- Author
- Human Rights Watch
- Title
- Future Forsaken: Abuses Against Children Affected by HIV/AIDS in India
- Imprint
- Human Rights Watch, © 2004, 219 pp
- ISBN/ISSN
- 1-56432-326-9
- Description
Reproduced with the kind permission of Human Rights Watch.
- Abstract
"Millions of Indians, including at least hundreds of thousands of children, are living with human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS). Many more children are otherwise seriously affected by India’s burgeoning epidemic when they are forced to withdraw from school to care for sick parents, are forced to work to replace their parents’ income, or are orphaned (losing one or both parents to AIDS). Yet HIV/AIDS-affected children, including those living with the disease, are nearly invisible in the Indian government’s policy response to the country’s devastating epidemic. Children affected by HIV/AIDS are being discriminated against in education and health services, denied care by orphanages, and pushed onto the streets and into the worst forms of child labor. Gender discrimination makes girls more vulnerable to HIV transmission and makes it more difficult for them to get care. Many children, especially the most vulnerable, as well as the professionals who care for them, are not getting the information about HIV they need to protect themselves or to combat discrimination. This report documents abuses against India’s HIV/AIDS-affected children and calls on the Indian government to recognize their plight and to take immediate action to protect them from discrimination and exploitation."