New Delhi, July 23 - Do you know a person affected with leprosy is not eligible to get a driving license? Or stand in local elections in some states? Or even travel in a train?

Leprosy can even be a ground for divorce.

'There are many acts in the country that clearly advocate discrimination against leprosy patients. Even after they are cured, they cannot stand for local body or panchayat elections in states like Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa,' Jeyakumar Daniel, director of the Leprosy Mission Trust India, an NGO, told IANS.

He said while medical science had helped India to eradicate leprosy up to 95 percent, the disease was still widely treated as a social stigma.

Daniel said there were 20 laws at the national and 40 at the state levels that discriminate against leprosy patients.

'They are living in self-settled colonies in miserable conditions, far away from the main cities. Begging is their only sustenance,' Daniel said.

So the NGO, along with leprosy patients, approached the Rajya Sabha chairman of the committee on petitions with 11 points, seeking amendments in laws that harm the interests of the victims.

'These acts stand as a barrier to our empowerment. These acts were enacted when the disease was considered contagious and incurable. But the situation has changed drastically. So why these acts?' asked Gopal, who heads an NGO made up of the leprosy hit.

The group Wednesday met the committee chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu, a Bharatiya Janata Party leader.

'(Naidu) said he would write to the prime minister so that these acts could be amended,' Gopal told IANS.

He said India passed the Leprosy Act in 1898 to ensure that people with leprosy are not discriminated. But still laws and regulations continue to segregate them.