New Delhi
Under the roadmap, a district is considered to have interrupted transmission after reporting zero new indigenous child cases for five consecutive years. The NLEP’s programme objectives include zero disability among new child cases and a national G2D rate of less than one case per million population. The appearance of children among newly detected cases matters beyond the absolute number. New child cases are considered an indicator of recent transmission, although the presence of a child case cannot by itself establish when or where the infection occurred. The WHO notes that symptoms can appear years after infection. Leprosy, or Hansen’s disease, is a chronic bacterial infection caused mainly by Mycobacterium leprae. It primarily affects the skin and peripheral nerves. Transmission occurs mainly through prolonged, close contact with an untreated person. The disease is curable with multidrug therapy, a combination of antibiotics provided free through public-health programmes.
India recorded 3,832 new leprosy cases among children in 2025-26, including 37 who had Grade-2 disability (G2D) at diagnosis — an indicator of delayed detection. The child caseload was 91.6% higher than the National Leprosy Eradication Programme’s (NLEP) target of 2,000 cases for the year. The figures, from the latest NLEP annual report for 2025-26, come even as India pursues the National Strategic Plan for Leprosy 2023-27, which seeks to interrupt transmission at the district level by 2027. The roadmap projects 1,000 child cases and a G2D rate of 0.5 per million for 2026-27. The World Health Organisation (WHO) considers new cases among children below 15 years an indicator of recent transmission, while G2D among newly detected patients indicates delayed diagnosis. India detected 91,783 new leprosy cases in 2025-26, according to the Union Health Ministry. The prevalence rate was 0.56 per 10,000 population, and 1,945 patients had Grade-2 disability at diagnosis, accounting for 2.12% of all newly detected cases. The national G2D rate was 1.34 per million, above the NLEP’s target of less than one case per million. For a disease that is curable, and for which early detection and treatment can prevent the progression to disability, the continued detection of children — including some already showing Grade-2 disability — highlights the tension between programme targets and what is still being detected in communities.
The WHO says prolonged, close contact with untreated cases allows transmission to continue, while the disease’s long incubation period makes interruption difficult.
