Source: Leader writer : Chitra Ahanthem
The initiative taken up by the Manipur Network of Positive People to provide a comprehensive package of education, nutrition and medical support for forty children affected by HIV/AIDS is a welcome relief for many parents who cannot afford to send their wards to school, burdened by the costs of their own treatments and a succor to the guardians left in charge of children whose parents have died of HIV/AIDS. And yet, for each one of the forty children who got the said support from the MNP+ led initiative, there are many others who have not got the support that is due to them. This, in many ways reflects the failure of the way HIV/AIDS related programs have been in place in the country. The buzz words for the National AIDS Control Organization (NACO) backed programs have been on “high risk groups” for which “intervention programs” are designed. This means then that when the decision makers were setting out programs, they were looking only at
injecting drug users, migrant workers, sex workers and commercial sex workers. This meant then that nobody was looking at addressing issues and needs of the spouses and sexual partners of the said populations and their offspring. The entry of bilateral donor agencies in the state did address some needs of children affected by HIV/AIDS but comprehensive education support remained elusive. Yet, the basic premise of this initiative being needed reflects too well the deplorable environment of education that exists around us today.
The Sarva Siksha Abhiyaan under the Government of India aims at providing free education to children till the age of 14 years. The scheme has provisions for free school textbooks along with a mid day meal for students in Government schools but in Manipur, parents have more faith in private schools on one hand while on the other, the implementation of the said scheme leaves little to be desired. The preference for private schools stems from the quality of teaching imparted at Government schools and it is no matter of irony that parents teaching at Government schools send their children to private schools. Children belonging to the hill districts are worse off since there are less private schools. The MNP+ led initiative addresses the needs of forty children affected by HIV/AIDS but what of the others who are affected and what of children who are not affected by HIV/AIDS?
The 17th International AIDS Conference in Mexico City in August 2008 brought many voices from certain countries in Africa who said that the attention by various international donors to the needs of children affected by HIV/AIDS created a segregation of sorts between “NGO children” and “non-NGO children”. The “NGO children” would be the ones who would get some benefit or the other while the later would be the ones who needed those services just as well but did not get it because he/she was not infected or affected by HIV/AIDS. Many people who had worked in various African countries talked of the subtle division among children who were in dire need of education, health, nutrition and medication out of which, only those affected by HIV/AIDS had opportunities to have them addressed. There was also a strong message resonating at the Mexico Conference about the need to focus on family units as a whole while rendering HIV/AIDS related services
instead of a male member (father) going to a particular service center; a female member (mother) going to another and the child being taken to yet another place. These voices from Africa has special meaning for Manipur considering the extent of similarities: the ravages of conflict (armed, ethnic) in both settings have impacted health and educational institutions besides fracturing the economic situation of the people. HIV/AIDS has only added its own dimension to failing institutions and breaking apart mechanisms that need to be in place for their redressal.
There must be a strong resolve by the Government to look at appropriate measures in terms of the educational needs of children living in the state. There is no doubt a series of “consultations” organized by various departments and agencies, the latest being the one organized by the Manipur Women Commission on the impact of HIV/AIDS on women and children. What is required are not consultations in name but an action process that addresses the needs of the HIV /AIDS affected and infected populations. The call at this hour would be an appraisal of what has been talked about till now and then to walk that talk.
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