Punjab is listed as a low-risk state for HIV according to India’s National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO). But talking to people and meeting experts suggests that NACO’s figures are very conservative. The group at greatest risk for HIV in Punjab are truck drivers. There's also a growing number of injecting drug users.  What happens to widows  and survivors in forgotten towns, remote border villages and small towns once their sole earning members are incapacitated or dead can be heart-breaking. 

Widows of truck drivers and IDUs, HIV positive themselves, struggle to fend for their often positive children. What is striking is that many of these women have a sense of pride and are not easily defeated, whether they live in the state capital of  Chandigarh or in a tiny border town like Narli. Most have found a reason to live and refuse to feel sorry for themselves.

This  documentary was produced in partnership with Panos (India) and GAP as part of its media training programme . It was telecast on CNN-IBN , a leading national television channel in India.

Link to video: Punjabs forgotten women: a lonely war against aids