By Nityanand Shukla, IANS
Ranchi : They are ostracised in Indian society but a group of leprosy patients in the Jharkhand capital has set an example of self-sustenance that others can learn from.
More than 100 families of leprosy affected people who live beneath a flyover here have been growing potatoes, onions, cabbages, cauliflowers and wheat for their own consumption for about 10 years.
The houses of the leprosy patients get flooded during the rainy season but they utilise the rainwater to harvest vegetables on one and a half acres of vacant land beside the Harmu river.
The vegetables sustain them for at least six months a year.
“Around 10 years ago, four people from our colony decided to use the land to grow vegetables. The good harvest prompted us to grow more vegetables and wheat,” Dhirendra Pal, a leprosy patient, told IANS.
Pal, a resident of Bundu block in Ranchi, came to the city 17 years ago after he was driven out of his village because of misconceptions about the disease. He finally found a shelter in the leprosy patients’ colony under the flyover.
Nikodam Tirkey, another man suffering from the disease who came to Ranchi 22 years ago from Khuti district, also took shelter in the colony.
“First we grew potatoes and onions. The land was fertile due to the river passing by near our colony. We later decided to grow green vegetables. For the last seven years we have also been growing wheat,” Tirkey said.
The leprosy patients of the neighbourhood earn their livelihood in different ways. Some work as labourers, some pull rickshaws while others are engaged in begging.
The population of leprosy patients in Jharkhand is about 37,000. There are two colonies for the leprosy affected in Ranchi alone.