At a home for destitute leprosy patients at Vehloli village in Maharashtra's Thane district, 29-year-old Niharika Palande's deep suffering seems to have broken her voice just like her spirit. The Karad native has been living with her brother Girish Thosar's family in Mumbai since her parents' death (in an accident in 2010) and was married off six years ago. Tired of her sister-in-law's barbs, despite doing more household chores than a full time maid, the Class XII dropout had accepted the proposal.

COMMERCIAL BREAK
SCROLL TO CONTINUE READING

Prashant Palande, the groom and a fabricator in Bengaluru, soon set up his own workshop in Hossur, where the couple had moved. Then leprosy struck. Niharika had ignored early signs of numbness in limbs thinking it is exhaustion from household chores until a lesion appeared on the edge of her left nostril in September 2016.

"Once medical tests established it was leprosy, my husband didn't want anything to do with me and sent me back to my brother's house, alone on a bus," she recalls. The brother's family did not want her staying in their Kalachowki home. So, she was first packed off to a temporary destitute home in Dahisar and from there to Vehloli.

When her brother visited her three months ago, she discovered her husband divorced her with ease, since she had leprosy, and had also remarried.

Senior advisor at the National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEDP) Rati Misra points out how Niharika is not alone. "Discriminatory laws have helped compound the distress of those suffering from leprosy for far too long – despite the 2016 repealment of the 1898 Leper's Act mandating segregation of those suffering from the disease," she said and added, "Women bear the brunt of stigma since they are often at the lowest rung of the social hierarchy and feel helpless when told how the laws are stacked against them."

Readers may recall that the 1898 Lepers Act, introduced in the British era when leprosy was incurable, leading the infected being segregated in colonies away from general population since it was widely believed that this will contain it. This institutionalised the cruel discrimination of the affected, which continued in violation of their fundamental rights as citizens for 68 years after Independence till it was repealed by the Ministry of Law and Justice.

But that hasn't taken those affected by leprosy entirely out of the ambit of discrimination Misra points out. "Section 13 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, allows dissolution of marriage if one of the partners has been 'suffering from a virulent and incurable form of leprosy. Section 2 of the Dissolution of Muslim Marriage Act 1939 and Section 27 of the Special Marriage Act 1954, Section 18 of the Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act 1956; Section 18 of the Jammu And Kashmir Hindu Adoptions And Maintenance Act 1960; Section 13 of the Jammu And Kashmir Hindu Marriage Act 1980 and Section 2 of the Jammu & Kashmir Dissolution Of Muslim Marriages Act 1999 perpetuate the stigmatisation of those affected by leprosy," she points out.

Others like Dhvani Mehta, a Senior Resident Fellow at Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy (VCLP), an independent legal policy advisory group that has filed a petition in the Supreme Court to end discrimination, not only echoed Misra's views but pointed out, "There are currently 119 provisions across various Acts passed by the central and state governments that continue to discriminate against People Affected by Leprosy (PAL). These are also directly in contrast with the provisions of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act 2016 that mandates non-discrimination and equality for all irrespective of the disability."

She pointed out how The Orissa Municipal Corporation Act, 2003, disqualifies anyone suffering from leprosy from contesting civic polls. "The Rajasthan Panchayati Raj Act, 1994, too, has a provision barring anyone with leprosy from contesting elections," she said, adding,"Karnataka's Dr Gangubai Hangal Sangeetha Mattu Pradarshaka Kalegala Vishwavidyalaya Act, 2009, Sec 35(2) empowers the University Syndicate to remove any authority of the University who suffer from leprosy."

Both Misra and Mehta admit it is a positive sign that the state and the centre have taken a non-adversarial position at all the five hearings in the apex court on the issue and appreciate how these laws are a violation of fundamental rights under Sec 19 of the Constitution.

A ray of hope for the likes of Niharika comes from The Personal Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2018, introduced in Lok Sabha by the Minister for Law and Justice, Ravi Shankar Prasad, on August 10, 2018, which seeks to amend the Divorce Act, 1869, the Dissolution of Muslim Marriage Act, 1939, the Special Marriage Act, 1954, the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, and the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, 1956 that contain provisions related to marriage, divorce, and separation of Hindu and Muslim couples. These laws have facilitated the use of leprosy as grounds for divorce/separation from the spouse often leading to abandonment and suffering.