It's a welcome move by the government to rehabilitate these children who have no one to look after them,' added Babu, who shelters 20 children in the age group of two to 14 years in Desire Society.

The homes will provide orphaned HIV- infected children special counselling, including sex education, to prevent further spread of the disease.

'We'll give special medical care and psychological support to the inmates.

'These children suffer from inferiority complex due to the stigma attached to the disease. The homes will provide them a perfect platform to lead a normal life, without any discrimination,' Shastri said.

National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) has marked Karnataka as a 'highly prevalent state'.

The state has 250,000 HIV-infected people and 33,000 suffering from AIDS, as stated by KSAPS. But only 22,000 members are registered under the society.

According to experts at KSAPS, around 30 percent of children born to HIV infected mothers are at risk of contracting the disease if they are not part of the Prevention of Parent to Child Transmission (PPCT) programmes.

'Sixty percent of HIV-infected mothers in the state have no access to PPCT,' said an official of KSAPS.

An estimated 2.5 million people in India are said to be living with HIV/AIDS, the third largest AIDS figure in the world.

(Maitreyee Boruah can be contacted at m.boruah@ians.in)