More than 63 years since the first World Leprosy Day was celebrated on January 30, 1954, the fight against the disease in India is stymied by regressive laws. A patient is still refused a ticket by a railway official, and driving his or her own vehicle too may be out of the question.

Bizarrely, archaic laws in India continue to treat patients with leprosy as untouchables. This despite medical evidence that it can spread only from ‘close and repeated contact with nose and mouth droplets from someone with untreated leprosy’ and that a patient becomes non-contagious after just a week of treatment.

The disease makes grounds for annulment of marriage and divorce under the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955; the Dissolution of Muslim Marriage Act, 1939; the Indian Divorce Act, 1869; the Special Marriage Act, 1954; and the Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act, 1956.

No travel rights

“People affected by leprosy are not permitted to travel in public transport with the same freedom as others. Section 56 of the Railways Act, 1989 and Section 8(4) of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 are resorted to, in order to deny persons affected by leprosy the right to travel in railways or the right to obtain a driving licence, as applicable,” a report by the Law Commission of India says.

Basic rights such as those to contest for, and hold, civic posts continue to be violated under State Municipal and Panchayati Raj Acts. In some of these laws, leprosy patients are put in the same basket as those “of unsound mind”.

For example, the Orissa Municipal Act, 1950, says, “No person shall be qualified for election as a Councillor of a Municipality if such person… has been adjudged by a competent court to be of unsound mind or is a leprosy or a tuberculosis patient.”

Tarun Das, Trustee, Sasakawa India Leprosy Foundation, said “much more action” was needed on the ground to deal with discrimination. “Many people still don’t report the disease early for the fear of stigma and come very late for treatment resulting in more deformity,” .

The Sasakawa Foundation has been working in the area of social uplift of leprosy patients with skill development and livelihood creation. In April 2015, the Law Commission of India recommended amendment of discriminatory laws in a report — Eliminating Discrimination Against Persons Affected by Leprosy.

More than half the new cases of leprosy continue to be detected in India.

According to the National Leprosy Eradication Programme Progress Report (2014-15), more than 1.2 lakh new cases were detected in India — an annual new case detection rate of 9.73 per 1 lakh population, a marginal decrease from the previous year’s rate of 9.98.

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