Another step in the battle against leprosy

Another step in the battle against leprosy

News:

1. Prior to medical advancement, large Central and State Laws discriminate against leprosy patients.

Important facts:

2. Now, the disease is completely curable by modern medicines like multi-drug therapy.

3. The Personal Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2018, seeks to make a start in amending these statutes.  Some of the key features of the Bill are given below.

• It attempts to end the discrimination against leprosy persons in various central laws such as:

1. The Divorce Act, 1869;
2. The Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act, 1939;
3. The Special Marriage Act, 1954;
4. The Hindu Marriage Act, 1955;
5. The Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act of 1956.

• The Bill eliminates leprosy as a ground for dissolution of marriage or divorce.
• The amendments introduced in the Bill omit the provisions which stigmatize and discriminate against leprosy-affected persons.
• The Bill is meant to provide for the integration of leprosy patients into the mainstream.

4. The provisions of the Bill are in line with the UN General Assembly Resolution of 2010 on the ‘Elimination of discrimination against persons affected by leprosy and their family members’.

5. India has signed and ratified the Resolution.

6. The proposed Bill alsofollows a National Human Rights Commission recommendation to introduce amendments in personal laws and other statutes.

7. The Law Commission of India, in its 256^th Report, Eliminating discrimination against persons affected by leprosy’, had also recommended removing the . discriminatory provisions in various statutes against leprosy patients.

8. The Rajya Sabha Committee on Petitions, in its 131^st Report on ‘Petition praying for integration and empowerment of leprosy-affected persons’, had examined various statutes to clean the discriminatory provisions in prevalent statutes.