Baripada, 13.11.2025 Rekh This year, Mayurbhanj district level coordination committee meeting has been held in anticipation of the leprosy detection campaign to be held in the district between 17 and 30 November 2025. Under the chairmanship of Mr. Dukhbandhu Naik, Additional District Collector of Mayurbhanj, the preparations for the campaign were reviewed in the meeting held at the local Mahatma Gandhi Sabha. However, 627 new cases of leprosy were detected in the district in the last year 2024-25, while 198 new cases have been detected this year for the year 2025-26 as of September. According to the national policy plan for 2025-26 in leprosy case detection campaign, 15 blocks of Mayurbhanj have been included in this campaign out of the 155 blocks prone to leprosy in Odisha state. In this campaign, 100% of the hair identified by the survey will be examined by a medical officer within 3 days. The examination will be completed by 5 December 2025 and the final report will be submitted by 10 December 2025. 84 medical officers, 1918 Asha workers, 350 health workers, 156 health super viziers and 06 voluntary institutions will be conducted in this campaign in 1924 villages of 15 blocks of the district in 360 PHC sub-centres. Various awareness programs will be conducted to make people aware of leprosy treatment. The District Education Officers have been directed to provide necessary cooperation for the smooth conduct of the disease detection process in schools during the campaign. Similarly, District Social Welfare Officers have been instructed to employ Asha workers where necessary. For the successful implementation of the campaign, it has been decided to integrate the Panchayati Raj institutions at the village level. Meanwhile, the training program for the relevant staff at the block and district level has been completed. All staff, officers to be involved in this survey have been trained on their roles and responsibilities. However, according to the National Policy Plan 2023-27 prepared by the Central Leprosy Division, the aim is to make India free from leprosy by 2027. ADMO, Dr. In this meeting held under the coordination of Vijay Kumar Dash, the district leprosy treatment officer. Shantanu Kumar gave a PPT presentation on preparation and implementation of Dash campaign. District leprosy consultant Dr. Tapan Kumar Mohapatra, DPM Anil Kumar Mohanty along with other committee members and departmental officers were present in this meeting. It remains to be seen whether the government’s grand scheme and billions of rupees will actually work for the benefit of the people or be limited to public meetings and pen and paper, and only time will tell to what extent the department will achieve its vision of a leprosy-free India by 2077.