India urged to abandon laws that oppress lepers

INDIA should work to repeal harsh Raj-era laws that outcast leprosy patients and bar them from normal society, the country’s supreme court has said.

Campaigners say the laws reinforce ancient prejudices against a disease which has been curable for decades.

Judges last week also called for a nationwide public education campaign to allow sufferers to live with dignity in a country where there are still more than 100,000 new cases each year.

The supreme court comments mark the latest step in a long-running campaign to repeal a tangle of at least 119 archaic central and state laws discriminating against those with the disease.

Under the laws, sufferers can be segregated and barred from work, travel or education, while the disease is also judged as valid grounds for divorce.

While a final ruling on scrapping the laws has yet to be made, Nikita Sarah, of the Leprosy Mission Trust India, told The Sunday Telegraph the court’s comments were “a very important milestone” and added: “Even the fact that they are asking them to do a social awareness campaign, that is very important.”

Leprosy has been completely curable for decades by treatment with a battery of drugs. But in parts of India it is still considered a divine curse or a punishment for past crimes. Fear of contagion also means those afflicted are outcast and can lose everything.

While many of the laws have fallen into disuse, the fact they are on the books encourages discrimination, Ms Sarah said.