The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Tuesday took suo motu cognisance of The Pioneer report that though the Government has declared that leprosy is under control, official data shows that the incidence of the crippling disease has been on increase.
The Commission has sought a reply from the Union Health Ministry in this regard within four weeks.
The Pioneer on May 20, 2014 had reported that leprosy is on increase with 1,26,800 new cases in 2010-11, 127295 in 2011-12 and 134752 in 2012-13 in the country. The report had said that new cases were being reported from many States and immediate steps were needed to be taken to contain them.
The Commission took serious note of the report that noted that the National leprosy Elimination Programme which was a vertical programme run by specially trained staff under District leprosy Officers till 2002-03, collapsed following integration of leprosy services with General Healthcare System and was facing shortage of adequate staff.