HEALTH-INDIA:
HIV Positive Children Face Severe Discrimination
Ranjit Devraj
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, India, Jul 30 (IPS) - Growing up in India can be hard for most children. But
for those afflicted with the HIV virus, it can prove to be doubly
damning.
Two weeks ago A.K. Antony, Chief Minister of southern Kerala,
the
Indian state which boasts 95 percent literacy and has human
development indices comparable to that in developed western
countries had to intervene to ensure that eight-year-old Akshara
and
her six-year-old brother Ananthakrishnan could continue
attending
school after testing positive for HIV.
The siblings were not only thrown out of their school in the
Kodiyoor town of Kannur district but were compelled to leave
their
home along with their HIV-positive mother Rema because of
hostility from people in Kodiyoor town.
Such was the fear generated by the two unfortunate children in
Kodiyoor town that people took out processions carrying
banners
that demanding that Akshara and Ananthakrishnan should be
kept
away from the Sree Narayana Lower Primary School (SNLPS).
Antony made a public gesture by shaking hands with the
ostracised children and issuing orders to ensure that they were
not
denied a normal education and given adequate financial
support.
But just how far the gesture would help improve public
attitudes
towards HIV-affected children in the state and indeed in the rest
of
India - where on average 30 percent of children never even get
to
school - is a moot point.
Akshara and Ananthakrishnan could be readmitted to their
school
only after high drama in which groups of parents tried to prevent
their entry. ''I want to go to school like other children and I am not
afraid of having HIV,'' Akshara said.
The siblings were finally allowed into the school by the parents
on
Jul 28 after assurances that they would be confined to a
separate
classroom all by themselves and not allowed to mingle with
their
schoolmates.
Said K.J. Joseph a local leader at Kottiyoor: ''We cannot ignore
the
wishes of the parents of the other children and many of them
have
even threatened to withdraw their wards from the school.''
The management of the Sree Narayana Lower Primary School
(SNLP) was compelled to keep the school closed to prevent
violence pending the government orders.
''We need to change the mindsets of the parents but this going
to
take a long while,'' observed Suresh Gopi a local film star who
presided over a public function which saw money pouring in for
the
children. It certainly is not a problem of funds.
Public attitudes have changed little since last year when Chief
Minister Antony had to intervene similarly on behalf of a brother
and
sister Benson and Bency after they were thrown out of their
school in
Kollam, another Kerala district, after testing positive for HIV.
Bency and Benson, orphaned after their parents died of AIDS,
were lucky that their grandfather, Geevarghese Chandy took it
upon
himself to educate them himself and spare the children more
trauma than can be helped by going to school.
Said Ajith Kumar, Kerala's director of education, '' The
government's stand is clear and it has passed orders directing
that
there should be no discrimination shown towards HIV-positive
children.''
But Kumar admitted that the government was helpless in the
face
of opposition from parents who did not want their put their
children
to risk in spite of what the well-funded information campaigns
have
been bleating about for years now - that HIV does not spread by
casual contact.
A new report released Thursday by the international rights
group
Human Rights Watch on the plight of HIV-affected children in
India
speaks of how schools expel or segregate children because
they or
their parents are HIV-positive.
The 209-page report titled ''Future Forsaken: Abuses Against
Children Affected by HIV/AIDS in India,'' documents how doctors
refuse to treat or even touch HIV-positive children resulting in
their
being pushed out onto the streets to be abused or exploited
thereby
increasing the risk of HIV spread.
''Children are being turned away from schools, clinics and
orphanages because they or their family members are HIV-
postive,''
Zama Coursen-Neff, senior researcher with HRW"s Children's
Rights Division and author of the new repor told IPS in an
interview.
''If the Indian government is serious about fighting the country's
AIDS epidemic, it should stop ignoring children affected and
start
protecting them from abuse,'' Coursen-Neff said.
The study noted that the Indian government has not conducted
studies to assess the number of children affected AIDS though
some experts calculate that more than one million children
under
the age of 15 have lost one or both children from HIV/AIDS.
But ''Future forsaken'' recorded the testimony of Anu, a six year-
old
girl from western Maharashtra state who was sent home by her
teacher because she believed the child may have contracted HIV
because her parents had died of AIDS.
''When I went to school, I sat separately from other children on
the
last mat. I sat alone. The other children wanted to be with me but
the
teacher would tell them not to play with me,'' ten-year-old
Sharmila
from southern Tamil Nadu state said in another testimony.
Sharmil
died in January after developing tuberculosis.
The new study noted that fewer than half of all secondary
schools
offer any AIDS education and those that do teach about HIV/AIDS
do
so at an age when most children, especially girls, have already
dropped out.
''Many teachers, doctors, government officials and ordinary
people
in India still don't know the basic facts about HIV transmission
and
AIDS care,'' Coursen-Neff said. (END/2004)
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