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Glossary

AIDS:  acquired immune deficiency syndrome

Antiretroviral treatment:  medical treatment using drugs that combat HIV rather than just the opportunistic symptoms of HIV.  These drugs do not cure HIV but can, if successfully administered, slow and even virtually stop the proliferation of HIV in the body.  This reduces susceptibility to other diseases and allows for longer and better quality of life.  However, in India, the drugs are not prescribed until a child's immune system cells (CD4 count) fall below a certain level or the child is having serious symptoms. 

Dalit:  literally meaning “broken” people, Dalit is a term first coined by Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, one of the architects of the Indian constitution of 1950 and revered leader of the Dalit movement.  It was taken up in the 1970s by the Dalit Panther Movement, which organized to claim rights for “untouchables,” and is now commonly used by rights activists.  “Untouchables” are those at the bottom of, or falling outside of, India’s caste system.  Administrative parlance now employs the term “scheduled castes,” while rights activists and the population more generally employ the term “Dalits.” 

HIV:  human immunodeficiency virus

NACO:  National AIDS Control Organization, an autonomous body within the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare charged with implementing the government’s response to HIV/AIDS prevention and control. 

NGO:  non-governmental organization

Opportunistic infection:  any infection or condition that takes the opportunity of a weakened immune system to cause disease.  These may include relatively common infections, which may cause little or no harm in a healthy person.

Post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP):  a short course of antiretroviral drugs that can reduce the risk of contracting HIV following accidental or occupational exposure or rape.

Prevention of mother-to-child transmission:  a term referring to programs designed to reduce HIV transmission during pregnancy and childbirth and through breastfeeding, most often including a short course of antiretroviral drugs administered to mother and newborn that greatly reduces the risk of this transmission.  The Indian government and others also use the phrase “parent-to-child transmission,” highlighting the fact that the other parent is often complicit in the fact that the mother is HIV-positive.

Scheduled Castes:  a list of socially deprived (“untouchable”) castes prepared by the British Government in 1935.  The schedule of castes was intended to increase representation of scheduled-caste members in the legislature, in government employment, and in university placement. The term is also used in the constitution and various laws.

Scheduled Tribes:  a list of indigenous tribal populations who are entitled to much of the same compensatory treatment as scheduled castes.