Lepers still scorned

-By a Post Reporter

MORANG, Jan 18 - A resident of Sadarbairiya VDC in Morang district, Suresh Khadka has been cured of leprosy following a year-long treatment.

However, he found that he is still despised in society because public disdain for leprosy patients has not changed.

“It was natural that people tried to keep aloof for fear of contacting the disease when I was suffering from leprosy, but even after I have completely recovered from the disease I am still living away from the society,” he said.

Similarly, another leprosy patient Ramesh Bhujel complains, “The life of a leprosy patient is difficult as he continues to suffer from discrimination even after he is cured.”

Even though some leprosy patients are completely cured, they are so engrossed with an inferiority complex that they may still have the remnants of the disease. 

Chief of the Leprosy Diagnosis Centre Dr Krishna Prasad Dhakal says superstition about leprosy and the lack of knowledge about the fact that leprosy is not communicated from people who are cured are the two major impediments in the treatment of the disease. According to Dr Dhakal, there are two types of leprosy - communicable and non-communicable. Patients should take medicines regularly for six months to cure non-communicable leprosy and for one year to cure communicable leprosy.

Even if the disease is communicable, it will cease to be so 24 hours after the patient starts taking medicines. However, the irony is that people in our society still have the wrong notion that they may contact the disease from a leprosy patient even when he has been completely cured, Dr Dhakal added.

Established 16 years ago with the assistance of the Netherlands Leprosy Relief Association, the Leprosy Diagnosis Centre claims that it has so far cured about 15 thousand leprosy patients.

The centre has been providing treatment to about five thousand patients of the eastern Terai belt free of cost. Nearly two thousand Indian leprosy patients come for treatment of their disease every year at the Biratnagar based leprosy clinic, according to Dr Dhakal.

The leprosy patients of the eastern region are undergoing treatment free of cost in hospitals of different districts, health posts and sub-health posts in each VDC. The leprosy patients currently undergoing treatment in different districts include 807 in Morang, 1078 in Jhapa, 523 in Sunsari, 1123 in Saptari, 852 in Siraha, 208 in Udayapur and 60 in different hilly districts.

Govt should seek fresh options

-By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, Jan 18 - Just five days before the head of the constitutional anti-corruption body the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) retires, intellectuals today stressed that the government should explore options other than the retired bureaucrats.

At an interaction programme on What the next CIAA chief should be like organised by the Pro-Public, an NGO working on the areas of public concern, advocate Purna Man Shakya said the government should not only look among the bureaucrats for the position. “Qualified people with clean image from NGOs, legal field and other areas should also be appointed the chief commissioner,” he said.

Kedar Khadka of Pro-Public said the organisation was beginning a series of debate on what the constitutional head should be like. He said there has to be a public debate before appointing constitutional heads.

Participants of the programme comprising former CIAA heads, present CIAA commissioners, lawyers and bureaucrats also prepared a list of 10 persons to propose as the next CIAA Chief Commissioner. Khadka said the list will be handed over to the Constitutional Council.

Migrant tailors take over

-By a Post Reporter

MORANG, Jan 18 - “ Darji”, the community which survived for generations as tailors, are gradually deserting their traditional occupation as a result of the encroachment of migrants from the Terai.

Darjis themselves admit that more and more Terai community people are replacing them because the newcomers have better skills and technology for stitching modern design clothes.

Dik Bahadur Darji of Darbesha VDC in Morang district says he had been making ends meet until a few years ago, but he can hardly meet personal expenses, let alone meeting his family expenses.

“It is not only me, but also all other Darjis who are being wiped out  from  traditional occupation,” he added.

Kumar, another Darji, said they were bound to be replaced by tailors from the Terai community because they were still relying on traditional skills and technology while the newcomers were equipped with better skills and modern technology.

Darjis allege that even if they have skills in addition to cheaper rates of tailoring, people prefer tailors from the Terai.

The Darjis have therefore been relegated to the job of mending and stitching old and torn clothes. Many of them have also been working on annual rent (particularly in terms of lump-sum foodgrain) in the rural areas.

About one hundred Darjis are somehow sticking to their traditional occupation while the people of the Terai community who have adopted the tailoring occupation are over one thousand.

Salsa and Merengue at Radisson

KATHMANDU,Jan 18(PR)-Luisa Celentano will showcase her wonderful voice in accompaniment with her trio at the drums,saxophone and bass guitar at the Radisson Hotel on Jan 19.Their performance is in favour of eloquence and introspection.

The Luisa Celentana Quartet will be enhanced by the illustrious background of the Jazz Academy in Graz,Austria performs at the Radisson Hotel.Inspired by music that runs in the family,Luisa Celentana is the daughter of Andreatto Celentano, a great contributor to Latin American Jazz. The varied menu of music and entertainment with dance master Andreas is expected to attract a good-time crowd.