HIV Discrimination
A temporary health worker at a government hospital in West Bengal’s Paschim Medinipur district has alleged that he was asked to stop working because he is living with HIV.
The worker, who was employed at Ghatal Sub-Divisional Hospital, has submitted complaints to both the state secretariat at Nabanna and the state Health Department seeking justice.
He has alleged that the hospital superintendent was responsible for the decision. The superintendent, however, has denied the allegation and said that the worker stopped attending work on his own.
The issue has drawn the attention of West Bengal Health Minister Shardwat Mukherjee, who has said that appropriate action will be taken if the allegations are found to be true.
According to the worker, he discovered that he was HIV-positive in 2007 and has been receiving regular treatment ever since.
He claims that his HIV status did not prevent him from carrying out his duties at the government hospital for years.
The worker says he had been working as a sanitation worker at a government hospital in Ghatal since 1996. He was later assigned another responsibility, involving the delivery of medicines to different hospital wards.
The worker claims that his problems began after the state government issued guidelines in 2024 concerning the regularisation of temporary workers at government hospitals.
According to his complaint, he applied for regularisation under the government guidelines and subsequently faced opposition from the hospital authorities.
He alleges that he was instructed not to report for work from January 2026.
The worker has also produced what he describes as a fitness certificate issued by a medical officer at Ghatal Sub-Divisional Hospital. According to him, the certificate establishes that he is medically fit to work.
This has led him to question why he was allegedly considered fit to work for years but suddenly became ineligible from January 2026.
The worker, who is approaching 50, says he is the sole earning member of his family. He lives with his wife and two daughters and claims that losing his job has placed the family under severe financial pressure.
The worker has also raised questions about his remuneration.
He alleges that between 2022 and December 2025, he was made to work throughout the month but was paid only Rs 600.
He has questioned the legal basis for such a payment and demanded an investigation into how the amount was sanctioned.
According to the worker, state labour rules prescribe minimum wage rates for unskilled workers that are substantially higher than the amount he allegedly received.
He has therefore asked the authorities to determine under what rules Rs 600 per month was allocated in his name and who approved the payments.
The worker has also challenged the hospital administration’s version of his employment history.
The hospital superintendent, Maheshwar Mandi, said the worker’s claim that he had been working since 1996 was incorrect. According to the superintendent, the worker had been engaged on a wage basis since 2016-17.
Mandi also denied that HIV status had anything to do with the worker’s employment.
He said several people living with HIV work at the hospital and that no one had been stopped from attending work because of their HIV status.
The superintendent claimed that the worker had stopped coming to work voluntarily.
However, the worker has strongly disputed that version. He alleges that the superintendent had told him in the presence of other employees that he could not be retained because he was HIV-positive.
He has said that documents supporting his employment history have been submitted to the state government and Health Department. He has also referred to duty rosters prepared by the ward master in which his name allegedly appears.
He has called for an official investigation to establish which version of events is correct.
The allegations have now reached the state Health Minister.
Minister Shardwat Mukherjee said that discrimination against people living with HIV in healthcare settings has become a serious social problem.
He referred to an earlier case involving a medical student who was allegedly isolated after being diagnosed with HIV. According to the minister, the Health Department had intervened after receiving a complaint in that case.
Regarding the Ghatal case, the minister said appropriate action would be taken if the allegations were substantiated.
He also stressed that HIV cannot be transmitted through ordinary physical contact such as hugging an infected person.
The minister’s comments have brought renewed attention to the issue of HIV-related discrimination in workplaces and healthcare institutions.
The Ghatal case now raises two separate questions.
The first concerns whether the health worker was removed or prevented from working because of his HIV status. The second concerns his allegation that he was paid only Rs 600 for an entire month of work over several years.
Both issues may require an examination of official employment records, duty rosters, payment documents and medical records.
The hospital administration has denied discrimination, while the worker has maintained that his HIV status was directly cited as the reason for removing him from work.
An official investigation could therefore determine whether the allegations are supported by documentary evidence.
For the worker and his family, the issue has become an urgent livelihood concern. For the health system, the case has raised a broader question about workplace discrimination against people living with HIV.
The state government’s response will now be closely watched, particularly in light of the Health Minister’s assurance that discrimination will not be tolerated if the allegations are established.
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