Almost a month after their parents refused to let them attend school with HIV positive classmates for fear of the deadly virus, scores of village children in Maharashtra’s Latur district have begun trickling back to classes, apparently reassured by a door-to-door campaign by activists and local authorities.

At the peak of the scare two weeks ago, parents had demanded the infected children be removed from the school and when the authorities refused, they stopped sending their wards to the government-run institution in Hasegaon village. The attendance in the 248-student school had then dipped to 48. On Wednesday, it had risen to 175, officials said.

They said the effort to counter the fear of the villagers saw local activists organising a protest rally against the discrimination on July 21. A day later, activists decided to approach villagers directly and clear their misconceptions about HIV/AIDS. There were door-to-door visits, including to the house of the village sarpanch, senior residents and influential people. The efforts seemed to work as the attendance rose to 107 on July 22.

“The sarpanch and senior villagers were willing to listen to us. The good part was that the attendance improved,” said Ravi Bapatley, director of Sevalaya, a local voluntary group involved in the campaign.

The campaign also saw the involvement of the health department, which is spreading awareness through local village health officials. The villagers had initially resisted information and directives from health officials from the cities.

Activists said that they will watch the situation until the end of July before planning their next move.

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