Background

Leprosy is one of the oldest diseases of mankind and has a unique social dimension. In both eastern and western Cultures, fear of the disease has existed from ancient times. In no other disease have individuals been made to leave their families and communities and forced to live as cut casts in separate colonies or settlements. For many of the men and women affected by leprosy, simply overcoming the infections is not sufficient to allow a straight award return to their previous life-style. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates there are some two to three million people word wide with significant disability due to leprosy.

Leprosy is a disease, which still strikes fear in the societies as a mutilating, disfiguring, contagious and incurable disease. Because of the horrifying nature of the enigmatic physical disfigurement and since no curve was discovered until the 20^th century, leprosy has for centuries, been a highly stigmatizing disease. Through leprosy is not a disease of the poor, yet it affects poor to a much greater extent because of their social and economic vulnerability. The stigma attached to leprosy leads to loss of employment even before manual abort becomes more difficult due to disability, which often results from lat6e or no treatment. It also leads to exclusion from society, causing physical and emotional distress. Even to this day, when leprosy is completely curable with MDT multi drug therapy, some parts of India uphold the belief that leprosy is a divine curse, a punishment of the past sins, and results of immoral sexual behavior. These beliefs reinforce the image of the leprosy patients as being physically and morally unclean, to blamed for contracting The disease and Therefore to be ostracized.