Jajati Karan, Kendrapara, Orissa: Discrimination and ostricisation is often a way of life for those living with HIV/AIDS, and children aren’t spared either. Classmates may refuse to sit next to them or neighbours may treat them as outcasts.

Ten-year-old Promod Mallick who is back from a holiday is not welcome back to the school like any other student as nobody wants to be in the same class with him.

"No one sits next to me in school. When I come to the class, everyone goes away. I want to continue my studies but I cant," says Pramod.

And it is not just his school, even in his village, Gardapur in Orissa's Kendrapara district Pramod has treated him like an outcast.

Pramod's father, a migrant labourer in Mumbai, died of AIDS two years back and his mother was also diagnosed with HIV/AIDS.

She passed away earlier this month. That is when Pramod was also tested for HIV, he tested positive.

"After his parents died there was no one who could even feed him. We are too poor to do that. The government should provide help to him," says Pramod’s uncle, Rabindra.

According to the Orrisa Government records there are more than 400 AIDS orphans like Pramod.

Almost all of them are living like Pramod today—ostracised and unwanted.

The Orissa government though has announced a pension for children like these—a princely sum of Rs 200 per month.

But today there is hope if not for all the HIV/AIDS orphans in Orissa at least for Pramod.

Some young men from Gardapur are taking him to a children’s' home where he will not only get care and medication but also hopefully, a fresh lease of life away from this village where he will be nothing more than a child who is paying the price for being HIV positive.

All that Pramod now desperately needs is a helping hand and a bit of love and affection so that he does not have to turn his back to the society, rather get all the confidence to face the world.

And to make this happen, you and I have to think positive. India has to think positive.