By Ranjit Devraj
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, India, Jul 30 2004 (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.

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