Arif Jafar has been involved with HIV issues and men who have sex with men (MSM) since 1992. Having co-founded two organisations - Friend India in 1992 and Bharosa in 1997, Arif Jafar now works with Naz Foundation International, an organisation which has been providing technical and institutional assistance to MSM networks, groups, collectives and organisations in South Asia since 1996 to develop their own HIV prevention, care and support services through community-based organising.

In India, Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code criminalises homosexuality with a punishment of up to life imprisonment and a fine. As a result health care providers and human rights defenders are constantly at risk of being accused of abetting a crime. Arif Jafar was arrested under this section of the Penal Code in July 2001 and, along with three of his other colleagues, had to spend 47 days in jail. The office was raided and sealed for over 2 months. They were threatened once again with arrest in 2006. The constant risk of arrest and/or closure is always there, increasing the difficulty in the day to day work that Arif Jafar and his colleagues at the International Naz Foundation carry out.

"My rights are equal to your rights!

"I have been exploring my sexuality since the age of 12. I eventually came to know what was going on in Delhi and outside India. With a colleague we started a gay group, Friends India in 1992. After six months we realised that no one else wanted to join. We had leading shop keepers on our board but they would never come to a meeting. It was much hidden and there were many risks. Then we started a bi-monthly newsletter, ‘Sacred Love’, also in 1992 and more people joined us.

In 1997, the Naz Foundation International asked us to help on a situational assessment of low-income groups and kothis – the feminised males – based on a sample size of 400. Conducting this assessment I knew then I had to change my direction. At that time I had no idea how severe the HIV problem was. I had been traveling a lot for HIV and AIDS programmes and attending many gay forums. During those interviews in the assessments, someone told me, ‘We are already dying of hunger, what’s the difference if we die of AIDS?’ Others said we have no social status so what difference does it make if we become HIV positive. I realised I needed to shift my focus from gay issues only, and so I set up a CBO (Community Based Organisation) called Bharosa to raise awareness on HIV/AIDS and sexual health and to educate low income men who have sex with men.

After two years I had to choose between HIV work and my teaching job. Three years later I began working with the Naz Foundation International. We were deemed to be a threat to the social fabric of society and so we were arrested.

The first ten days in jail we were denied water. We begged for water from the others in the prison barracks – about 130 others. We were asked to clear drains with our eating utensils and told to eat food with them after that. We drank water from the toilet. This experience has toughened me. If we had been charged with murder, we would have been treated better. The police took me to the main market to beat me and humiliate me as a way of discouraging my return to work. My family was threatened with arrest for having a homosexual son. My father and brother visited me. My mother came and demonstrated outside. I’m lucky to have such a family.

I was adamant I wouldn’t change my work after my arrest. If I have not done anything wrong, why should I change my work place? I challenge things. I don’t keep a low profile any more. I have chosen an area where I can give the most and where people need us the most. It gives me job satisfaction. And things are changing. The Government has made a policy change to include MSM in its programming. I look back at 1991 and MSM was nowhere on the priorities and now there are a lot of other groups. This is the biggest achievement of the coalition of which NFI is also a part.

We just want services to be available for all people irrespective of their gender identity and sexuality.”