Love, hope for shunned kids in AIDS school near Mumbai

By Krittivas Mukherjee

BHOOGAON, India (Reuters) - In a smart blue tunic and red ribbons in her hair, 12-year-old Komal's laughing eyes hide a fear of death that stalks every student in her village school.

Within months or years she could be dead, but while she lives she is fulfilling a dream -- of going to school again after she was expelled from her previous one because she was infected with HIV.

"They used to throw water on me and tear up my books," Komal said as she reminisced about her days at a regular school. "Still, I wanted to go to school, but one day my teacher said don't come back."

At Gokul, a school for HIV-infected children in this dusty village north of Mumbai, each student has a heart-wrenching tale of discrimination and suffering.

The disease orphaned all of them, some were thrown out of school for their HIV status or abandoned by families. All got the virus from their mothers.

The school is among only a few across the country run by voluntary groups, where infected children expelled by "normal" schools receive education.

Rights groups and HIV/AIDS workers say conservative India's fight against the disease is being undermined by ignorance and prejudice. Sufferers are often denied treatment by hospitals, thrown out by families, evicted by landlords or fired.

Children remain the hidden face of this suffering. When a parent is infected, children drop out of school to care for them, or go to work to replace the lost income, until they become orphans, health workers say.