As part of the Sparsh Leprosy Awareness Campaign, school and college students on Wednesday took out a rally near the Anna statue in Arcot, to raise awareness about medical facilities available to eliminate leprosy from the society.
The students carried placards highlighting the need to maintain clean surroundings and hygienic conditions to prevent leprosy.
District Collector S. Divyadharshini administered a pledge to the participants and flagged off the rally.
A number of programmes were held under the National Leprosy Eradication Programme (NLEP), where doctors who have done exemplary work as part of the mission were honoured by Ms. Divyadharshini.
Schoolchildren also shared their views on “Leprosy Eradication: Mahatma Gandhi’s Dream” through their essays.
Leprosy elimination
The National Leprosy Control Programme was launched by the Government of India in 1955.
After the introduction of the Multi Drug Therapy in 1982, the programme was converted into the National Leprosy Eradication Programme (NLEP), in 1983, with the objective eradicating the disease from the country.
Twenty-nine States/ U.T.s have attained the level of leprosy elimination, i.e., a prevalence rate of less than one case of leprosy per 10,000 population, and 572 districts (81.13%) of a total of 705 have also achieved the elimination level.
The Sparsh Leprosy Awareness Campaign, 2018, was started as an annual activity, during the fortnight from January 30 to February 13, to raise awareness about leprosy.
Deputy director (health services), Vellore, K.S.T. Suresh; deputy director (family welfare) K. Nedumaran; deputy director (health services-T.B.) P. Prakash Ayyappan; Arcot Municipal Commissioner S. Shakila; chief medical officer of the Arcot Government Hospital Sivasankari; and block development officer S. Venkatachalam were present on the occasion.
