Taking the leap: on leprosy in India and discrimination Politics & News

Systematic efforts are required to eliminate stigma, that are often seeded by fear, misinformation or ancient beliefs, and to remove the discriminatory attitudes towards those affected. The Supreme Court of India’s intervention to battle stigma and discrimination in the case of leprosy is a corrective action that could not have been delayed any further. On a direction from the Court, the NHRC recently submitted that 97 central and State laws continue to contain provisions that discriminate against persons with leprosy. In sum and substance, these provisions deny access to things as basic as public transport and public spaces, right to run for elected office, and access to employment, or running a business venture. The Court was hearing a batch of petitions contending that there were a number of provisions across central and State statutes that discriminate against persons with leprosy. Caused mainly by the bacterium, Mycobacterium leprae, leprosy is among the earliest known infections to affect humans, with skeletal evidence dating back to 2000 BCE. Today, India continues to report about 57 % of leprosy cases worldwide, with genetic predisposition and living in unsanitary conditions raising the susceptibility. The NHRC, which has been in pursuit of this issue since 2021, first put out a comprehensive document that recommended early identification, timely treatment, rehabilitation, and removing discriminatory practices to ensure dignity and equal access to fundamental rights for persons with leprosy. This includes a plea to the Centre to enact a law to replace derogatory terminology that persists in the laws of the land, and a pointed recommendation to the Unique Identification Authority of India to promote the use of iris scans for Aadhaar enrolment, as leprosy primarily affects the fingertips, through nerve damage.

Given that a plethora of medical advancements have enabled leprosy to be a non-infectious condition, and be fully curable with the right interventions, it will be a shame to allow these discriminatory, antediluvian provisions to continue to be in force. The judges directed all States and Union Territories to submit reports detailing the steps that they have initiated in this regard. In fact, armed with the evidence that the NHRC has provided, the Centre and States must set themselves the urgent task of removing these provisions, and launching remedial action. In this day and age, it is unfathomable that the state continues to trap a group of citizens in the dark ages based on laws written by humans who did not know better..