School throws son of AIDS patient
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-07-19 11:41
A six-year-old boy in eastern India was forced to leave school on fears he
was HIV positive after his father was discovered to have been infected,
newspapers reported on Wednesday.
The boy, Sourav Majhi, had his name struck off the rolls days after he was
admitted to the school in a village in West Bengal state's Midnapore district,
despite a health certificate proving he was not infected.
"The secretary of the school came to our house ... he claimed that he knew I
was an AIDS patient and so would not allow Sourav to continue in school," the
boy's father, Debashis Majhi, was quoted as saying in the Indian Express.
"We showed them Sourav's health certificate which clearly states that he does
not have the disease. But the authorities remained adamant, insisting that my
boy is an AIDS patient and therefore would not be allowed to attend school," he
said.
The newspaper said Majhi, who was diagnosed as HIV positive two years ago and
works for a government project on HIV/AIDS, has lodged a complaint against the
government-aided private school with the ministry of health, the newspaper said.
UNAIDS, the United Nation's AIDS-prevention agency, recently said India has
the highest HIV cases in the world, with an estimated 5.7 million people living
with the virus.
There have been reports in the past of HIV/AIDS victims being ostracised by
communities and of schools turning away infected children in other parts of the
country.
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