NHRC asks Government to protect HIV/AIDS affected children

[Guest guest]

NHRC asks Government to protect HIV/AIDS affected children against

discrimination. New Delhi, 11 October 2004

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has asked the Centre and

all the States to take effective measures to protect children affected

by HIV/AIDS especially in the area of education and health care.

Deeply concerned about the discrimination faced by such children, the

Chairperson of the Commission Dr. Justice A.S. Anand has asked that

the following recommendations be considered :

i) Enact and enforce legislation to prevent children living with

HIV/AIDS from being discriminated against, including being barred from

attending schools.

ii) Address school fees and related costs that keep children,

especially girls, from going to school.

iii) Provide all children, both in and out of school, with

comprehensive, accurate and age-appropriate information about HIV/AIDS.

iv) Provide care and protection to children whose parents are unable

to care for them due to HIV/AIDS. Institutional arrangements must be

made for extending medical aid to such children. (Hospitals and

medical professionals should not be allowed to turn away people who

are HIV+ve from being treated).

The above recommendations figured in a recent letter by Justice Anand

to the Human Resource Development Minister, the Health & Family

Welfare Minister, Government of India and to the Chief Ministers of

all the States and Union Territories.

The Commission, in the recent past, has taken suo-motu cognizance and

initiated proceedings in two separate cases both involving a brother

and sister who faced discrimination in their access to education owing

to their HIV+ve status in Kerala. The Commission has also come across

instances from other States in which children were turned away from

schools, clinics and orphanages because they and their family members

are HIV+ve. In particular, there was a case of a six-year old girl who

had been asked not to return to the school and was also refused

treatment by a local doctor in Maharashtra.

The Commission took note of a report by the Human Rights Watch, which

has criticized the Government for doing " little to protect children

already living with HIV/AIDS " and " for virtually ignoring " the

affected children. The report said that children are not an important

factor in policy formulation.

http://nhrc.nic.in/