RAWALPINDI, May 16: It was the Indian Leprosy Act 1867, which termed lepers untouchables and forced them to live in isolation outside cities.

Rawalpindi Leprosy Hospital (RLH), Zafar-ul-Haq Road, then a place well outside the city bounds, has remained a shelter for lepers for decades, as the disease was incurable at that time. This was the spot where the lepers would arrange inter-marriages and live in huts amid dismal conditions.

However, the missionaries of the Presbyterian Church constructed a building for them after the implementation of the law. It was Dr R.R. Stewart, the professor of Botany/Zoology at Gordon College, whose superb contributions during the pre- partition times earned lepers a status in the society.

The German Leprosy Relief Association in collaboration with the provincial health department and United Presbyterian Church in the USA initiated its holy war against this deadly disease by establishing RLH at Rawalpindi in 1967.

Dr Chris Schmotzer, medical director at RLH, told this reporter that the hospital had cured more than 8,000 patients since its establishment. She said in 1999, 1905 patient had been under treatment.