Prime Highlights
- Maharashtra to constitute a state-level committee of NGOs and health workers to implement leprosy eradication successfully.
- Financial support for leprosy hospitals and rehabilitation centers to be raised significantly.
Key Facts
- Committee to monitor programme implementation and report to the state government on a quarterly basis.
- New three-drug treatment implemented to help achieve India’s goal of zero leprosy transmission by 2027.
Key Background
In a major step towards strengthening its public health programme, the Maharashtra Health Department has decided to establish a state- position expert commission for effective perpetration of the Leprosy Eradication Programme. The commission will correspond of government officers, croakers , NGOs, and lawn- root workers, all of them working in an intertwined manner to insure there’s comprehensive care, early opinion, and timely treatment of leprosy cases.
The committee’s responsibilities are to evaluate early detection methods of the patient, raising the awareness, improvement of the treatment plans, and giving rehabilitation to the affected individuals. It will also focus on the eradication of social stigma and will work through the urban health centers, rural clinics, and school health systems. Quarterly reports will be given to the state government in order to track the progress and difficulties of the program.
During a legislative session held in Vidhan Bhavan, there were apprehensions raised regarding leprosy hospitals and rehabilitation centers not receiving adequate funding. Maharashtra has 12 hospitals with 2,764 beds and 11 rehabilitation centers with 1,825 beds. Each bed is now receiving ₹2,200 and ₹2,000 respectively as monthly financial support. There is now a proposal to increase this support to ₹6,000 per bed every month, which is pending before the Finance Department.
Health Minister Prakash Abitkar emphasized that the new thrust is also in accordance with the national mission to achieve zero transmission of leprosy by 2027 as determined by the central government. A three-drug multi-drug therapy (MDT) which has just been initiated throughout India from April 2025 will also be taken by Maharashtra as part of its treatment regimen.
The scheme is part of overall National Leprosy Eradication Programme, which has been operative since 1983 and saw a success with its first introduction of the MDT in the 1990s. With a prevalence of the disease less than 1 per 10,000, Maharashtra’s strategy of targeting is a great leap towards being an independent leprosy-free state.
