Orphaned by AIDS, kids forced to live with dead
Five children have been forced out of their home and village after their parents died of AIDS and the villagers feared that the “disease” may spread.
The children, four boys and one girl, are now living in a graveyard and depend on leftover food from villagers for survival.
The incident took place in Jamua village in Pratapgarh district.
According to sources, the father of the children had died two years ago and their mother died a few months ago. After the relatives came to know that both had died due to AIDS, they promptly drove the kids out of the house and the village.
The eldest child is a boy aged about 16 years and the youngest is just seven years old.
With nowhere to go and no one to turn to, the children started living in a local graveyard with a torn tarpaulin as a shelter over their head. The children are not allowed to seek work since the local people feel they are carriers of the deadly virus.
“No one gives us work and we are not allowed to mingle with anyone because they say we are carrying the infection. Some local people give us leftover food and we are surviving on it,” said one of the children.
The children may soon lose their shelter in the graveyard too because some local leader feel that they may be “contaminating” the graves there.
When the plight of the children was brought to the notice of some senior government officials on Friday, the ADM of Pratapgarh said he would soon allot them a house under the Indira Awas Yojna and would also make an effort to bring the children back into the social mainstream.
Pratapgarh CMO Vinod Kumar Pandey said on Friday that he would soon send a medical team to ascertain the health of the children and then set up camps to make the local people aware of the facts on AIDS.
“We will tell the people that AIDS is not an infectious disease and the children should be allowed to live as normal kids,” he said.
Meanwhile, UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav said that he had directed officials to open bank accounts for the children and deposit a sum of `1 lakh each. “And till they are given a house, the children will be shifted to a government guest house,” he said.
The children will also be given BPL (below poverty line) cards so they can get food and other benefits.
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