Justice Shri K.G. Balakrishnan, Chairperson, NHRC attended the launch ceremony for the Global Appeal, 2014 to 'End Stigma and Discrimination against People affected by Leprosy' on the 27th January, 2014 in Jakarta, Indonesia. The programme was launched at the initiative of the Nippon Foundation, together with Indonesia's National Commission on Human Rights. Addressing the gathering on the occasion, the NHRC Chairperson said that despite conclusive evidence of leprosy being among the least infectious of all communicable diseases, the social prejudice and discrimination against the leprosy-affected persons continue to remain deeply entrenched in society though these have started to alter very slowly.
He said that as per international standards, less than one case per 10000 population is considered as the level of elimination. 32 States and Union Territories in India have attained the level of leprosy elimination and out of the 633 districts, 510 have achieved elimination status. Though in India, as per statistics available until 2011, prevalence ratio of leprosy is 0.69 per 10000 population, the country remains home to around 60% of the leprosy-affected persons in the World.
Giving an insight into various efforts on the part of the Government of India, the NHRC, India and civil society, Justice Balakrishnan said that while many of them have borne positive results but the only concrete way forward would be to shatter myths about leprosy by creating more awareness among people through education and information. The NHRC, India, among other stakeholders, is committed towards achieving this goal through its interventions like seminar, conferences, awareness workshops and recommendations in the complaints relating to leprosy affected persons.
The NHRC Chairperson expressed the hope that a historic global initiative to end stigma and discrimination against people affected by leprosy will set into motion a strong current of action to realise the vision of a truly egalitarian society.