Balasore: Today a HIV effected man was cremated in front of his house at Tentei village in Soro block of Balasore district in Odisha as the villagers refused to allow his last rites to be held at the village cremation ground at Hansianipada.
The deceased, Jaydev Jena (name changed)(35) , used to live in Mumbai where he contacted with HIV. As his health deteriorated, he returned to his village Tentei .He was being treated at SCB Cuttack where he died.
The local police did try reasoning with the villagers, but they could not as they were adamant over not allowing an HIV victim to be cremated at a public cremation ground.
With villagers refusing to budge, the family members had to light the funeral pyre in front of their house.
The wife of the deceased is also a HIV positive and one of their children too had died of the same.
This discrimination against a dead HIV patient was witnessed only a few days after the Union Government of India approved an amendments to the HIV and AIDS (Prevention and Control) Bill, 2014 which safeguards the rights of people living with and affected by the HIV virus.
Eminent socio-political leader and Chairman of SNSMT Shri. Suparno Satpathy expressed grief on this sad incident and said “The down in the dumps education system in Odisha has shown it’s ugly face via this horribly ill informed sad incident”.
SABURIKATHA 