Spaces of disclosure and discrimination: Case studies from India

This chapter examines the spaces where HIV status is disclosed and the spaces of discrimination as perceived and experienced by Indian people. A spatial approach is applied to garner the understandings of what makes different spaces accessible/inaccessible, empowering/disempowering and personal/impersonal to disclose an HIV status. Further, we explore time and gender differences in disclosure in the said spaces. Stigma, referred to as an attribute deeply discrediting by Goffman, is understood with the elements of it being feared and enacted. In this chapter, we look at both the perceived and enacted spatiality of discrimination. These spaces include institutional, social, family/kin and interpersonal spaces. We base this chapter on two studies carried out in India in community and institutional settings. The data comprise of ethnographic interviews, focus groups and observations. By focussing on the spatiality of disclosure and discrimination, we do not want just to describe these spaces but make an effort to see how people affected in these spaces can be empowered to manage disclosure and fight discrimination.