Participants in the hearing in Imphal on Thursday. Picture by Eastern Projections

Imphal, Sept. 4: Yumnam Rita Devi (name changed) is shunned by her classmates in a private school.

This Class VII student is not HIV positive, but she is an outcast in her Imphal East locality. The reason: Her mother is a widow with HIV.

Like Rita, many children, whose parents are living with the dreaded disease in different parts of Manipur, are discriminated against and stigmatised despite programmes by AIDS workers.

A public hearing on issues and challenges faced by children infected and affected by HIV/AIDS was held at Imphal's Gandhi Memorial auditorium today. Chairperson of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, Santha Sinha, chaired the hearing, where parents and children said they found coping with the stigma more difficult than fighting the virus.

“Rita’s classmates refuse to share food with my daughter. Girls of the locality do not play with her either, though she is not affected. They accuse her of being positive because of my HIV status,” Rita’s mother Rani Devi (name changed) said.

“Similarly, N. Haokip (name changed), a widow from Senapati district and living with her six-year-old HIV-positive son, said they faced the same kind of discrimination. After her husband, a drug addict, died two years ago, she was driven out of the house. Her parents refused to accept her.

NGOs working in the field of HIV and AIDS brought victims of the disease before the national commission leader to narrate their ordeals.

Many of them, living away from home, complained that they could not give proper education to their children as they were spending whatever little income they earned on anti-retroviral drug.

To supplement their income, some of them have formed self-help groups and taken up joint projects. A majority of those who gave their testimony are living separately and lead a hand-to-mouth existence.

According to statistics available with the Manipur AIDS Control Society, 29,147 people, including 7,513 women, have tested positive for HIV till March this year.

Nearly 500 people have died of AIDS in the state.

Sinha urged the state government and NGOs to ensure a more “effective” support system.