Leprosy in India

Leprosy currently affects approximately a quarter of a million people throughout the world, with majority of these cases being reported from India.

India is considered the point of origin of leprosy with skeletal evidence of the disease dating to 2000 B.C.The disease is thought to have spread through trade and war to other parts of Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, and later Europe and the Americas. In ancient Indian society, individuals suffering from leprosy were alienated because the disease was chronic, contagious, resulted in disfigurement, had no cure at the time, and was associated with sin.In colonial India, the government enacted the Leprosy Act of 1898, which institutionalised leprosy victims and separated them based on gender to prevent reproduction

India is a signatory of United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD). India is currently running one of the largest leprosy eradication program in the world, the National Leprosy Eradication Program (NLEP).

 Still, 1.2 to 1.3 hundred thousand new cases of leprosy reported every year, 58% of the total amount of new cases reported every year. Since children are most susceptible to leprosy, they face worse discrimination and ostracisation from childhood, including the denial of basic rights and medical care.

India was officially declared to have eliminated leprosy in 2005 when new cases fell to less than 1 per 10,000, yet India still accounts for the largest number of leprosy affected people in the world (58 per cent) with a registered prevalence of 86,319 and 1,25,785 new detected cases.