Sumedha Patil walks to school with her younger brother Anirudh, 9, with a smile. The 12-year-old loves going to school and wants to become a doctor when she grows up.

Sumedha Patil smiles as she walks to school with her younger brother Anirudh, 9. The 12-year-old loves going to school and wants to be a doctor when she grows up.

But not everyone at the district school where she studies, in Hasegaon in Latur, Maharashtra, shares her dream.

Sumedha and her brother tested positive for HIV after their parents’ death last December and they now live at the Sevalaya AIDS ashram in Latur. They are among nine children from this ashram who were admitted to the district primary school or the Zilla Parishad School last month. But their presence in school has triggered resentment, with parents of other children withdrawing their wards.

It all started on July 2 when Sushant, 8, one of the HIV positive boys, began to bleed from his ear. It was an infection that had gone worse. Sushant and his brothers Mangesh and Sachin, who live at the ashram, have had a history of abuse. In fact, Sachin lost his hearing after being beaten up routinely by his father and grandfather. Their father died last year and their mother is in the final stages of AIDS.

“My father used to beat me. Since then, I have had trouble hearing,” says Sushant. When his ear started bleeding in school, parents of other students took them away, fearing they would catch the infection.

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