According to UNAIDS statistics, there are approximately 2.1 million people in India living with HIV; in fact, more than forty percent of this population consist of women. Such findings may be correlated to: biological factors, cultural beliefs, husband infidelities, or lack of sexual health awareness. Research findings also reported that women living with HIV typically do not disclose their status to others until they are visibly ill.

          Fear of HIV stigma restrict many from knowing their status, disclosing their status, or even seeking medical attention. Individuals living with HIV are subjected to harsh stigmatization and discrimination from others. Such stigmatization diminishes the individual social identity and reinforce social inequalities. This pervasive phenomenon, HIV stigma, may be due to low HIV awareness or misunderstandings relating to the modes of HIV transmission. HIV stigma hinders the effectiveness of HIV prevention and treatment programs.

          The aim of my global health project is to find the correlation between pregnant women education level and their perceived stigma towards HIV. My alternative hypothesis is: women with greater than primary education have low perceived HIV stigma compared to women who have a primary or no education.  The sample size consisted of 1,675 pregnant women from the rural areas of southern India. Each participant completed a survey containing questions relating to general HIV knowledge and HIV self-stigma. The data for my project was kindly collected by the staff of Public Health Institute of India. Hopefully by shedding light on HIV stigma HIV will no longer be a social taboo in India.