Women, girls affected by HIV in Indonesia face poverty

"The number of reported HIV cases has tripled in Indonesia in recent years, curtailing productivity and trapping affected girls and women, especially, in poverty, according to a recent U.N. Development Programme (UNDP) report," PlusNews reports. "Women, representing a quarter of all people living with HIV in Indonesia, shoulder family finances when their partners can no longer work, or when they face education and employment discrimination, said the report," the news service adds.

"Women in HIV-affected households put in longer hours but were less likely to own their homes, livestock and vehicles," PlusNews writes, adding, "They were also more likely to be widowed and denied inheritance rights -- the case for 71 percent of all HIV-affected widows." "However, Nafsiah Mboi, secretary of the government's National AIDS Commission, dismissed concerns that women and children bore the economic brunt of HIV," stating, "There is no specific scheme for HIV-affected families or women, but everyone who is poor can ask for assistance. There is no discrimination," according to the news service (12/16).