Caring for Leprosy Patients Is Out of Nuns’ Hands in India State

For as long as the leprosy patients can remember, the nuns have cared for them in the government hospital, bandaging their wounds, handing out pills and giving them food.

But in April the state kicked out the sisters. Soon, the Leprosy Hospital will close.

The official reason is that leprosy is a dying disease. But many here believe the decision has more to do with the pro-Hindu philosophy of the government of the western state of Gujarat, blamed for attacking Christianity and Islam since taking power in the late 1990s.

“I think religion has gone against these nuns,” said M.D. Khursheed, the secretary of a nearby leprosy colony of 42 families. “Otherwise, there’s no logical reason.”

The number of people affected by the closing is in some respects small -- five nuns, fewer than 100 leprosy patients and 368 HIV-positive patients in another program. But the decision has bigger implications for the government, long plagued by charges of persecuting religious minorities. Christians have been attacked for allegedly trying to convert Hindus. In 2002, Hindu mobs in the state slaughtered more than 1,000 Muslims in riots lasting several weeks.

Ashok Bhatt, the health minister of Gujarat, dismissed allegations that the decision was based on religion. He said the nuns’ contract was not renewed because leprosy has been eradicated from the state.

“These people who have tried to defame Gujarat have no agenda but defaming Gujarat,” Bhatt said. “My only prayer is, ‘God save them.’ ”

Treating leprosy patients has long been the work of Catholic nuns and Christian missionaries. Leprosy patients -- easily recognizable because of missing fingers and toes and facial deformities -- have been outcasts in most countries, not just India. Because the disease is contagious and disfiguring, leprosy patients have typically been isolated, kicked out of their homes and moved into colonies. Often, missionaries and nuns were the only people who would care for them.

Nuns from the Salesian Missionaries of Mary Immaculate took over the hospital from the government in 1949. After that, the state renewed the contract every five years. The contract always forbade the nuns from converting their patients. The nuns insisted they never tried.

“I lived my Bible,” said Sister Karuna, the former supervisor at the Leprosy Hospital. “I did not preach it.”

Over the years, advances in leprosy have been made; new drug therapies can now cure leprosy within a year. The number of leprosy cases dropped from about 10 million worldwide in 1985 to about 400,000 last year.

Colonies for so-called lepers have closed; in many countries, attempts have been made to re-integrate those with leprosy into their communities and families.

But in India, that is tough. People with the disease live on the margins, often as beggars. For some in Ahmadabad, the Leprosy Hospital and the leprosy colony are the only homes they know.

The nuns’ contract last came up for renewal in 2001, a few years after the Bharatiya Janata Party won power in Gujarat. Under its governance, Catholics have had a difficult time, said Father Cedric Prakash, a Jesuit priest and social activist.

The government balked at signing the contract in 2001, Prakash said. Only after a lot of pressure and negotiation was it signed, he said.

This year, it was clear the Leprosy Hospital had little chance. Government officials sent a letter in February saying the contract would not be renewed, and they refused to negotiate.

The hospital will close soon, along with the two other government leprosy hospitals run by Catholic nuns.

“The government is not punishing the sisters,” Prakash said. “They’re not punishing the Christians. They’re punishing the leprosy patients of Gujarat.”