Around 90% of all children living with HIV acquired the infection from their mothers during pregnancy, birth or breastfeeding. A pregnant woman can transmit the virus to her foetus through their shared blood circulation, or a nursing mother can transmit it to her baby in her milk.

In many cases in India the infants or new born also get infection through blood - via blood transfusions or needle sharing from mother to child. Children are being turned away from schools, clinics and orphanages because they or their family members are HIV-positive. AIDS in India has been a taboo topic for years, and to a large extent it remains so today.

In recent years the central government has become more involved in raising awareness of AIDS and taking steps to prevent and contain it.

Losing a parent is terrible for any child, but children living in India who lose parents to AIDS face unthinkable hardships. Not only have they watched their parents die, but they are stigmatized for having been associated with HIV and AIDS and are often forced to fend for themselves and their siblings. The result is that a growing number of helpless children are facing a cycle of abuse, neglect, stigmatisation, malnutrition, poverty and disease.

AIDS in India has been a taboo topic for years, and to a large extent it remains so today.

---