The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : `Breaking news' forces AIDS patient to hide

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Dec 19, 2006
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

`Breaking news' forces AIDS patient to hide

Marri Ramu

Woman disappears with 4-year-old son after TV channels reported that the boy was sent away from school since he had AIDS

CONFLICTING VERSIONS: Anganwadi teacher K. Swaroopa (extreme right) giving her version of the incident in Hyderabad. — Photo: Mohd. Yousuf

HYDERABAD: Excessive media attention forced a HIV positive widow to go underground along with her four-year-old son leaving her family members in distress at Subhashnagar in Alwal.

Recently, some television channels telecast news that the boy was sent away from the local `anganwadi', a Government run pre-school centre, by the teacher since he was HIV positive. The `breaking story' fell flat when the Government officials found that the teacher K. Swaroopa had no inkling of the boy's health and that he was never on the school rolls.

With officials, NGOs and newsmen knocking at her doors with probing questions, the embarrassed widow disappeared with the son, her worried foster parents Srinivas and Umavathi told The Hindu on Thursday.

"Our daughter is HIV positive, not our grandson. The media glare made her retreat in humiliation," they explained.

Umavathi took her grandson to the pre-school centre seven months ago. But, she brought him back the same day, as he started crying for his mother. Srinivas maintained the boy was never debarred from the `anganwadi.'

Ms. Swaroopa also said the boy was not on the rolls of the centre and denied charges of throwing him out. "Only during the inquiries by my higher-ups did I learn that the woman had tested positive for AIDS," she claimed.

The old couple believe their late son-in-law had contracted AIDS prior to the marriage.

After her husband's death, the woman filed a case accusing her in-laws of cheating her. "If the media wants to help us, let it question my daughter's in-laws.

This will make people understand how some HIV positive persons are spoiling others' lives by concealing facts," they said.

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