"Normalisation is a holistic goal. It cannot be achieved by addressing only the physical problems of persons affected by Hansen's Disease. It is necessary also to help them solve their disease related psychological, spiritual, social and economic problems.
Socially, the goal is to help persons affected by the disease to remain within their home communities, participating with the same rights and duties in the groups they would normally have participated, if they had never contracted the disease. The goal is to avoid all types of segregation which place persons affected by the disease in specialised leprosy institutions or bar them from general services provided by community institutions like schools, churches, housing, recreation facilities, hospitals, rehabilitation centres, homes for the elderly persons and disabled, etc.
Economically, the goal is that persons affected by Hansen's Disease continue to lead an economic life as similar to the one they would have led, had they never contracted the disease. This means that they have equal access to jobs and to vocational training opportunities for development of their skills. Access to economic assistance should be based not on the criteria of Hansen's Disease but on more general factors such as age, disability level, financial need and availability of alternative sources of support".
ldentifying the target groups for Socio-Economic Rehabilitation：
In the field of leprosy some data are available on physical disability, but the data on social and economic disability of leprosy affected persons are not generally available.
It is quite obvious that not all leprosy affected persons need rehabilitation. In a sample study conducted in India among 53,000 living leprosy affected persons nationwide, it was found that 34 percent of them need some kind of social and/or economic rehabilitation assistance. The number of leprosy affected persons treated so far is very high in endemic countries. It is necessary to select the leprosy affected persons who need rehabilitation. After selection it is also necessary to list them in priority based on their needs, capacity, available resources, etc.
The persons who would need rehabilitation also differ vastly. The person may be a male or female, young or old, educated or uneducated, rich or poor, etc. These high variations among leprosy affected persons also emphasize the need to select the persons from among the total number of persons treated.
The socio-economic rehabilitation is a major task involving different kinds of programmes suitable for each category of persons. The problems of each individual is unique. Each person needs to be assessed and helped accordingly. It is necessary to broadly categorise the leprosy affected persons to find who would need, what type of assistance, and also who are not suitable for rehabilitation. Those who do not require any help could also be found in this study.
Based on the field experience in socio-economic rehabilitation in India a methodology was developed. This methodology is already in use in some Projects in India. It is also approved fully or with little modifications by Projects in many countries.
