Guwahati:
After her mother died from AIDS two months ago, a four-year-old girl in Assam was entrusted to her paternal uncle and aunt who live about 60 kilometres away from Guwahati in Lower Assam.
Two weeks ago, she was discovered by an NGO in a shed along with goats. She was made to eat from their bowl. She weighed less than eight kilograms.
The NGO brought her to a community centre in Guwahati, where people living with HIV are taken care of.
Rules set the National AIDS Control Organization (NACO) state that she cannot stay at this community centre for more than 15 days.
Records show that Assam has 70 orphans who lost their parents to AIDS. What makes their situation worse is that they are HIV positive as well, which means that they cannot be sent to regular orphanages.
Based on this child's story on NDTV, the Assam Chief Minister has promised to set up a special shelter for others like her, or for those who are HIV positive and have nowhere to go. Chief Minister Gogoi has also told NDTV that the four year old will stay at the centre run by NACO till alternative arrangements are available.