By Bappa Majumdar KOLKATA, India, Dec 22 (Reuters) - Hundreds of impoverished Muslim women are flocking to India's only all-female hospital in the eastern city of Kolkata to seek advice on family planning, preventing HIV/AIDS and other ailments. Conservative Muslim women are more comfortable discussing these issues in a female-only environment, doctors and patients at the Mission Hospital said on Friday. "Some come secretly without telling their husbands, but almost all of them say they have two children and do not want more," Gouri Kumra, a senior gynaecologist at the hospital, said. "Things are changing and it is remarkable to see Muslim women from poor economic backgrounds talk about family planning and contraceptives," Kumra added. Poorer women from other communities also visit the 50-bed hospital, run by the Association of Medical Women in India, but most patients are from nearby Muslim-dominated areas. "We are definitely more comfortable learning about HIV/AIDS and other gynaecological problems from the doctors in this hospital than anywhere else," Anjumara Khatoon, wearing a head-to-toe black burqa, said as she waited in a crowded consultation room. Khatoon was leading a group of women from a remote village south of Kolkata. Of 5.7 million people living with HIV in India -- which the United Nations says has the world's biggest caseload -- 40 percent are women. Muslims make up around 13 percent of officially secular India's 1.1-billion population and many women wear burqas or the veil. Their weak economic and social status can result in their health problems being ignored, a problem also faced by poor women in other religious communities, medical professionals say. A study by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the state of Muslims in India revealed last month how Muslim women wearing a face veil or full-body burqa complained of facing hostility at markets, hospitals and schools and found it hard to get a job. In the Mission Hospital, it is different. When Muslim women meet female doctors, they remove their veils and are less inhibited about discussing their problems, staff members say. The hospital, which employs only women and is run by an 84-year-old matron, charges a nominal 75 rupees ($1.70) per day, and desperately needs modern equipment. "There could be better opportunities elsewhere, but here you get to treat so many poor women who perhaps have no one else to turn to in times of need," said chief accountant Alpana Das. ($1=44.60 rupees) ((Editing by Kamil Zaheer and Karen Iley; Reuters Messaging: Messaging:bappa.majumdar.reuters.com@reuters.net;+91 9831608877))
