Gujarat: Orphanage expels two HIV-positive boys

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Indian orphanage expels two HIV-positive boys

20 Oct 2006 08:34:43 GMT

AHMEDABAD, India, Oct 20 (Reuters) - Two HIV-positive boys have been

forced to leave an orphanage in India's Gujarat state after staff

said they posed an unacceptable risk to the safety of other

children, an official said on Friday.

" I am sad and sorry for them. Children play, eat and fight we cannot

take chances, others can get infected, " V. Vachonidhi, secretary of

an orphanage run by Arya Samaj, a Hindu reform movement, told

Reuters.

The two boys, aged six and nine, are now with relatives after

leaving the home in the town Kutch, 450 km (280 miles) west of the

state capital, Ahmedabad, where they had lived for four years with

about 150 other children.

Staff could not tell Reuters what had happened to their parents or

how they had become infected with the HIV virus.

The Indian " network for people living with HIV " said it would launch

a legal challenge.

In India families often disown HIV-positive family members, and the

children of HIV/AIDS patients have been thrown out of schools.

Landlords have refused to rent houses those infected.

India has the world's highest national HIV/AIDS caseload with 5.7

million infected people.

Although the country reported its first case over 20 years ago, many

sufferers still face acute stigma due to a lack of awareness and

misconceptions about the disease.

" We will make sure that the boys receive the best of medical

treatment and a healthy upbringing, " said Uma shankar Pandey, who

works to improve awareness of HIV/AIDS in the state.

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HIV+ kids thrown out of Gujarat orphanage

Rathin Das

Ahmedabad, October 20, 2006

An orphanage in Gandhidham in Kutch district of Gujarat asked two minor boys to

leave after they tested positive for HIV.

The brothers, aged six and nine, were brought to the Jeevan Prabhat orphanage,

run by the local Arya Samaj, about three months ago by their maternal uncle.

Since the boys were constantly falling ill, doctors recommended that they be

tested for the HIV virus. Alarmed with the positive results, the Arya Samaj

authorities contacted their uncle who refused to take any responsibility.

The boys were finally handed over to a local NGO, the Kutch Network of Positive

People (KNPP), and are now living with a volunteer.

Justifying the orphanage’s action, Vachonidhi Arya of the Gandhidham Arya Samaj,

said: “Children aged from 4 to 16 years live here. The others might get infected

by the two boys. We just didn’t want to take a risk.”

The orphanage houses 162 children orphaned by the 2001 Gujarat quake. “Our

orphanage is not a project for the care of HIV positive people,” added Arya.

KNPP president Uma Shanker Pandey said the boys’ mother had died few a years ago

and their father was mentally unstable. The NGO is trying to get bigger agencies

to arrange for their medical and daily care, Pandey told HT.

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