BANGALORE: For 24-year-old M Manjunath, life has taken a new turn. He has risen above ostracisation and lives no longer with the stigma of being a leprosy patient.
Manjunath, who was treated for eight years at the Sumanahalli Leprosy Rehabilitation Centre, is fully cured and is now working at Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital in the pharmacy section. Recently, on April 20, he was married to a normal girl who had been working in the centre.
“All my relatives and family used to treat me indifferently and I used to feel very dejected. But a good Samaritan gave me the address of Sumanahalli Leprosy Rehabilitation Centre and now I am able to lead a normal life,” said Manjunath.
“I was under multi-drug treatment for a year at the Centre in 2001. After that, I did my training in leathercraft and printing at the centre. At the same time I did my studies and completed SSLC,” he adds.
Helping hands Run by a group of dedicated priests and nuns belonging to Bangalore Diosece, Sumanahalli Centre, located on a 48-acre plot granted by the government near Magadi Road in Kamakshipalya, the centre has been carrying on its mission of providing treatment to and helping in rehabilitation of people affected by leprosy for the last 30 years. More than 5,000 people in urban areas and slums have been treated by the society. Patients from other states as well have been provided treatment and rehabilitation.
It is not just treatment. The organisation also trains leprosy patients in leather-craft, tailoring, printing, knitting and other units and shelters those who have nowhere to go or have been ostracised by their families.
Apart from leprosy, other disadvantaged sections of the society, such as those afflicted with HIV/AIDS, other disabilities, street children and orphans are also being taken care of.
Fr George Kannanthanam, Director, Sumanahalli Leprosy Rehabilitation Centre, says, “Though the prevalence rate of the disease in the state has come down from 50 per 10,000 people in 1986 to 0.61 per 10,000 in 2007, but our mission is still incomplete as fresh cases are still being reported and new admissions are being made.
Moreover, we have elderly abandoned people in our centre who have nowhere to go even after they are cured.”