Eight children from the ages of 3 to 12 live together with their teacher in the last house in a street at the end of the neighbourhood. No other orphanage would accept these orphaned children because they are HIV-positive. Even the neighbours complain about their presence. Their teacher and her daughter are also HIV-positive, so they live with the other children because they too were chased from their family. The teacher says: “I hope that society will change so that my daughter can see her father. I am sure it will take time, maybe ten years.

“I know where my husband is, but I think my mother-in-law told him I was dead. The children here know something is wrong. ‘Why are we here?’ they asked, ‘Why are we outcasts?’ ”

Selvi: ‘What will happen to my children when I die?’

Selvi contracted HIV/Aids from her husband and she is now terminally ill. She has two children; an eight-year-old boy and a six-year-old girl. Early last year, Selvi gave birth to a male baby, who died of malnutrition when just four months old.

Her husband is a daily wage labourer and her son runs errands for a teashop. Without any means of livelihood, Selvi has now rented out her shanty house, a lean-to on the pavement for 150 rupees (£1.90) a month and they now sleep in the open, but they are allowed “home” to cook and to store their belongings. Her husband is not taking care of her now. He is not bothered about her deteriorating health. She doesn’t receive any monetary support from him. Selvi has now developed a tumour in her neck and has been admitted to a hospital 30km away. Her husband didn’t take her to the hospital; she went there alone. She worries constantly: “What will happen to my children when I die?”

Jeeva, 32: ‘We do sex work as no one will give us a job’

Jeeva is a transsexual having undergone surgery. She is angry that others like her who have become transsexuals aren’t recognised by the authorities. They are denied identity papers and passports. She and others like her have given themselves self-published identity papers that state they are “third gender”.

Like Jeeva many come from villages (his parents were not happy with his identity) and migrate to the cities where they live with other transsexuals in slum dwellings. Jeeva says: “We are forced to either beg or take up sex work. We have no alternative as no one will give us a job.” Casual sex work puts them in danger of contracting HIV/Aids and transmitting the virus to multiple partners.

According to Jeeva, in the northern part of her city there are some 2,000 third-gender sex workers, most of whom have unprotected sex and have never been tested for HIV/Aids. No one would ever admit to being HIV positive. Jeeva has only recently become aware of HIV/Aids.

Chinna, 37, and her daughter Sathya, 3: status is kept secret from the village

Several months ago Chinna was very ill at home. “I was almost dead. In the village they said it was jaundice, I took native medicine.”

After her second visit to a city hospital staff revealed they had made a mistake during her first blood test; she not only had tuberculosis, she was also HIV positive. She is not sure whether her first or second husband infected her; the second has subsequently tested positive, as have her two children from her second marriage. Her first husband and her three children from the first marriage have not been tested.

She has kept her status secret from the village because she would be evicted if they found out. When asked if anyone else in the village had HIV/Aids or had died of the virus, Chinna replied that no one had HIV and no one had died of HIV/Aids. When Chinna was asked if anyone had tuberculosis or died of tuberculosis, she said that many villages have TB and many have died of it.