{"id":27460,"date":"2018-10-23T14:14:20","date_gmt":"2018-10-23T08:44:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=27460"},"modified":"2018-10-23T14:14:20","modified_gmt":"2018-10-23T08:44:20","slug":"sc-questions-leprosy-free-tag-for-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/sc-questions-leprosy-free-tag-for-india\/","title":{"rendered":"SC questions \u2018leprosy-free\u2019 tag for India"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/todays-paper\/tp-national\/sc-questions-leprosy-free-tag-for-india\/article24951096.ece\">SC questions \u2018leprosy-free\u2019 tag for India<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong><u>News<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>\u00a0Supreme Court has questioned the \u2018leprosy-free\u2019 tag for India.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><strong><u>Important Facts<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<ol start=\"2\">\n<li>Leprosy, also known as <strong>Hansen\u2019s disease<\/strong> is a chronic infectious disease caused by <strong>Mycobacterium leprae<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>It usually affects the skin and peripheral nerves. The mode of transmission of leprosy is still not known.<\/li>\n<li>India was declared <strong>leprosy-free<\/strong> on December 31, 2005.<\/li>\n<li><strong>National Leprosy Eradication Programme (NLEP<\/strong>) is a centrally sponsored health scheme under Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and is considered to be the largest leprosy eradication plan in world.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><strong><u>Supreme Court Judgment<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<ol start=\"6\">\n<li>\u00a0India has underestimated leprosy and diverted funds meant to eliminate the curable disease for 18 long years.<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0Only 543 districts of the total 642 districts in the country have achieved the World Health Organization-required prevalence rate of less than one case of leprosy for 10,000 persons.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><strong>\u00a0Implications of Underestimation<\/strong><\/p>\n<ol start=\"8\">\n<li>\u00a0This has resulted in the integration of leprosy in general health services thereby leading to diversion of funds which would have otherwise been dedicated to eliminating leprosy.<\/li>\n<li>Patients and their families continue to suffer from leprosy and its stigma.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<ul>\n<li>They are denied their fundamental right to food.<\/li>\n<li>They are not issued BPL cards.<\/li>\n<li>They are deprived of other basic amenities.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ol start=\"10\">\n<li>\u00a0This results in violation of the fundamental right to equality and right to live with dignity.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><strong>Guidelines issued by court<\/strong><\/p>\n<ol start=\"11\">\n<li>\u00a0The court directed the government to be transparent about leprosy and conduct periodic national surveys to gauge its detection rate.<\/li>\n<li>It asked both the centre and state governments to create awareness campaigns to educate the public about the various initiatives including free availability of <strong>Multi Drug Therapy (MDT).<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>It asked the government to publicize the fact the disease is curable.<\/li>\n<li>The court also banned the use of images of disfigured leprosy patients; instead it called for the use of \u201cpositive\u201d photographs of those cured of leprosy in the campaigns.<\/li>\n<li>It directed the government to ensure that leprosy patients do not face discrimination in hospitals and schools.<\/li>\n<li>It asked for leprosy patients to be provided with BPL cards which would secure their right of food.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SC questions \u2018leprosy-free\u2019 tag for India News \u00a0Supreme Court has questioned the \u2018leprosy-free\u2019 tag for India. Important Facts Leprosy, also known as Hansen\u2019s disease is a chronic infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium leprae It usually affects the skin and peripheral nerves. The mode of transmission of leprosy is still not known. India was declared leprosy-free&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/sc-questions-leprosy-free-tag-for-india\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">SC questions \u2018leprosy-free\u2019 tag for India<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-test-1","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704810770},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27460\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}