The stigma around HIV positive people has been there since the beginning. The discrimination is so immense that people living with it are often pushed towards depression and end up feeling unwanted. But this is not how it should be. People should rather be welcoming towards them. And Café Positive in Kolkata is teaching us exactly the same.

Café Positive came into inception last year and it is the first café in Asia which is run and operated solely by HIV positive people. It was founded by Kallol Ghosh who also came up with Anandaghar, a shelter for people living with HIV.

Forming the café was not an easy task because when people came to know about the operators, they became hesitant about giving a place to run the business. They roamed around for several months in search of a space and finally a member of the Rotary Club, Kolkata, Indrajyoti Dasgupta rented out his garage space.

In a conversation with Youth Ki Awaaz regarding the same, Kallol said: “We started searching for prominent locations for our coffee shop in South Calcutta like – Gariahat, Ballygunge, Dover lane, Hindustan Park, Golpark but everyone refused to rent us a space citing ‘problems to be caused by the neighbourhood’. One morning, a call came from a friend of mine who was ready to rent his garage space of 120 sq ft. to us for the shop and finally, we were able to set up the shop at Jodhpur Park.”

The workers here are young and enthusiastic and today they are independent too. Café Positive has given them an opportunity to prove the world that they belong here and have the right to work shoulder to shoulder with everyone else. They are earning a living and walking down the streets with their heads held high and that’s what makes us proud of this café.

We are also proud of the visitors of the café for keeping the taboo aside and accepting them the way they are. Hope others too leave the stigma behind and only generate positivity.

Image Courtesy: Cafe Positive Facebook