Imphal, November 13 2008: CHENBA OR marriage by elopement is one of the most socially and culturally accepted practices in Manipur.

While debates persist whether elopement signifies free choice and greater negotiation room for the woman in making her life's decision, or it is an indicator of manipulative measures and coercion, it is undoubted that given the low condom usage rate in Manipur and low percentage of comprehensive knowledge about HIV/AIDS, elopement might just put the young lovers at risk of getting infected with HIV.

Twenty-five year old Lata (name changed) had barely turned 18 years when she eloped with a man she loved.

Though much older in age, 35 year old Tomba (name changed) loved her very much.

However following some altercations between her parents and his, Lata's parents disagreed to the union and didn't send her back to her husband's house.

A month later, Lata learnt from some common friends that Tomba had expired after a brief illness.

Three years after the event, Lata was wooed by Ibohal (name changed) and they were married soon after.

He proved to be a loving husband.

Soon afterwards, Lata had a long stretch of ill-health.

She consulted local medicinemen as well as doctors and found that she was pregnant.

Routine ante-natal check-up and blood tests at a nearby hospital also showed that she was HIV positive.

However, when Ibohal took the test, he was HIV negative.

After some inquiry among Tomba's friends and locality, Lata found that he had died due to AIDS.

But how he got infected with the virus still remains a mystery.

"We had eloped and obviously, we had sexual relations after that," says Lata, adding, "I don't know whether he used condoms.

I have never seen one then".

Leimapokpam Deepak, President of the Manipur Network of Positive People (MNP+), says, "The general tendency among the eloping lovers, especially those who know either their parents or some other third party might object to the union, is to try their best to get pregnant in the first night itself so that the only option to save face is marriage.

This unsafe practice places both persons at high risk of contracting STDs or HIV and AIDS," he adds.

Dr Kh.

Pramodkumar, Project Director (Technical) of Manipur State Aids Control Society (MACS) also agrees that there is a risk for HIV transmission in elopement.

"The HIV prevalence among our population, especially among the youth and adolescents is very high.

Particularly as we saw through the NHFS III survey, while there is a high percentage of people who have heard about HIV/AIDS, comprehensive knowledge such as prevention, transmission, etc., is still very low," he said.

According to epidemiological data released by MACS, as of May 2008, the cumulative figure of persons living with HIV is 29,602.Among these, persons aged 21 � 30 are at the highest risk, forming 43.10 per cent of the total persons living with HIV in the state.

On the other hand, a study of the knowledge of AIDS and sexual behaviour among youths in the age group 15-24 years, undertaken as part of the National Family Health Survey � III (2005-06) which was released in October, reveals that around 43.8 per cent of females and 56.1 per cent males have comprehensive knowledge of HIV and AIDS.

But the same report also states that while 51.7 females and 84.5 per cent males in the 15-24 age category know a condom source, only 1.3 per cent females and 14.6 per cent males used a condom in their first sexual encounter.

Pointing out the utmost necessity of empowering women into playing a greater and decisive role in elopement and sex negotiations, Dr.Kh.

Pramodkumar said, "We need to empower the youths not to succumb to peer pressure, especially empower the girls not to give in to emotional pressure for pre-marital sex or elopement.

They should be able to say, I am not ready to elope, this is not the right time.

We need to capacitate the girls especially.

So many times there are cases of girls being bluffed by the boys" .

Outlining that there is greater emphasis being laid on women empowerment in HIV/AIDS intervention programmes and policies, he further said better adolescence and youth counseling, and creation of an enabling environment to talk freely about sex and sexuality could go a long way to addressing the HIV risk to young adults.

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