Life comes to standstill for a family of HIV positive during COVID pandemic

For the past 18 years, Rema and her children have been living a life of neglect and social exclusion. The stigma of being affected by HIV transmitted through her husband Shaji, who died after contract

For the past 18 years, Rema and her children have been living a life of neglect and social exclusion. The stigma of being affected by HIV transmitted through her husband Shaji, who died after contracting the disease through a blood transfusion, is continuing to haunt them even today. Since 2003, Ms. Rema and her children had been in the news after they faced a social boycott. The children had to discontinue their school education for a year, after the parents of about 400 children of Kottiyoor Sreenarayana LP School put up placards and prevented them from attending the school. They lost their education for a year. Two of the three affected children, who have now completed their graduation a few years back, continue to face the social stigma. In 2016, Akshara, while studying psychology, revealed her disease to her roommates in the college hostel. This forced her to live in a separate room after two boarders and many others in the hostel expressed their wish to leave the hostel and .