Students with HIV face villagers' wrath in India

Mumbai: Misinformation by official agencies, doctors' behaviour and an
overzealous NGO led to villagers demanding that eight students with HIV be
expelled from a school in the Latur district of Maharashtra, says an Aids
activist.

A recent incident in Hasegaon village has received a lot of attention because of
the ostracism children with HIV face.

"A visit to the village on July 12 to make a first-hand assessment revealed a
gross mistake, though unwitting, on the part of Aamhi Sevak, a local NGO, that
had put up a board about its project for HIV children at the entrance of the
school," said Dr Ishwar Gilada, Honorary Secretary of People's Health
Organisation (PHO) and Aids Society of India.

"The aggressive publicising of the NGO in the print and electronic media of its
project Sevalaya [temple of service] that cares for HIV-positive children and
putting them in the local school made villagers oppose their admission," he
said.

Gilada feels villagers' views are based on myths and misconceptions perpetrated
by the doctors in the area and official propaganda about HIV/Aids that often
becomes counterproductive.

For example, posters of Maharashtra State Aids Control Society outside the
district hospital boast of an Aids-free state: Aim not Dream.

This idea could be interpreted as an Aids-free town, Aids-free village and
Aids-free school. "Why blame the villagers?"

Villagers have also been questioning why two corpses were wrapped in thick
polythene and sprinkled with bleach. "The doctors even told the villagers not to
touch the bodies and asked them to be disposed off as quickly as possible.

"Moreover, ambiguous answers to [the] question [of] whether an HIV-negative
child would contract the disease if an HIV-positive bites or scratches when
fighting or playing have sent wrong signals," Gilada said.

The villagers also wondered why Aamhi Sevak activists sent their own children to
far-off schools rather than this particular school.

Furthermore, a local minister stated that a separate facility would be created
for children with HIV.

"What will help to resolve such issues would be a non-political,
non-authoritarian simple human approach through dialogue with
villagers-especially by answering all their simple queries," said Gilada.

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