Non Government Organizations (NGO's) or Voluntary organizations have been playing an important role in providing leprosy services in India for decades. The NGO's involvement in leprosy work can be dated back to pre-dapsone era; that is before 1940s, when no effective cure was available. They were involved in care of leprosy-affected persons by establishing leprosy homes. Their dedication and commitment to individual patients / ex-patients is undiminished upto present stage of elimination of leprosy. In India, there are nearly 285 NGO's who are involved in leprosy work. Most of these are local NGO's and are being provided Grant in Aid by Government of India and some are supported by the ILEP Organizations.

　

　

ILEP members support medical, social and humanitarian activities through out the world to prevent, cure and rehabilitate people affected by leprosy, and eventually eradicate leprosy.

　

In India, there are eight ILEP members Associations who are actively involved in leprosy work with their offices, staff and other infrastructure.

　

　

Sasakawa Memorial Health Foundation (Japan) is actively involved in NLEP through international and national provision of resources working with Government of India (GOI) and some ILEP Members.

　

ILEP members work closely with Government of India, State Governments and other organizations at Local, National and International level.

　

The ILEP member associations in India provide following services -

　

Though there is a major reduction in the problem of leprosy in India, with prevalence coming down from 57 /10,000 to about 4.2/10,000, prevalence levels are still high in seven endemic states, namely Bihar, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal. ILEP in India have continued to give invaluable support to these seven endemic states to achieve leprosy elimination and to strengthen the process of Integration.

　

Major activities in these states are:

　

　

The support Teams are provided in all seven endemic states to strengthen the process of integration by assisting the General Health Care System in achieving the leprosy elimination.

　

Role of DTSTs:

　

ILEP Members Associations have placed DTSTs in the seven endemic states:

　

　

The main achievements of DTSTs are

　

　

Government of India requested the ILEP members in India to take the responsibility of preparing appropriate learning materials for different categories of general health staff. In response to this request, ILEP constituted a core group, which went through job descriptions of various categories of General health staff to prepare relevant learning material.

　

The learning material was produced for different category of General Health Care staff (Medical Officers, Health Assistants, Multipurpose Workers, Village Health Guide, General Practitioners) in the year 1999. Facilitator's Guides were also prepared for trainers.

　

The Learning materials were distributed to all Health care staff during MLEC training programmes. This has been produced in 12 languages including Hindi, Bengali, and Oriya. These materials were distributed to all the states including seven endemic states.

　

Quantity of Booklets Produced and supplied were 2150000. The cost involved m producing these materials was around 15 million Indian Rupees.

　

　

ILEP members through its District Technical Support Teams are involved in assisting and transporting MDT Blister packs to various districts from state head quarters especially in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh states to ensure continued supply of blister packs at the peripheral level.

　

　

Realizing the importance of treating nerve function impairment to prevent deformities, ILEP member organizations facilitated the distribution of Prednipacks supplied by Sasakawa Memorial Health Foundation (SMHF-Japan), on the request from Government of India. The prednipacks supplied were 47,000.

　

　

ILEP has recently taken an initiative to carry out evaluation of MLEC-III in seven endemic states The purpose of MLEC evaluation was

　

To know the extent coverage of villages

To assess the quality of case diagnosed in terms of accuracy

To assess the awareness of leprosy in the community.

　

The overall findings are encouraging

　

Around 80% to 90% of the villages have been covered during the MLEC-III Programme.

Primary Health Care staff played a leading role in diagnosing leprosy. The diagnostic efficiency of Medical Officers of Primary Health Care was found to be good.

All the patients diagnosed were treated with MDT. Around 79% of the patients were aware of the availability blister packs at PHCs.

　

This evaluation has clearly indicated the progress towards integration.

　

　

An evaluation of NLEP was carried out in 16 districts of Bihar and 5 districts in Jharkhand by the District Technical Support Teams in June 2001. WHO guideline on "Leprosy Elimination Monitoring (LEM) exercise" was used with some modification.

　

The following were the main findings:

　

　

Government of India (Leprosy division) has felt that it is necessary to make the Simple Information System to suit the General Health Care staff for reporting leprosy activities. The ILEP members have come forward in providing their expertise along with Government of India (GOI) and other partners in simplifying the recording and reporting system. Which suits GHC system.

　

　

Leprosy work in urban situation creates challenges with problems such as rapid urbanization, industrialization, migration of population and the diversity of service providers. Both GOI and ILEP members feel the need to strengthen urban leprosy control activities ILEP can provide its assistance to examine issues related to leprosy work in urban areas like identification of areas of concern and gaps in provision; formulation of action plans; identification of training needs and organization of training and the co-ordination of activities in a multi sectoral, context. ILEP members proposes to assist governments in carrying out urban leprosy programmes.