Patna, May 11 (Inditop.com) Bihar, one of the few states still struggling to eliminate leprosy, has nearly 1,000 families affected with the disease living without basic civic amenities, a new survey has revealed.
A proposal for special leprosy pension and housing facilities for leprosy affected people on the basis of the survey report was submitted to the state government Tuesday by Yohei Sasakawa, World Health Organisation Goodwill Ambassador for the Elimination of Leprosy and Kamlesh Divyadarshi, president of the Bihar Kushth Kalyan Mahasangh (BKKM), which also conducted the survey.
“We hope that the Bihar government will work on the proposal to introduce pension for empowerment of leprosy affected people,” Sasakawa, who is also the president of the Nippon Foundation and the Sasakawa Memorial Health Foundation, told IANS here.
According to the survey report, 997 leprosy affected families including 1,274 adult men and 356 dependents are living in 63 colonies – 83 in tents, 324 in huts, and 590 in pucca houses.
Divyadarshi said that during Sasakawa’s earlier visit to Bihar last month, BKKM got an opportunity to discuss the problems of leprosy affected people living in different colonies with state Health Minister Nand Kishore Yadav and other top officials.
“We conducted a survey on the suggestion of state health minister to collect a base line data of all colonies and affected people,” he said.
“Yadav told us to submit the survey to the government which will help the government in formulating of special policy for the leprosy affected persons in the state,” he said.
Divyadarshi urged the state government to provide special leprosy pension of Rs.1,800 per month to each affected person as well as houses to all leprosy affected families by bringing them under the purview of schemes aimed at the welfare of below poverty line (BPL) sections of society.
“All these measures will bring changes in living standards of the leprosy affected people and also help them to join the mainstream of the society. Stigma will be reduced and most important thing begging will be minimized,” Sasakawa said.
India achieved near elimination of leprosy in 2005 by reducing the case to population ratio to less than 1:10,000. But four states – West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh – are still struggling to tackle the disease that leaves people deformed and has social stigma attached to it.
It was estimated that about 11,000 leprosy affected people in Bihar are undergoing treatment at present.
