Lok Sabha elections 2024: Elderly leprosy patients cast their vote

(From left) Narayan Madavi, 76, Pundlik Gore, 82, his wife Janku, 77, along with close friends Bakabai Ade, 70, Shyamabhai Mhatare, 72, and Bhayabhai Mhatre after casting their vote on Monday

On Monday, elderly members from Kushtharog Nivaran Samiti Shantivan at Panvel cast their votes, keeping their practice going for yet another election. mid-day, in its report titled ‘If we can vote, what stops you?' published on Monday highlighted how the elderly recovered leprosy patients never miss the opportunity to do their duty to society.

According to centre officials, among those who cast their votes were Narayan Madavi, 76, Pundlik Gore, 82, his wife Janku, 77, three close friends Bakabai Ade, 70, Shyamabhai Mhatare, 72, and Bhayabhai Mhatre, 70, along with others who have been staying in Shantivan since decades.

Ambulances needed

According to Advocate Pramod Thakur, chairman of Kushtarog Niwaran Samiti Shantivan, special arrangements were made to transport the in-house elderly and those in wards to the polling centre close to the ashram. "They left in the morning when the rush was comparatively less. The polling booth was the closest one as their residential address given is Shantivan," he said.

Zero transmission aim

A highly placed government official from the health department informed mid-day that the Government of India launched National Strategic Plan (NSP) & Roadmap for Leprosy (2023-27) on January 30, 2023, to achieve zero transmission of leprosy by 2027 i.e. three years ahead of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG).

"The NSP and roadmap contains implementation strategies, year-wise targets, public health approaches and overall technical guidance for the programme. The strategy and roadmap focuses on awareness for zero stigma and discrimination, promotion of early case detection, prevention of disease transmission by prophylaxis (leprosy post-exposure prophylaxis) and rollout of web-based information portal for reporting of leprosy cases," the official said.

Cases endemic

After achieving elimination status at the national level, the National Leprosy Eradication Programme (NLEP) has taken several initiatives to encourage early case detection of leprosy patients to prevent Grade 2 Disabilities, and to ensure free-of-cost treatment for leprosy patients. There are few districts within states/UTs, where leprosy is endemic. With various interventions introduced under NLEP in the last few years, the number of new leprosy cases detected has come down to 75,394 in 2021-22, from 1,25,785 in 2014-15, accounting for 53.6 per cent of global new leprosy cases. India has achieved the elimination of leprosy as a public health problem as per WHO criteria of less than 1 case per 10,000 population at the national level in 2005.

75,394
New leprosy cases detected in 2021-22