The district administration on Friday directed a probe into the alleged matter concerning the debarment of a 15-year-old HIV affected orphan girl student from hostel of the Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya at Barua in the district here.
According to sources, when the school authorities came to know that the girl staying in hostel was suffering from HIV/AIDs, they asked that girl to leave the hostel and only attend classes from home. Consequently, she had to come to school every day from Olavar by bus to attend classes and return home after the classes were over. Intellectual masses alleged the decision to drive out the girl from the hostel as unfortunate and a clear discrimination against her. Notably, the victim’s parents died a decade back of the same disease. When contacted, Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya Principal Parvati Pradhan stated that the allegation was baseless. “No such discrimination has been made against the HIV affected girl in the school. Rather, the girl left the hostel as she is homesick,” she explained.
District Collector Debaraj Senapati stated that no formal complaint had been made in this connection. However, he maintained that he had directed a probe into the case and if the school authorities were found guilty, then action would be taken against them.