A West Bengal school has allegedly barred a seven-year-old, HIV positive student after facing pressure from parents of other students.

A West Bengal school has allegedly barred a seven-year-old, HIV positive student after facing pressure from parents of other students.

The incident took place in May this year and the class one student has been out of school for the past five months, reports CNN-IBN.

The school, identified as Deepshikha Nursery School by India Today, is in the South 24 Pargana district of West Bengal, on the outskirts of Kolkata.

The expelled student's parents have said that the school authorities asked them not to send the child to school and arrange for his studies at home continues the India Today report. The decision supposedly came after parents of other students threatened the school administration that they would stop sending their children if the child continued.

The student's family have also claimed that the school was aware of his the child's medical status before admission and had agreed to take him on.

“The school principal, Sanjit, admitted Shubham knowing he was HIV+. But suddenly one day said he could not allow the child to study in the school as other parents were objecting. I went to the principal with all my son’s medical reports and pleaded that he was fully fit. I told him HIV cannot be contracted through mere physical contact," the mother of the child was quoted as saying by the New Indian Express.

However, the school has said that the tried organising a meeting with all the parents. "We called up the family to inform that other parents had objections to the child studying in the school. We even tried organising a meeting among parents with the help of a local NGO to explain the matter to others," says Headmaster Sanjib Naskar was quoted as saying by India Today.

Ironically, the child's mother, who is also HIV+, works as a social worker in a government run service to spread awareness about HIV. The order was imposed even after an AIDS awareness programme by the government was held in the school where they were assured that the disease is not contagious, reports IBNLive.