Obstinate panchayat members of Kameswaram in the Keezhvelur block nipped a nascent effort by COHAJ Hospital for admitting HIV-infected children to a government-aided school by staging a vehement protest.
When the St. Anne’s Congregation of Tiruchi mooted a plan to throw open its vast COHAJ Hospital campus — established as part of the Tsunami rehabilitation in Kameswaram village — for the care of HIV-infected children, it also wanted school admissions for these children in its vicinity.
“When we approached the PLWHA (People Living with HIV/AIDS) network in Nagapattinam, they requested us to provide shelter for ten children, who had been orphaned or semi-orphaned, and a few infected children. These children lacked access to three meals a day and nutrition,” said the resident doctor of COHAJ, who did not want to be named.
However, all hell broke loose when COHAJ Hospital approached St. Sebastian High School at Kameswaram for admissions to the children.
In schools, it is only the headmaster and the teachers, who are to be informed about the health status of such children so as to protect the uninfected children while paying additional care to the infected ones. The school committed the mistake of revealing the health status of these children, whipping up emotions.
According to Arokyadas, headmaster of the school: “The school could not have withstood the opposition. Passions were running high and the PTA meeting convened to discuss the issue saw over 600 people in attendance. All these years, barely a few attended these meetings.” The school itself is located on community land and depends on panchayat funds. “If I had admitted them, all 666 students of the school would have taken their TC (transfer certificate),” he told The Hindu . However, under the orders of the Collector, the Chief Education Officer directed the school to admit the children. The villagers staunchly opposed the move. Attempts to get the children admitted to the adjoining Panchayat Union Middle school of Vizhundhumaavadi failed.
Irked at the pressure from the administration, the panchayat presidents and ‘naatammais’ (traditional village heads) of Kameswaram, Vizhundhumaavadi, and P.R. Puram met the Collector to convey their objections, and also issued a call for village blockade.
What started as an opposition to the children’s school admission soon flared with the villagers opposing the kids being brought inside the village under the care of the COHAJ Hospital. “Ours is private property, yet they would not let us have the children within our campus,” said the doctor of COHAJ.
The administration was forced to retreat and the hospital dropped the move fearing social segregation of the children. The ten children have now been taken under the care of a home in Tiruchi.
According to Elango, who championed the cause of these children, it was “lack of awareness.” When it was pointed out that the panchayats might have actually lost an opportunity for creating such awareness, he said: “When my father died of cancer, people thought cancer was contagious and refused to carry his body…”
“The issue needs advocacy and lack of awareness is no defence. It is the stigma that needs to be rooted out,” said a member of PLWHA network.
