Vijayapura: About seven years ago Ravi Kittur, a senior counsellor at the Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) centre of the District Hospital here stumbled upon an incident which shook him to his core. He found out that two of his male patients, who were infected with HIV, had married normal women by concealing their health details.
The incident worried Kittur so much that he decided to find a lasting and effective solution for HIV patients who desired to get married and live normal lives.
“It was at that time that I decided to make sure that all my HIV-infected patients, who wished to get married, get married only other HIV-infected persons,” he said.
His commitment and efforts to the cause have produced great results and over the last five years, Kittur got 43 HIV-infected couples married. They are now leading happy lives.
Speaking about the very first marriage he arranged five years ago, Kittur said that he had met a 26-year-old HIV patient who wanted to get married to an HIV infected woman as he did not want to transmit the infection to an uninfected woman.
“When he expressed his desire, I wanted to do something for him. At that time, I found an unmarried woman who was my patient and convinced her to get married. Since her father died years ago, I met her mother and convinced her to let her daughter marry my other patient. The proposal was accepted and within a week, we arranged for a simple wedding ceremony,” he said.
Kittur informed that today, the couple have a normal son who is six years old. “The couple have given my name to their son as a sign of their gratitude,” he said with cheer.
After the first successful wedding, Kittur found many such persons looking for partners to marry. “I felt so blessed to be able to arrange such marriages. In the past five years, I have gotten some 43 marriages arranged between HIV-infected couple,” he added.
Asserting that marriages are one of the best ways to prevent the spread of HIV, he said that infected persons often suffer from depression and loneliness as they can’t have sexual intercourse with normal people. “This loneliness sometimes overpowers them so much that they either marry a normal person by hiding the truth or they continue to have sex with multiple partners which only spreads the infection among others,” he said.
When HIV infected couples marry, Kittur says that they not only lead a happy life without any depression but also prevent the spreading of HIV to others. “At the same time, they can have normal children because it is easy to prevent the spread of HIV to unborn children using modern-day medicines,” he said.
Kittur added that today, he has a list of around 35 HIV infected persons who are ready to get married and are looking for the right proposal.
“I am doing my best to bring such people together. One of the challenges I face is that a majority of the infected persons want their life partner to be of the same caste, but I try my best to convince them to have an inter-caste marriage as it is difficult to always find an HIV infected partner of the same caste. Since I consider it as sacred work, I will continue to do this till my health permits,” he said.
He says that if there are any HIV-infected persons who wish to get married, they can contact him on +91 9241414899.
