it already is.
The Logical Indian hopes for more judgments like this to give the nation a nudge towards achieving “zero discrimination” as well.
