Hoplessness fades away and seclusion gives courage to those outcast or faced with the stigma that a disease like leprosy carries.Situated nearly 19 km from Champa, the leprosy-cum-rehabilitation centre run by the Bharatiya Kushth Nivaran Sangathan (BKNS) boasts of a sprawling complex with a hospital, a residential area, a school for the children of leprosy patients and a cow-shed. Once cured, patients join the rehabilitation centre where they are involved in carpet-weaving or chalk-making.The man behind the project, Damodar Ganesh Bapad, says: ‘‘Human relations matter more than blood relations. We are one large family here — caste and religion are no barriers. Everyone eats from one kitchen and owns this place as much as I do.’’He has an equally committed colleague in Dr Bal Krishan Jagdale, a doctor who returned from America in 1974 and chose to work with leprosy patients. ‘‘I spent 25 years in America. I have undergone two by-pass surgeries and I don’t know where I get all the strength to keep working here. But they are my companions after all,’’ Jagdale says.Bapad, who retired as a deputy director in the Madhya Pradesh agriculture department, is a full-time leprosy worker. He has carried on the mission of Sadashiv Govind Katre — a Railway employee and a leprosy patient himself — who set up the centre four decades ago. Katre died in the ’80s.‘‘Katreji chose this place not because of poverty or illiteracy but because the areas shows a high incidence of leprosy cases,’’ says Bapad. In Chhattisgarh, the average prevalence rate is eight persons per 10,000 against the national average of four per 10,000 — almost double and alarmingly high.Nearly 16 lakh patients have already been treated since 1987 under the multi-drug therapy in the state. ‘‘Districts of Champa-Jangir and Raigarh, bordering Orissa, have the highest number of 4,928 leprosy patients currently under treatment,’’ says state health directorate skin specialist Dr A.K. Bansal.Bapad should know. For he started with three patients in 1962 on land donated by a local and today, there are 182 patients. Many come from Orissa, Maharastra, UP, Haryana, Jharkhand, Bihar and MP visit the centre.One can only imagine the plight of Katre whose friends and colleagues ostracised him. He left his job and spent a few years at a missionary hospital to get himself cured. Patients here have similar stories to narrate. ‘‘I have everything at home — a wife, sons, grand-children but this disease forced me into isolation. They come, give me some money but never ask me to accompany them home. How unlucky can I get?’’ 52-year-old Ishwar says. Then there is 16-year-old Nirmala with a foot destroyed by the disease. ‘‘Who will marry this otherwise good looking girl who’s cured now?’’ asks Amol Bai, another leprosy patient.Bapad points out that there is no dearth of funds — which mainly come through donations — but leprosy patients crave human touch.
