A British colonial era law in India that criminalises homosexuality is “not acceptable” and scrapping it is “fundamental” to the fight against AIDS, the country’s top official leading efforts to end the disease said. Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in jail for men having gay sex.

“This is not acceptable. Section 377 is quite an anachronism,” Sujatha Rao, the chief of the state-run National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO), said. She termed the law ‘“hateful”. The law, enacted in 1861 by British colonial rulers, is being challenged in New Delhi’s High Court by an Indian anti-AIDS voluntary group. Activists say policemen use Section 377 to extract money from gay men sitting in parks or lanes and the threat of penal action only compounds the problems of social stigma and discrimination the sexual minority faces in India. India’s population of men having sex with men (MSM) is estimated to be about 2.5 million but says it could be far higher. It estimates that around 25 percent of MSM are HIV positive.