Oil on canvas. Dimensions ( 100 x 80 cms ) / ( 39.37 x 31.50 inches ).

The original art work is an Adaptation of a photograph taken by a renowned photographer Credit: Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters. A HIV/AIDS patient stands in her hut in the north-eastern Indian city of Siliguri.
• Due to its large population size, India has the third largest HIV epidemic in the world.
• India’s epidemic is concentrated among key affected populations including sex workers and men who have sex with men.
• Compared to neighbouring countries, India has made good progress in reducing new HIV infections by a half since 2001.
• Despite the availability of free antiretroviral treatment, uptake remains low as many individuals face difficulty in accessing clinics.
• India had 2.1 million people living with HIV at the end of 2016, with new infections falling to 80,000 in 2016 from 150,000 in 2005, shows data from the UNAIDS Ending AIDS Report 2017.
• New infections in India have fallen to 80,000 in 2016 from 150,0 00 in 2005 and the fall is expected to accelerate with India introducing the ‘test and treat’ policy earlier this year, where everyone who tests positive for HIV is put on treatment, which makes them less infectious.
• Of these, 9,100 infected were children under age 15 years.
• Less than half the people living with HIV are on treatment, which is given free under National AIDS Control Programme. The new ‘test and treat’ policy to put everyone who tests positive for HIV on treatment helps lower the viral load which, apart from keeping them healthy, lowers their risk of infecting others.
• The decline in infection was the highest in children (47%) because of global scale-up of antiretroviral therapy, which also lowered AIDS deaths by 48%, from a peak of 1.9 million in 2005 to 1million in 2016.
• Globally, new HIV infections fell by 16% to 1.8 million in 2016, but the pace of global decline is too slow to reach the UN’s Fast-Track Target of fewer than 500,000 new infections per year by 2020. “In 2016, 500 people were still getting infected with HIV every day, which is unacceptable,” - Dr Bilali Camara, UNAIDS Country Director for India.

 View Video: SILIGURI