India school Aids boycott

India school Aids boycott

Officials in the Indian state of Kerala are trying to resolve a dispute in where parents are boycotting a school which admitted two HIV-positive children.

Bency, seven, and her brother Benson, five, were admitted to the school 10 days ago after the state's Chief Minister, AK Antony, intervened on their behalf.

But protesting parents, have kept all the other children out of the Kummanaloor school in the Kollam district.

Now the siblings are now the only students attending classes.

The local village council chief is demanding that the two HIV-infected children be removed before other students can return.

Boycott

Bency and Benson lost their parents to Aids and have been trying to join a school for the past two years.

We will have to undertake a massive awareness drive in the area

HIV-Aids activist MN Gunavardhan

But because of their own HIV infections, no school would accept them.

On 14 February, the children and their grand father Geevarghese John staged a day-long fast in front of Chief Minister Antony's office seeking his help.

He then intervened on their behalf and Kummanaloor school open its doors to the children.

But on 19 February, the parents of the other children began their boycott of the school demanding the withdrawal of the HIV-infected siblings.

'Fear and ignorance'

The BBC's Venkitesh Ramakrishnan in Thiruvanthapuram says the Aids Control Society in Kerala has been trying to counter mistaken fears of HIV-Aids, but with limited success.

HIV-Aids remain a source of much fear in India

MN Gunavardhan, a Society official, said ignorance of how the disease spread was driving the people of the area to extreme measures.

"We will have to undertake a massive awareness drive in the area," he said.

"But how much effect that will have remains to be seen."