India Failing to Protect HIV/AIDS Affected Children: Human Rights Watch
Copyright 2004 Agence France Presse  
Agence France Presse -- English
July 28, 2004 Wednesday 4:04 PM Eastern Time

An international rights group Thursday accused India of failing to protect children affected by HIV/AIDS, saying they face widespread abuses including being denied entry to schools.

US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) in a report released here Thursday entitled "Future Forsaken: Abuses Against Children Affected by HIV/AIDS in India", said said some schools expel or segregate children because they or their parents are HIV-positive.

Many doctors refuse to treat or even touch HIV-positive children while orphanages and residential institutions reject them, HRW said in its 209-page report.

"Children are being turned away from schools, clinics and orphanages because they or their family members are HIV-positive," said Zama Coursen-Neff, senior researcher with HRW's children's rights division and author of the report.

An AFP correspondent this week visited a school in the village of Kottiyoor, in southern Kerala state, where two children affected by HIV/AIDS have finally been admitted to a government-funded school after months of protests by parents of other children.

However, the school authorities said six-year-old S. Ananthakrishnan and his sister, nine-year-old R. Akshara, would be segregated from classmates and taught in a separate classroom by a specially appointed teacher.

At least 5.1 million Indians are living with HIV/AIDS, just less than the 5.3 million in South Africa, the country with the most HIV-positive people, according to official figures released earlier this month.

Although the Indian government keeps no official records, some experts say more than a million children under the age of 15 have lost one or both parents to HIV/AIDS, the report said.

It said India was "utterly failing to provide information (about HIV prevention) to millions of India's children who are not in school, but on the streets, at work, in institutions, in non-formal schools and at home."

"Children need accurate information to protect themselves from HIV/AIDS," Coursen-Neff said.

"But the most vulnerable children are those whove dropped out of school, and theyre the ones who are least likely to get lifesaving information about HIV prevention."

Sexual abuse and violence against women and girls, coupled with their long-standing subordination in Indian society, make them especially vulnerable to HIV transmission, the report said.

Girls are also more likely to be pulled out of school to care for a sick family member or to take over domestic work, it said.

Street children, child sex workers, children of sex workers and children from lower castes and Dalits -- the lowest strata in India's caste hierarchy -- were also vulnerable, the report added.

But their needs are not taken care of as their illness is blamed on their "bad behavior," it said.

"If the Indian government is serious about fighting the country's AIDS epidemic, it should stop ignoring children affected by AIDS and start protecting them from abuse," the report said while urging New Delhi to pass a law proscribing such discrimination.

"Many teachers, doctors, government officials and ordinary people in India still don't know the basic facts about HIV transmission and AIDS care," Coursen-Neff said.

The group in its report called on the government to ensure through legislation that children are never barred from school solely because they are HIV-positive.

It also called on the government to fund education and related costs that keep children, especially girls, from going to school. Children in school are generally less vulnerable to HIV/AIDS, the group said.