Dev Bhoomi Samiti: a leprosy NGO in Uttarakhand saving lives

IT all started when two school boys named Pravesh Uniyal and Brijpal Rawat were just going about their day in 2015 when they saw something that made them stop in their tracks. In the corner of the street an old man was crouched on the floor eating scraps of waste from a garbage pile on the road. This shocked the school boys and the truth of the suffering of poor people disturbed them so much that it was all they could talk about. But instead of feeling bad and then forgetting about it, the boys decided to become proactive. Pravesh and Brijpal went door to door to all the shops they could find asking people to donate food, rations or even money so they could feed the homeless. This was how they started their service to society which went on to become the leprosy NGO Dev Bhoomi Samiti. 

 

Dev Bhoomi Samiti focused on feeding nutritious food to poor children and adults to ensure that the most disadvantaged members of our communities have the bare minimum to not just be alive, but for their health to improve. Living in Uttarakhand, Pravesh and Brijpal also started to witness the immense suffering and injustices faced by individuals with the disease leprosy. Since leprosy is still a feared disease around the world, most people who have leprosy are often chased out of homes and residential areas and also have no access to education and employment which means that there are no opportunities to improve their lives and lift themselves out of poverty. Thus Dev Bhoomi Samiti started looking after abandoned and shunned people suffering from the disease and also became a leprosy NGO.

Leprosy in India

In India, there are an estimated 250,000 people with leprosy and that accounts for a large part of the world’s total number of cases. Leprosy is also known as Hansen’s Disease and is still one of the most dreaded diseases around the world. Even though leprosy is contagious, it is not as contagious as people think. To transmit leprosy, a prolonged transmission of droplets from the affected person to another is required and the disease cannot be spread through a few interactions with someone who has leprosy. But the stigma against leprosy persists and in India, people with leprosy are confined to leprosy colonies which are areas far away from residential areas that often lack access to food, water and medical attention. Either that, or people with leprosy live on street corners and beg for their survival. 

 

A leprosy NGO that cares

Dev Bhoomi Samiti found out just how much people with leprosy suffer and decided that their organization would care for them. The Uttarakhand-based leprosy NGO realized that most of the people who are on the streets have been pushed out from their homes and abandoned by their families because of their affliction. What makes matters worse is that most of them are senior citizens and are unable to take care of themselves. Leprosy is a debilitating disease that can cause the fingers and toes to disintegrate and without their hands and legs, people who are already suffering on the streets cannot even pick up objects with their hands to feed themselves. The nature of the discrimination against leprosy is that people with leprosy are not given educational or employment opportunities, keeping them in a state of helplessness.

Dev Bhoomi Samiti’s care for people

Since 2019, Uttarakhand-based leprosy NGO Dev Bhoomi Samiti has been helping people with leprosy who need a helping hand to survive in a world that has shunned them. These individuals are suffering without food, water, medicines and the care and support needed to survive and treat their wounds. The leprosy NGO provides medical care and supplies such as medication, bandages, spectacles and wheelchairs to treat their conditions, rations to ensure there is a regular supply of nutritious food, clean water to help improve their health and basic necessities such as clothing and bedding to tend to their essential needs. In providing these basic needs to people, the leprosy NGO ensures that people have access to what they need to start building their health and improving their lives. 

 

In addition to providing people’s basic needs, the leprosy NGO also prioritizes empowering the lives of people with leprosy. The organization does this through providing livelihood training programs to people to help them learn the skills needed to get access to jobs, earn an income and live in financial independence. Ensuring the people with leprosy have self-sufficient and dignified lives is an important priority for the leprosy NGO who believes that a sustainable and long-term approach is needed to transform the lives of individuals with leprosy and their families. The leprosy NGO also organizes events and activities that help individuals with leprosy integrate into mainstream society and this is one of the strongest ways to break the stigma against the disease. 

Breaking the stigma against leprosy

Dev Bhoomi Samiti, as a leprosy NGO, makes it a point to routinely hold awareness campaigns to educate people about leprosy and break the myths and misconceptions that people have about the disease. The leprosy NGO also believes it is important to engage with local communities to help them understand more about people with leprosy who may live in or near their neighborhoods and their suffering. But more than anything else, abandoned people with leprosy suffer from the pain of isolation, knowing that their families and neighbors fear them and want nothing to do with them because of a disease that is not their fault. The leprosy NGO also pays attention to this important aspect of care and provides personal support to these marginalized individuals to help them have hope for the future. 

 

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