Kerala schools shun HIV positive pupils

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Dubai:Sunday, February 16, 2003

Kerala schools shun HIV positive pupils

Thiruvananthapuram |By Akhel Mathew | 16-02-2003

Kerala, known for several internationally hailed social indices

including highest literacy rate in India, still treats even hapless

children AIDS/HIV patients as outcast.

The latest victims of social ostracism in the state are seven-and-a-

half-year-old Bency Chandy and her five-and-a-half-year-old brother

Benson, children of a couple from Chathannur in Kollam district who

died of the dreaded disease.

The HIV-positive children had to be to be shifted from one school to

another six times in the last one-and-a-half-years following

objections from parents' associations and teachers. Now they are on

the lookout for a school where they can continue their studies

without interruption.

Their plight came to the public attention on Thursday when they

staged a one-day fast in front of the state secretariat and Chief

Minister A.K. Antony promptly ordered the district collector to

tackle their problem. However, their problem still seems to be far

from solved.

Though medical and AIDS control experts certify that their presence

in school would not pose any danger to other students, school

authorities still shun them.

The experts say that only in case of injuries the disease could

spread through blood. Their presence in the classroom would pose no

threat to others. Nor could the disease spread through saliva.

Not only school authorities and parents but also Pratapavarma

Thampan, MLA from Chathannur, feels that they deserve no

compassion. " AIDS patients should be avoided. They deserve no mercy.

I do not want to waste my precious time going after two AIDS

patients, " says he.

The millions spent on AIDS awareness campaign in the state in the

recent past have not had any positive impact even on a well known

people's representative like Thampan.

Referring to the statement of the grandfather of the children,

Geevarghese Chandy, that the children had now got admitted in yet

another government school and that he feared they would be turned

away from there too, Thampan says: " Wait for two days. Government

schools are suffering from a dearth of students.

" When other students come to know that these children have joined

their school they would quit. Four or five teachers in the school

would be rendered jobless (for want of the fixed minimum number of

pupils) " .

The grandfather says that the MLA objected to even the children

entering his office.

Chandy said the MLA threatened to call the police if he did not leave

his office with the children.

When Thampan's intervention was sought to secure school admission for

the children he shot back: " Are they going to become officers after

their studies? Is it not enough for them to spend their time playing

at home? Why do they study, are not they AIDS patients? "

Chandy said Thampan asked him why he did not dispose of his

properties in Kerala and migrate to the neighbouring state of Tamil

Nadu. " Whey are you so adamant that they should live here? " the MLA

was quoted as saying.

Human Rights Commission chairman Justice Pareed Pillai says that in

case of a complaint about school admission being denied to the

children he would initiate suitable steps. The commission's full

bench would consider the complaint, he says.

Meanwhile, according to an AFP report, M.N. Gunavardhan, a project

controller of Kerala's AIDS Control Society, said the government had

taken serious note of the plight of these children.

" The government will ensure that both Bency and Benson are granted

admission to a local school and we will also ensure that they are

properly rehabilitated, " he said.

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