The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Comprehensive policy to support children afflicted with HIV/AIDS

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Dec 30, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Comprehensive policy to support children afflicted with HIV/AIDS

Ramya Kannan

TANSACS zeroes in on framework that will address their needs

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu is evolving the country’s first State-level comprehensive policy to support children afflicted with HIV/AIDS, beginning right at the conception stage.

With an estimated 4,000 children falling in either group in the State, the Tamil Nadu State AIDS Control Society has zeroed in on a framework that would address their needs and provide systemic support structures.

The Tamil Nadu policy will take off from the existing broad national framework and concretise the guidelines with actual implementation strategies, TANSACS director Supriya Sahu said.

‘Life-cycle’ approach

At the core of the new policy is a ‘life-cycle’ approach that will place interventions in the following categories: primary prevention-to prevent infection to women, preventing transmission to newborn from pregnant positive women, strengthening counselling, testing, education, medical and psychological support for children living with HIV, including orphans, and community care.

The first task would be to identify the children. “We do not have the actual numbers. There are many parents who do not want to reveal the status of the child or are not even aware the child is positive,” Ms. Sahu said.

P. Manorama, who founded the voluntary organisation CHES, agreed. The main reason why there had been no policies for children until recently was because it was believed that the numbers were very few and that the problem in their case was not huge. A mapping, she said, was essential before any policy for children could be implemented.

With the policy hoping to dovetail existing services for children into a comprehensive whole to benefit the children, there were bound to be linkages with clinical services, social security services, institutional services, various government departments and NGOs, Ms. Sahu said.

Dr. Manorama pointed out that when all sectors pitch in, the stigma comes down. Some reconsideration of existing policies too would be warranted. For instance, while the trend is to move away from institutionalisation of children, it may be necessary to find institutions to protect and take care of children orphaned by HIV.

To handle this issue, it has been decided to set up a trust that will mobilise funds and process cases that require immediate help. Its duty is to ensure that children are not left untended for any reason and their every need- medical, educational, nutritional, psychological, societal and emotional – is met.

Dr. Manorama stressed on the importance of creating this trust, especially to take care of orphans.

“The care aspect is voluminous. We do need special funds.”

In about 1200 children CHES has followed up over the years, 70 per cent have parents who are both positive. “This means 700- 800 children are likely to be orphaned over the years. Is our society geared up to handle this? Are there homes who will take all these children in? That is something we have to plan for.”

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