The Supreme Court on Friday asked all states to give special consideration to children affected with HIV or living with HIV. The order came on the heels of a petition filed by the Naz Foundation, which alleged that children affected by HIV or living with those affected with HIV were “routinely denied” their rights at an “alarming regularity”.
“We are of a prima facie view that the state governments need to consider issuance of notification to include children living with or affected by HIV as belonging to disadvantaged group under the provisions of the Right to Education Act,” a bench of Chief Justice JS Khehar and Justice DY Chandrachud said.
The bench asked the Union to direct the states to issue a notification to this effect within four weeks. The apex court added that states disinclined to do so would be required to give in writing, their reasons for the same.
So far, at least 12 states and one Union Territory have already included the affected children in the disadvantaged group. Under the Right to Education Act, which accrues certain rights to all children, “certain additional rights if they are declared to be belonging to disadvantaged group by a notification issued by state government under the Act” are bestowed too. Once included, the state is obligated to ensure that there is no discrimination against the children.
Anand Grover, Senior Advocate appearing for Naz Foundation said that children living with or those affected by the virus were segregated, suspended or in many cases even expelled from school. There were instances where they were publicly ridiculed, humiliated and their right to confidentiality was breached.
In its plea, the NGO had also sought guidelines to prevent any kind of discrimination against students owing to them or their parents or guardians being infected by the virus.
According to a National Aids Control Organisation (NACO) report, in 2011, an estimated 20.9 lakh people in India were HIV-positive. Of those, almost seven per cent or 1.45 lakh were children who were less than 15 years of age.
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