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INTRODUCTION 1.1. A BRIEF OVERVIEW Human Immunodeficiency virus (HIV) enters the human body and slowly affects the body s ability to fight against infections or disease thereby the immune capacity. An advanced stage of this infection is known as Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) characterized by a group of symptoms, opportunistic infections, or a low level of CD4 cell counts in the body (NACO, 2018). Several modes through which this infection takes place include unprotected sex with an HIV infected person, transmission of HIV infected blood or blood products, sharing of needles contaminated with HIV infected blood, and from HIV infected mother to her baby during pregnancy, during birth, or after delivery through breast milk (NACO, 2018). According to Indian HIV estimation (IHV) 2017 report, estimated prevalence of HIV in adults in the age range of 15-49 years at the national level is 0.22 % with 0.25 % among males and 0.19 % among females in India (NACO and ICMR, NIMS, 2018). It is estimated that number of people living with HIV in India in 2017 is 2.14 million among which 0.9 million are women. Similarly, the HIV 2017 report 2017 has estimated the number of new HIV infections and AIDS related death to be around 87.58 thousand and 69.11 thousand respectively in the year 2017 nationally (NACO and ICMR-NIMS, 2018). Stigma and social discrimination attached with this disease makes it onerous to deliver the services related to prevention, treatment, care, support, and management aspects of it. The figures are alarming, circumstances are critical, and thus, the need of the hour is take immediate steps, both at community and individual level, to confront the situation emphatically on a psychosocial group as well along with the biomedical approach (Fortunato JE. 1987). Social Support, Self- Esteem, Depression, Optimism and Quality of Life in People Living with HIV/AIDS in Relation to their Religiosity 2 Wright and miller (2010) argue that in the case of life threatening diseases such as HIV/AIDS, individuals may benefit more from the people who are not in their close personal network. In other words, benefits of bridging social capital outweigh the advantages of bonding social capital in such situations. Communities with high rates of HIV prevalence may see HIV/AIDS as a collective responsibility (Frumence et al. 2010) and hence they develop more realistic perspectives about HIV/AIDS and new coping mechanism (Mutembei, Emmelin, Iugalla, and Dahlgren, 2002) in their collective actions against HIV management. In this regard, some of the psychological variables such as self- efficacy, perceived control, health beliefs. To name a few which have been proved instrumental in managing HIV/AIDS at the individual level can be incorporated in the models describing the collective efforts of the communities as such. This sort of assimilation may corroborate their actions aimed at managing the crippling effects of HIV/AIDS. Muriisa and Ishtiaq (2010) have studied the process of social capital building and its outcomes in the context of HIV/AIDS. The social relationships with the treatment partners, family members, friends, and the health-care provides were found to be beneficial in prioritizing adherence among the HIV-infected person in sub-saharan Africa facing the extreme poverty (Ware et al., 2009). 1.2. SOCIAL SUPPORT Davis and Lopata (1996) suggest that Social Support implies to all age groups, specially children, women and old people. Children who have lost their parents in infancy experience loneliness unhappiness as the support received by parents during infancy has been lacking. Similarly women need more social support especially women whose children have been more young who are working, who are pregnant or,

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