Schoolboy rejected by school over HIV suspicion -- Updates 5

Gossip media-displays of no use ....

To adjust social opinion ....

 Kuliyapitiya child should be separated for a short time from his mother

-- Education Minister

The issue which created an uproar pertaining to the Kuliyapitiya child who was branded as a HIV positive case on whom rumours spread around was solved by President Maithripala mediating across Minister Ranjan.

Minister of Education Akila Viraj has suggested a solution for this child's predicament through his Facebook Page. He says that the rumour propagated by gossip media and in launching irresponsible

media displays that the child is not afflicted by AIDS and that the mother is afflicted by it could bring no beneficial results and that it would be possible to get the child admitted to a school after separating him from the mother for a few days, thus convincing society that the child is in safe hands. The Minister also adds that the belief that the child if in the company of his mother would be infected with the virus would then disappear from their minds. The Education Minister too is someone who hails from Kuliyapitiya. Following is the complete comment he posted on the Facebook about this:

"The incident relating to the Kuliyapitiya child which has given rise to a sensation became an incident which immensely shocked me as the Education Minister as well as being the MP for the area. I took steps to issue instructions directly to the relevant authorities to provide every step of protection for the educational rights of that child and also in respect of the welfare of the mother. But the tough rationale is that it must be understood even with dislike that it is not possible to instantly turn around the attitudes that have been rooted within the culture and conscience in a country such as Sri Lanka, just like by batting an eyelid as such. Social attitudes attitudes linked to social disease should be tackled carefully. In the same way we ought understand across incidents such as this, the necessity to provide a proper education for the society. Though it is a social responsibility to provide solutions for socially sensitive areas such as this further, in a disciplined manner and with much restraint, what has happened today is that the child and mother are pushed into a situation where they have become helpless as a consequence of the child and the mother being focused upon by the media continuously across which they find themselves cornered in a framework of a social system that entertain obsolete and conventional concepts.    

It is our responsibility to protect this child and to give him his educational rights and to look after the welfare of the mother amidst rumours that spread to the effect that this child is not in a position where he has been infected with AIDS and that his mother has been infected with AIDS. We should be intelligent enough to understand that it is not something that could be carried out across gossip media and irresponsible media displays. It is sad to note that certain elements have resorted to distorting the comments I have made in this connection and thus have given it a propaganda-twist. This child should in no uncertain terms be deprived of the mother's affection. But a solution to the problem should be sought.

We would be able to separate the child from the mother for a few days and get him a school in order to convince the society that the child is in safe hands. In that case even the beliefs that the virus would not affect the child who is thus away from his mother would stand good. My only requirement is to see to the welfare of the child and the mother".

Akila Viraj Kariyawasam -- Attorney-at-Law

Minister of Education