In life, there are wounds that, like leprosy, slowly eat at the soul in solitude”—Bae Suab
A small white patch on the skin where a needle poked that does not arouse any response could be the beginning of Hansen's disease, which is infamously known as leprosy. A tropical disease, the infection is caused by Mycobacterium leprae, which basically affects the skin, peripheral nerves, eyes and respiratory tract, causing numbness and nerve damage. If not treated, this may lead to patients becoming vulnerable to unnoticed injuries, deformities or paralysis. For a large part of history, leprosy has been considered a curse, and patients were mostly segregated from the healthy population.
Although the World Health Organization (WHO) has declared this disease curable with multidrug therapy and not highly contagious, it has always generated a lot of fear among humans. It is said that around 95% of people who are exposed to these bacteria remain unaffected because of natural immunity. Perhaps the scarier element of leprosy is the ugliness that accompanies a patient. Physical deformities, especially of the face, can render good-looking persons hideous, forcing people to look away and avoid their company.
Leprosy found its way into the Bible, where Jesus cured lepers with his revolutionary style that was totally against the established norms of that era. He is said to have treated lepers with dignity, love, compassion and inclusivity—unthinkable for such patients—restoring them back into a society that had initially thrown them out. Social isolation remained significant throughout the centuries. Even in the Indo-Pak subcontinent, lepers were always confined to specific localities because of prevailing superstitions and ignorance regarding the true nature of this disease.
Pakistan, too, underwent its share of discarding lepers, considering them to be a societal burden. They were compelled to sit in roughly constructed carts drawn by their loved ones, roaming the streets begging for alms. A painful sight indeed. However, no one dared to step forward and do something substantial for them, even though there were many medical institutions with highly qualified physicians. The one who came to their rescue was not from among the locals but an outsider.
The person who became a messiah for the lepers was none other than a German lady by the name of Dr Ruth Katherina Martha Pfau (9 September 1929–10 August 2017). Leaving her country of origin and settling in Karachi, Pakistan, in 1960, she spent the remainder of her life fighting leprosy and rehabilitating lepers.
Dr Pfau’s first encounter with patients at the lepers’ colony on what is presently called I.I. Chundrigar Road left her deeply depressed, prompting her to change the course of her life. Popularly known as “Pakistan's Mother Teresa”, Pfau established 157 leprosy clinics across Pakistan, which treated over 56,780 people. Fortunately for the lepers, Dr Pfau became the angel who helped them regain their self-respect and lost dignity.
Whether it is a lack of cleanliness, poor infrastructure, a dearth of law and order or bad governance, nothing seems to bother them, as they appear disconcerted by all forms of social malaise
Leprosy is a physical ailment that can be cured with drugs, but what if this disease seeps into the fabric of a society’s make-up? One of the first symptoms of this disease is the loss of sensitivity to external stimuli. This means that anything happening around has hardly any effect on the residents. When people merely express concern with words such as “Oh no”, “Oh my God” and “How awful”, but fail to practically respond to the nitty-gritty, then the bacteria of evil gradually begin their incubation. Moral pillars on which the communal platform stands aloft begin to crumble, giving way to anarchy and social disfigurement.
Whether it is a lack of cleanliness, poor infrastructure, a dearth of law and order or bad governance, nothing seems to bother them, as they appear disconcerted by all forms of social malaise. Their only interest revolves around their own persona and immediate families, totally oblivious to the surrounding poverty, disease, malnutrition and injustice. When voices raising these issues are silenced by vested interests, the outcomes can take on an uncontrollable magnitude. They are unable to discern that acquiescing in evil means emboldening perpetrators, isolating victims and promoting a culture that eventually leads to a breakdown of social trust and moral standards.
Analysts and experts frequently describe Pakistani society as being “on the brink” or facing an “existential crisis”, attributed to a confluence of severe, interconnected challenges that include, among others, a fragile economy, continuous political unrest, a rapidly growing rate of unemployment, social inequality and security threats from within and outside. During these sombre times, one can only pray for an incarnation of Dr Pfau who can help rid this nation of the leprae bacteria of complacency and infuse it with strong doses of antibodies that can successfully fight away social negativities.
The youth bulge that we talk about so proudly is struggling in an atmosphere of a staggering 30% unemployment rate that is taking its toll on human capital. Thousands of graduates, degrees in hand, are desperately seeking jobs that are simply not available.
Policymakers are perhaps ignorant of the idea that everything is interconnected. Thus, if industries are forced to shut down because of high costs, excessive taxes and weak markets, then there will obviously be an increase in unemployment.
Reports from international lenders highlight “state capture”, where a narrow circle of political, business and military elites manipulate public policy for their benefit, draining several percentage points of GDP annually and distorting the economy.
Although the idea of a failed state may be looming large, many also suggest that a complete state collapse, such as a civil war, remains outside the realm of likelihood due to external international support and internal dynamics. Instead, Pakistan is largely viewed as continuing on a path of slow decline and persistent instability, kept afloat by temporary bailouts unless deep-seated structural issues are addressed immediately.