HIV positive students face villagers' wrath due to local NGOs mistakes

July 16, 2009

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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