NLR India pledges to eliminate Leprosy from India

New Delhi: NRL India foundation, celebrated its 23rd foundation day on 23 April, 2022. To mark this day, the foundation conducted a stakeholders meeting with persons with disabilities, government departments and other development partners on 23rd April 2022.

A health camp was also organized on 26 April, 2022 where around 150 patients were treated under the mission of zero leprosy, zero suffering and zero exclusion.

The social event was conducted at a local market of Delhi to educate people on Leprosy and disabilities, how they suffer, and what could be done for them. NLRIF team encouraged local crowd to come forward and support the cause; the team did a type of street play by acting on a social experiment to show how general people react to a ‘real life situation’ of indifference and misconduct to the affected persons. NLRIF later awarded the heroes from crowd who stood by the persons with disabilities, by stopping the act of misbehavior.

On the occasion of the foundation day, a stakeholders meeting with persons with disabilities, government and development partners was conducted in Bihar, from where NLR India Foundation had started to work 23 years back.

The event was also attended by NLR International team. Dr. Ashok Agarwal, Managing Trustee, NLR India Foundation said, “NLR India Foundation realised the dire need to eradicate the sufferings of the persons affected by Leprosy & disabilities. They should be encouraged and enabled to overcome disabilities and poverty, and need support for leading a dignified life”. Madam Linda Hummel, CEO, NLR International said, leprosy has been there for more than 4000 years; with all out effort we should be able to eliminate it in our lifetimes.

Taking the mission further, NLRIF organized a day long health camp in the capital city; nearly 150 patients benefitted from the event. This was one of the key steps in the direction of NLRIF’s pledge to eliminate leprosy and its suffering from India. The health camp was conducted not only for the persons with disabilities due to leprosy, but also other family members; and addressed all their health needs.

NLR India Foundation promotes and supports the health, ability and full inclusion in society, of persons affected by leprosy and/or disabilities. It works at the forefront of impressive advances in leprosy control; it also helped introduce the single dose rifampicin preventive therapy for contacts of leprosy cases, government now implements as a national programme.

The number of cases of this infectious neglected tropical disease around the globe has drastically come down in the early years of this century. However, for the past 10 years, every year around 200,000 (India accounting for 60%) new cases are detected and one million people in the world still suffer from the consequences of leprosy. At least 4 million vulnerable people are at risk. Besides the suffering from the disease and its related stigma, the disease also leads to further poverty, discrimination and exclusion. Though the introduction of Multi Drug Therapy (MDT) has led to significant decrease of new cases, the disease has not been eliminated. We need to walk the last mile!