A GENDER-WISE ANALYSIS OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES OF HIV/AIDS

Using primary data, the study analysed the gender-wise impact of HIV/AIDS on socio-economic consequences of households in Puducherry region, union territory of Puducherry, South India. To better understand the impact of the disease, the study compared the changes in household economic conditions both at the time of interview and at the time of detecting HIV, i.e., ‘impact time’. Further, the most visible economic impact of HIV/AIDS related illness being on the household finances, the study also examines both direct and indirect costs of the disease. The results revealed that more male and female respondents are concentrated in high risk occupations at the time of contracting HIV, compared to females, more males are in advanced stage of the disease. Regardless of gender, their standard of living (SLI) and employment had significantly lower when compared to their SLI and employment before HIV detection. Among the currently employed respondents, females reported more number of workdays lost but the income lost by them is half lower than that of their male counterparts. The mean number of illness in the month preceding the survey was significantly higher for symptomatic than for the asymptomatic patients. But, there was no significant difference in direct and indirect costs of morbidity between the groups.