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HIV-positive children driven out
of school in Kerala
Parents of students force school
to expel five HIV positive children,
embarrass literate Kerala.
30 June, 2007:
Awareness campaigns come and go, but
leave no impact. This is the message
the sleepy hamlet of Pambady in
central Kerala sends out to the world.
Local newspapers in Kerala have been
giving prominent space to one of the
most shameful episodes in literate
Kerala’s history. The news focused on
five HIV-positive children being
driven out of a school here after
protests from parents of other
children. The Mar Dionysius LP School
near Pampady district had dismissed
the children after people threatened
to withdraw their children from the
school if the infected children
continued to study in the school.
On June 28, 2007, the Kerala High
Court admitted a petition against the
ostracism of the children. According
to reports, a HC Division Bench
comprising Chief Justice H L Dattu and
K T Shankaran issued notices to the
authorities of Mar Dionysius Primary
School at Pampady and the State
Government to explain the steps taken
by them to ensure the continued
schooling of the children.
The legal twist came courtesy of a
plea filed in the HC by Foundation for
the Integrated Research on Mental
Health (FIRM), based in the state
capital. The plea requested guidelines
for the education of the HIV positive
children.
Rewind to the start of the episode, in
case you didn’t know. The five
HIV-positive kids were given admission
during the current academic year after
the intervention by social activists.
Soon, a hitch arose as parents came to
know, and objected. The kids found
themselves not being able to attend
regular classes after the first day as
the parents of other children
threatened to withdraw their kids.
The children at the centre stage of
the whole story are: A boy who got
admission to kindergarten, two girls
in Class 2 and two girls in Class 4.
These kids are inmates of Asha Kiran,
an NGO formed run by the Kottayam
District Orphanage Association.
While the Parents-Teachers Association
of the school set up a five-member
committee to resolve the issue under
the initiative of Bishop Poulose Mar
Pakomios, manager of the Malankara
Orthodox Church Schools that manages
the Mar Dionysius School, the National
Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has
called for a report from the state
government on the plight of the kids.
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