World | India
Students with HIV face villagers' wrath in India
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.
- By Pamela Raghunath, Correspondent
- Published: 22:41 July 15, 2009
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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