Central Legislation As the next chapter brings out, the period 1889-1890 was one of high panic about the danger of leprosy. Charges of official “dilatoriness” in moving against lepers compelled the Central Government in 1889 to come out with draft of leprosy legislation.
Draft Leper Bill to make Provision for the Isolation of Lepers and the Amelioration of their Condition: 50 The dual aims of the Bill reflected Calcutta’s awareness of the fact that the forcible isolation of lepers with penalties for offenders by itself would not be acceptable to Indian public opinion without the added humanitarian provisions. The Bill empowered a District Magistrate to “order the arrest of any person whom he believes to the suffering from leprosy, and who is found asking for alms or wandering about without any employment or visible means of subsistence and may, upon proof that the person is a leper, commit him to a retreat…” While it permitted lepers to voluntarily isolate themselves in “retreats”, in effect the legislation was targeted specifically at leper vagrants and beggars. Anyone who escaped was to be re-arrested and returned to isolation. In the all-important matter of paying for enforcing the legislation, the Central Government adroitly laid the responsibility at the door of provincial and local bodies, cash-strapped as those bodies always were. Local funds were expected to maintain leper asylums out of scarce resources earmarked for hospitals, dispensaries and the like. Once a leper was admitted in an asylum, there was no hope of his ever being free again without the law's permission. The draft bill of 1889, however, was not destined to appear on the statute books. The beggar leper obtained a reprieve. Calcutta, pressed by London, decided to postpone legislation pending the visit of the Leprosy 50
The provisions of the draft bill of 1889 are listed in Appendix 5.2 The opinions of British and Indian colonial society on the proposed legislation are considered in Chapter 6. Laws and Lepers.
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