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The Government of India has launched National Strategic Plan (NSP) & Roadmap for Leprosy (2023-27) on 30th January, 2023, to achieve zero transmission of leprosy by 2027 i.e. three years ahead of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3.3. The NSP and Roadmap contains implementation strategies, year-wise targets, public health approaches and overall technical guidance for the programme. The strategy and roadmap focuses on awareness for zero stigma & discrimination, promotion of early case detection, prevention of disease transmission by prophylaxis (Leprosy Post Exposure Prophylaxis) and roll out of web-based information portal (Nikusth 2.0) for reporting of leprosy cases.
After achieving elimination status at national level, National Leprosy Eradication Programme (NLEP) has taken a number of initiatives to encourage early case detection of leprosy patients to prevent Grade 2 Disabilities, and to ensure free of cost treatment of leprosy patients. There are few districts within States/UTs, where leprosy is endemic. With various intervention introduced under NLEP in the last few years, number of new leprosy cases detected have come down to 75,394 in 2021-22 from 1,25,785 in 2014-15, accounting for 53.6% of global new leprosy cases. The current NLEP State-wise data is annexed.
India has achieved the elimination of leprosy as a public health problem as per WHO criteria of less than 1 case per 10,000 population at the National level in 2005.
State wise NLEP data FY 2022-23 (up to Jan’2023)
| S.No. | State/UT | Prevalence Rate (PR)/ 10000 population |
| 1 | Andhra Pradesh | 0.5 |
| 2 | Arunachal Pradesh | 0.1 |
| 3 | Assam | 0.2 |
| 4 | Bihar | 0.9 |
| 5 | Chhattisgarh | 2.3 |
| 6 | Goa | 0.2 |
| 7 | Gujarat | 0.4 |
| 8 | Haryana | 0.1 |
| 9 | Himachal Pradesh | 0.2 |
| 10 | 10 Jharkhand | 1.4 |
| 11 | 11 Jammu & Kashmir | 0.1 |
| 12 | Karnataka | 0.3 |
| 13 | Kerala | 0.1 |
| 2314 | 14 Madhya Pradesh | 0.9 |
| 15 | 15 Maharashtra | 1.2 |
| 16 | 16 Manipur | 0.1 |
| 17 | 17 Meghalaya | 0.0 |
| 18 | 18 Mizoram | 0.1 |
| 19 | 19 Nagaland | 0.1 |
| 20 | 20 Odisha | 1.2 |
| 21 | 21 Punjab | 0.2 |
| 22 | 22 Rajasthan | 0.1 |
| 23 | 23 Sikkim | 0.2 |
| 24 | 24 Tamil Nadu | 0.3 |
| 25 | 25 Telangana | 0.7 |
| 26 | 26 Tripura | 0.0 |
| 27 | 27 Uttar Pradesh | 0.4 |
| 28 | 28 Uttarakhand | 0.3 |
| 29 | 29 West Bengal | 0.5 |
| 30 | 30 A & N Islands | 0.1 |
| 31 | 31 Chandigarh | 1.4 |
| 32 | 32 D & N Haveli | 1.0 |
| 33 | 33 Daman & Diu | 0.1 |
| 34 | 34 Delhi | 0.8 |
| 35 | 35 Lakshadweep | 0.0 |
| 36 | 36 Ladakh | 0.3 |
| 37 | 37 Puducherry | 0.1 |
The Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Dr. Bharati Pravin Pawar stated this in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha yesterday.
