Chennai: College sacks four hostel staff for testing positive for HIV

[Guest guest]

Dear Forum,

The below mentioned news is shocking. It is a clear case of breach of the

protocols for testing and how can the college management test all staff for HIV

with out getting their consent?. Can they do this among the students also?

The state health authorities and TANSACS Project director should probe this

incident.

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College sacks four hostel staff for testing positive for HIV

CHENNAI: In these days of recession, pink slips are not uncommon. But a

well-known college in Tamil Nadu's a southern district of Dindigul,

sacked four of its hostel staff -- cooks and kitchen assistants -- because they

tested HIV positive.

The incident which smacks of discrimination has snatched four staff members,

including a woman, of their livelihood. They are now either working as daily

wage coolies in fields and on construction sites or desperately searching for

jobs.

About a month ago, the management of the P S N A college of engineering and

technology in Muthanampatty insisted on putting the hostel staff through a

general medical check which also included a HIV test. Four of them tested

positive, including a woman. All four were given the sacking orders on January

13, a day before the Pongal festival. They had been drawing monthly salaries of

about Rs. 3,000.

S Ramakrishnan, the college's special officer, admitted he had given the four

staff members the sacking orders. " We have sacked them. They are cooking for

2,000 hostel students. We cannot take the risk of having HIV positive cooks

working in the college mess, " he told The Times of India. When it was pointed

out to him that HIV did not spread through food, Ramakrishnan quipped: " I can't

fool around with the health of so many students. "

A Rajrathinam, an HIV activist in Dindigul, pointed out that it was a pathetic

case of poor people being helpless about fighting back. " It also shows the

ignorance of educated people and the stigma that is still attached to the

disease, " he said.

Dr. G Rohini, the medical officer in-charge of the ART centre in the Dindigul

government hospital, said she had the medical records of three of the four staff

members. " All three have tested positive for HIV. "

Meanwhile, 38-year-old Muthammal (name changed), a widow hailing from

Chengurichi hamlet, near Dindigul, among the four sacked staff members, is a

dejected woman. " I don't know where to go for a job, " she said. Her husband died

of HIV a few years ago. She is now dependant on her old parents, daily wage

earners in tamarind units.

Well-known lawyer, Anand Grover, who has argued several cases in favour of

sacked HIV positive persons, said the act of the college was " totally illegal. "

In several landmark judgments, the Mumbai and Delhi high courts have ruled that

a person living with HIV could not be denied opportunity of employment merely on

ground of his HIV+ status, he said.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/HIVve_staff_sacked_in_Chennai_college/\

articleshow/4034064.cms

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Dr.S.Raman