Giving a ray of hope to several leprosy-afflicted persons in the country, a private member's bill has been introduced in the Rajya Sabha, aiming to address the deep-rooted stigma and discrimination and its negative impact on their as well as their family members' life.
Proposed by Rajya Sabha member and senior lawyer KTS Tulsi, the Bill “The Rights of Persons Affected by Leprosy and Members of Their Family (Protection Against Discrimination and Guarantee of Social Welfare) Bill, 2017, “also provides for welfare measures for achieving holistic development and inclusion of the persons suffering with the crippling disease.
Welcoming the intitiative, Nikita Sarah, from The Leprosy Mission Trust of India (TLMTI) said that although, a cure for leprosy was discovered in the early 1980's and it is an easily treatable condition, the discrimination against the community continues both in law and practice.
“There are as of date, known 119 laws including civil and criminal,that have discriminatory provisions against persons affected by leprosy on the sole grounds of the disease. These include leprosy as a ground for divorce, denial of maintenance, rights of movement, rights to political participation, right to work and provision for segregation,” she pointed out.
The present bill has been built on the lines of the recommendations of the 21st Law Commission of India, which under the Chairmanship of Retd. Justice AP Shah had come out with a special report on the issue of legal and social discrimination on persons affected by leprosy and their families titled “Eliminating Discrimination Against Persons Affected by Leprosy and Their Family Members”, Sarah added.
According to the WHO, although India achieved elimination of leprosy as a public health problem in 2005, it has the largest number of leprosy patients in the world and pockets of high endemicity report thousands of new cases every year. In 2015, almost 127 326 new cases were detected against 125785 new cases in 2014.
The Government has now launched a three-pronged strategy in 2016-17 for early detection of the disease among community, said Dr Anil Kumar, DDG (Leprosy Division) in the Union Health Ministry, such as Leprosy Case Detection Campaign (LCDC), 'SPARSH' Leprosy Awareness Campaign to raise awareness and detect cases.
To renew its commitment, the Health Ministry along with other major stakeholders in a first of its kind National Leprosy Conference early this month also adopted Delhi Winter Declaration promising to make 'India leprosy-free by the 2030'.
The declaration also asserted commitment to support early case detection, timely, and complete treatment leading to stopping transmission and prevention of disability and individually and collectively, work to end the stigma and discrimination against persons affected by leprosy and work for their mainstreaming.
However, these will remain piecemeal efforts if the discriminatory laws against the community are not eliminated, a senior Health Ministry official admitted.