Population, Gender, and Disparity - Dragons and Tigers: A Geography of South, East and Southeast Asia - page 82

was estimated in 2007 that 140,000 children in South
and Southeast Asia and 7800 in East Asia were infected
with AIDS. The vast majority contracted the disease from
their mothers.
Until recently , AIDS in China was a taboo subject.
Any evidence of the disease was denied. Then, the gov-
ernment said that only foreigners got AIDS. It was re-
ferred to as alzibing —“loving capitalism disease.”
The first case to be recorded was in Beijing in
1995. At the same time, authorities finally admitted
that there were significant numbers of AIDS cases in
Y unnan Province in southwestern China, where drug
use is widespread. Then the fact that thousands of peo-
ple had contracted AIDS via contaminated blood trans-
fusions hit the international news. The Chinese
government had no choice but to admit that there was
an AIDS problem. Official figures state that the country
has 700,000 AIDS victims of which 200,000 are
women. There is a media blitz against unprotected sex
and drug use, and 75,000 individuals are in treatment
programs.
Although the availability of antiretroviral drugs
has increased in Asia, only about one-third of those in-
fected are receiving treatment across the region. In In-
dia, in 2004, only 2 percent of HIV positive, pregnant
women received antiviral prophylaxis, typically only
one dose. Although appropriate medication is readily
available over-the-counter at pharmacies, both doctors
and pharmacists usually recommend a regimen of one
pill three times a week for 21 days—totally ineffective
treatment.
In 2007, the Indian government launched a new
phase of its National AIDS Control Program (NACP) that
will broadly communicate information on prevention and
improve and expand treatment centers. Another part of
NACP is directed at reducing stigma and discrimination
against AIDS victims. It has been common practice for
both government and private hospitals to throw patients
out if they are found to be HIV positive. There is also a
campaign to overturn laws that make homosexuality ille-
gal and punishable by imprisonment.
Interestingly , Indian pharmaceutical companies are
major suppliers of low-cost, generic antiretroviral drugs
in Africa and elsewhere while HIV treatment needs in In-
dia are not being met. For example, Cipla, based in
Mumbai, exports 18 times as many antiretroviral drugs
as it sells in India.
Drugs required to abate the progression of AIDS are
too expensive for most people in Asia. If more had access
to cheaper, generic medications, treatment rates would

most likely go up. However, government funding short-
ages, individual poverty , lack of roads and public trans-
portation, and inadequate health facilities all combine to
make it very difficult to organize lifelong treatment pro-
grams for millions.
The increase in HIV infection and AIDS cases has
upped the demand for even younger “clean” sex work-
ers. Men pay premium prices for virgins, believed to be
disease-free. Once prostitutes are “too sick to work,”
they are left to the streets or “repatriated” to their
home country to die. Some girls do manage to survive
and even make money . Many of these return home to
their villages as heroic “dutiful daughters” who have
sacrificed themselves for their family . Their behavior is
a model for the recruitment of younger sisters. How-
ever, the majority end up dead at a young age from bru-
tality , drug overdose, or AIDS.

FEMINIST PERSPECTIVES
Most feminists agree that prostitution is not a conscious
and calculated choice. Poverty , lack of opportunity , and
domestic violence, among other factors, drive multitudes
of women into prostitution. Force and coercion are em-
ployed by unscrupulous men (rarely women) to get girls
into the business. This form of male domination over
women results from a patriarchal social order that subor-
dinates females to males.
In patriarchal societies, inequality between gen-
ders is embedded in all aspects of life. Prostitution is
seen as vital for men who “cannot control them-
selves.” It is acceptable for a relatively small number
of women to be sacrificed--that is, used and abused to
protect larger numbers of “chaste” ones from rape and
harassment.
Prostitution is not only a woman' is problem. Geogra-
pher Joni Seager (1997) states: “Prostitution is not a
women' is institution—it is controlled by men and sus-
tained by violence.” While local-level prostitutes might
have a measure of control over their own destiny , “the
global sex trade is almost entirely coercive, sustained by
high levels of violence and predicated on the thorough
subjugation of women.”

Female Heads of State in Asia?

Y ou probably know that several Asian countries have had
female leaders. How is this possible in such patriarchal
cultures? Look at Table 3-4, which lists Asian, female