Kathmandu, August 23
Speakers at a programme have said the people suffering from leprosy should be empowered through social security schemes so that they can be self-sufficient and competent. Former chief justice Kalyan Shrestha said the dignity of people living with leprosy was hurt because they were deprived of education, health, employment and even detachment from family and society.
It is imperative to assure their rights with legal guarantees, he stressed. “Nepali society has a negative perspective towards leprosy, so it needs changing,” he said, urging the government to empower them along with social justice. Only sympathy does not suffice; empowerment does. During a programme conducted by various organisations including the Nepal Law Society, the Association for Idea Nepal and the Nepal Leprosy Prevention Association, Acting Mayor of Kathmandu Metropolis, Sunita Dangol, viewed leprosy as not a problem but a different health condition.
“Such people must be provided rights and opportunities,” she argued. In his presentation focusing on the social security and economic empowerment of people living with leprosy, former finance secretary of the government, Sishir Dhungana, suggested the introduction of self-entrepreneurship programmes for people living with leprosy. Seed money and concessional loans are other equally important schemes, according to him.
Dhungana further said skill development training and employment can help improve their living standard. Once the marketing is managed for the products made by such people with entrepreneurship, it helps manage their income. It was shared at the programme that nearly 200 thousand people are affected by leprosy in Nepal at present, among whom 30,000 have been disabled.
The number of people contracting this disease every year ranges from 2,000 to 2,500. Still in Madhes Province, more than one person in 10,000 contracts the leprosy-causing bacteria. Undersecretary at the Ministry of Women, Children, Gender and Sexual Minorities and Social Security, Nira Adhikari, said the disability is an issue of multidimensional social debate. Inclusion of differently able people is not a technical challenge but a political and moral one, she asserted.
