Hi
The following mail did not get to the list. Copying it below.
Harish Kotian
Quoting:
Leprosy-cured Indians don't find jobs easily
Jan 29, 2013, 12.00AM IST IANS
Leprosy-cured Indians don't find jobs easily (Thinkstock photos/Getty Images)
India has 13 million people who have been cured of leprosy, but they still find
it hard to get a job due to the stigma attached to the disease. This, despite
the government making provisions for their employment, health experts and
activists say.
According to the experts, people cured of leprosy are covered under the
Disability Act and get one percent reservation in government jobs. In spite of
this, the majority of those cured are unable to benefit.
"Stigma is the major cause for such people not being able to benefit," Rajive
Raturi, who heads the Disability Rights Initiative (DRI) of Human Rights Law
Network, a nationwide collective of lawyers and social workers, told us.
He said when a person who has been cured of leprosy applies for a government
job, he has to produce the medical certificate. But their candidature gets
rejected when it is found that they suffered from leprosy.
"They are often rejected due to the fact that as soon as the doctors or any
person concerned sees leprosy as the cause of the disability, they ignore the
applicants," Raturi said, adding most of the people are thus forced to beg on
the streets or at religious places.
Another activist said that such people are already in such a precarious
condition that they don't know where to go for redressal.
According to Vinita Shanker, executive director, Sasakawa India Leprosy
Foundation, there needs to be a special category for former leprosy patients as
they have more health-related issues like recurrent joint pains and vision
problems after their cure.
"In India, under the Disability Act, leprosy-cured persons are categorised as
those with loco-motor disability. This is a deterrence as visual disability is
a major fallout of the disease," Shanker told us. The charitable trust was set
up by Yohei Sasakawa, chairman of the Nippon Foundation, in 2006.
According to Shanker, Sasakawa devoted all his professional life fighting
leprosy not only in Japan but all over the world.
"We have to fight stigma from society and change mindsets. These people are as
capable of working as any healthy person," Shanker said.
In order to correct this anomaly, a group of NGOs working in this field had
petitioned parliament in 2008 seeking amendment in certain laws, including the
Disability Act, which they consider as discriminatory against people cured of
leprosy.
According to P.K. Gopal, president of the International Association for
Integration, Dignity and Economic Advancement (IDEA), India, which is supposed
to have eliminated leprosy seven years ago, still records the highest number of
fresh cases globally.
Leprosy is a chronic disease caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium leprae and
Mycobacterium lepromatosis. It is primarily a disease of the skin and nerves.
Skin lesions are the primary external sign. Left untreated, leprosy can be
progressive, causing permanent damage to the skin, nerves, limbs and eyes.
According to the World Health Organisation, 65 per cent of all new cases of
leprosy globally are from India.
The union health ministry's latest data shows that between April, 2010, and
March, 2011, India recorded 126,800 fresh cases of leprosy of which 12, 463
were children under the age of 15. Around 4,000 of these patients had
disabilities due to leprosy. Last year, 127,000 new cases were detected in
India.
India currently has about 54 percent of all the new leprosy cases in the world,
followed by Brazil with about 17 percent, then Indonesia with about seven
percent.
"Despite the fact that 13 million people have been cured so far, people still
attach a stigma to it," Gopal, who himself is leprosy-cured, told us.
The petition made to parliament included certain other discriminatory laws like
the Hindu, Muslim and Christian Marriage Acts which give a right of divorce to
a person whose spouse has leprosy.
Among other countries reporting more than 1,000 new cases in 2006 are Angola,
Bangladesh, China, The Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar, Myanmar,
Nepal, Nigeria, The Philippines, Sri Lanka and Tanzania.
It is estimated that probably at least three million people are living with
some permanent disability due to leprosy, although the exact figure is not
available.
Gopal said the government has to do something, like providing them vocational
training, to stop these people from returning to begging.
"They are needed to be treated equally and should not be subjected to
discrimination. Government should come out with some training programmes for
them so that they stop begging," Gopal added.
With thanks and regards
(Rajesh Asudani)
Assistant General Manager
Reserve Bank of India
Nagpur
Cell: 9420397185
o: +91 712 2806846
R: 2591349
(In youth you want things, and then in middle-age you want to want them.)
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