On 24th November 2011 the Dhaka Government repealed the 1898 Leprosy Act that segregated leprosy patients from their families and society because at the time it was believed that leprosy was contagious and incurable.

Awami League MP Saber Hossain Chowdhury, who piloted the bill through Parliament in June 2010, proposed its passage to the members of Parliament who proceeded to annul the obsolete Act.

The Reverend Martin Adhikary, Director for Advocacy and Promotion of The Leprosy Mission International in Bangladesh, who has been campaigning for this repeal along with other activists, considers this a milestone in efforts to free Bangladesh of leprosy. It is also a positive step towards combating discrimination against persons affected by leprosy thereby enabling them to participate on an equal basis in society. Over the past two to three decades, The Leprosy Mission and other organisations such as Damien Foundation Belgium have helped reduce leprosy related stigma in Bangladesh, but the Reverend Adhikary says that much work still has to be done to demystify leprosy and transform social attitudes to leprosy and persons affected by this disease.

 

The 1898 Act
This was passed by the then British-India Government to control leprosy and manage persons who had leprosy. It allowed the Government to appoint asylums where people affected by leprosy could live. It also prohibited people affected by leprosy from pursuing various lines of employment and actually prohibited employers employing persons affected by leprosy as well as containing other such provisions prejudicial to the lives of persons affected by leprosy.

Leprosy in Bangladesh
3848 new cases of leprosy were recorded in 2010 (World Health Organization Weekly Epidemiological Record, 2nd September 2011).

Categories: Bangladesh