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Bangladeshi Bill to Repeal 1898 Act
Posted on 8 July 2010 by
On 3rd June 2010, Ruling Awami League MP Saber Hossain Chowdhury placed a bill before the Bangladeshi Parliament on the private members’ day to repeal the 1898 Lepers Act.
In the statement of the reason and purpose of the bill, it was said that the Act had been made to segregate leprosy patients because at the time it was believed that leprosy is contagious and not curable. However, it has since been scientifically proven that leprosy is fully curable and that it is not necessary to separate people with leprosy from the rest of the population. Also at the Tenth Meeting of the World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) Technical Advisory Group for leprosy of April 2009 they stated: “… in public health terms, it is reasonable to conclude that a leprosy patient’s infectiousness becomes negligible after starting multidrug therapy (MDT).”
Writing about the Bill to repeal this Act for the Daily Star, the Reverend Martin Adhikary noted: “To be sure, the segregating ancient Lepers Act 1898 does not have a raison d’être. It violates human rights and dignity; it goes against the Constitution of our country as well as all the universal Charters and Declarations of human rights. The repealing of this Act will help our society in mainstreaming the people affected by leprosy, and pave the way for the restoration of their dignity.”
Reverend Martin Adhikary, who is the Director of Advocacy and Promotion of The Leprosy Mission International-Bangladesh and a social worker, has been long been lobbying for the annulment of this Act.
The Lepers Act 1898
This was passed by the then British-India government to control and deal with people who had leprosy, allowing the government to appoint asylums where people affected by leprosy would live; prohibiting people affected by leprosy pursuing various lines of employment and prohibiting employers employing people affected by leprosy and other such provisions prejudicial to the lives of persons affected by leprosy:
http://bdlaws.gov.bd/print_sections_all.php?id=74
Article Still Stigmatised by the Reverend Adhikary published in The Daily Star 2nd June 2010: http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=140965
Article The Lepers Act 1898 Needs to be Repealed by the Reverend Adhikary published in The Daily Star 14th March 2009:
http://www.thedailystar.net/pf_story.php?nid=79572
Example of an Indian State, Karnataka, which repealed the Leprosy Act in 1988:
http://dpal.kar.nic.in/.%5C25%20of%201989%20(E).pdf
Categories: Bangladesh