Intensifying its leprosy detection campaign in the country, the Union Health Ministry has decided to organise a massive awareness campaign wherein nationwide panchayat meetings and gram sabhas will be held across the States on the death anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi on January 30 to help tackle the crippling disease which is on the rise.
“We have been observing January 30 every year as anti-leprosy day, wherein nationwide message on leprosy awareness is spread out through various medium. However, next year, we plan to celebrate the day as ‘Sparsh leprosy awareness campaign’ wherein nationwide panchayat meetings and gram sabhas will be orgainsed in cooperation with various Central ministries," an official from the National leprosy Elimination Programme (NlEP) said.
Aiming to eliminate leprosy as a public health problem by 2020, the government is taking seriously to create awareness among the people about the disease which is surrounded with myths and stigma. leprosy is caused by Mycobacterium leprae that affects the nerves of the patient, leaving him crippling throughout his life.
With no let up in leprosy cases, various Ministries including Panchayati Raj, Rural Development, Urban Development, Women and Child Development and Social Justice and Empowerment Ministries will join hands to organize the awareness campaign at gram sabha which are envisaged as the foundation of the Panchayati Raj system.
A village having population not less than 1500 forms Gram Sabha and every adult of the village is member of Gram Sabha. However, in some states, a Gram Sabha may be formed even if the population is less than 1500.
The need to reach out to gram sabhas have been felt following the huge number of new leprosy cases (over 32,000) that were detected across 163 districts in 20 states under the leprosy Case Detection Campaign (lCDC) that covered about 36 crore people. The door-to-door surveillance was conducted by the Central Government in September this year.
Of the 32,000 cases, 752 have transgressed to Grade II disability cases, showing loss of fingers and toes.
Though in December 2005, the government declared it had less than one case of leprosy per 10,000 people, the cases continue to rise, particularly the grade II disability cases. Such cases increased to 5,794 to 2014-15 from 3,019 in 2005. Even the percentage of grade II disability among new cases detected has increased from 3.10 percent (2010-2011) to 4.61 percent (2014-2015), as per the government nlep website.