Documents located at Odisha (formerly Orissa) State Archives, Bhubaneswar, record governmental and organisational activities against leprosy from 1888 until the 1940s. These documents are held in Government of Bengal Records, the Municipal Department, Medical Branch or in the District Records.

There are records from 1893 on the Bill for the Segregation of Pauper Lepers. Initially these documents record the process of canvassing responses to the report of the Indian Leprosy Commission. Correspondence is received from the Surgeon-General, the Lt. Governor, the Inspector General of Civil Hospitals, Bengal, the Sanitary Commissioner, Bengal, the Legal Remembrancer, the Commissioner of Police (1894), the Chairman of the Calcutta Corporation (1894), and the President of the District Charitable Society (1894). Subsequent correspondence records measures taken to draft and introduce the Bill for the Segregation of Pauper Lepers into the Bengal Legislative Council (1895).

Documents that record the implementation of the Bill include files on the Segregation of Pauper Lepers and reports from local government on the subject and appointment the Deputy Commissioner of Police to the Leper Asylum Committee (May 1895).

There are documents associated with the Albert Victor Asylum for Lepers, Calcutta (1895) including those concerned with the acquisition of land 1895-96; requests to the commissioner of Cotnagpur for a full report on the Leper Asylum at Lohardaga and mention of the Rev Mr Uttman's Asylum at Purulia. There is correspondence with the Secretary and Superintendent of the Mission to Lepers in India and the East (17 June, 1895) asking for mission asylums to become 'Leper Asylums' under the Leper Act; and concerning funding for construction at Purulia. (1903)

There are documents associated with the management of leper asylums including correspondence between the President of the District Charitable Society (31 May 1892) and the Government requesting that the society may be relieved of the maintenance of the Calcutta Leper Asylum and requests from Babu Kali Nath Mitter, Secy. to the Albert Victor Memorial Fund (9 Sep 1892) that the Government make a definite promise to carry out the scheme for providing Calcutta with a new improved and enlarged Leper Asylum; correspondence concerned with funds from the Rajkumari Leper Asylum Fund; and a proposal to establish of a Leper Aslum at Puri (1905), including an appeal to the native chiefs in the Tributary states for subscriptions for the projected Asylum for Lepers at Puri.

There are records and correspondence with the Mission to Lepers in India and the East about grants for the Leper Asylum in Bengal (12 May, 1904); with the Civil Surgeon of Muzaffarpur (29 March, 1904) for a Leper Asylum in that town; a plan and estimates for the Muzaffarpur Asylum; and enquiries about the number of pauper lepers in the asylums at Purulia, Bankura and Raniganj.

There is information supplied from the Inspector-General of Civil Hospitals (22 April, 1904) furnishing information regarding the incidence of leprosy in their province.

There are records that deal with the endowment created by the Zamindars of Balasore for the maintenance of a Leper Asylum at Puri (1905); requests that the Raniganj and Asansol Asylums might be brought under the Lepers’ Act. (1905). There are also requests from Mr T A Bailey, Secretary for the Mission to Lepers in India and the East, for funding for Purulia, Raniganj, and Asansol.

There are documents related to the extension of Section 9 of the Lepers Act of 1898; and the creation of Leper Asylum Rules.

District Records contain the following: communications with the Madras Government concerning the treatment of leprosy (1890); reports on the administration of leprosy, and a census for the Orissan Princely States; reports of various Princely States, particularly Ranpur, Narasinghpur, Sambalpur, Kharswa (1943 onwards). (The Ranpur Leprosy census is detailed and enumerates caste and gender.); a report on the Bastar State including information about Chhatisgarh State, Kalahandi State, and Bhawanipatna. There is also a proposal for the formation of a Central Health Organisation for the Eastern States and a report on Leprosy Health Administration for Chhattisgarh State (from 1945 onwards).

These archives hold Dr Issac Santra's Survey Report on Leprosy of the Bastar State, including reports on Keshkal Leper Colony, Brehebeda Leper Colony, and Sita-Lanka Colony, Danteswar. There are Leprosy Survey Reports of the Baud States of Orissa (1937-39).

There is a proposal for a Leprosy Colony/Clinic in Sundergarh district at Talsara. Beragaon, Rajgangpur, Lepripara, and Bhasma. There is also a report on anti-leprosy work in the Gangpur state (1936).

Information on leprosy can be had from the following sources at the Orissa State Archives:

Annual returns of the hospitals and dispensaries in Orissa for the years, 1936, 1937, 1939, 1940, by Lt Col, G Verghese, IMS Director of Health and Inspector-General of Prisons, Orissa. Published by Govt Press, Orissa, Cuttack

Annual Public Health Report of the Province of Orissa for the year 1938 and the Annual Vaccination Report for the year, 1938-39, by Lt Col Verghese IMS Director of Health and Inspector General of Prisons, Orissa, Govt Press, Orissa, Cuttack (also for 1937 and 1937-38).

Triennial Report on the working of the hospital and dispensaries in Orissa for the years 1936, 1937 and 1938 by G Verghese, Lt Col, IMS Director of Health and Inspector-General of Prisons, Orissa, Govt. Press, Cuttack, 1949.

Govt of Orissa: Annual Report on the working of the Civil Hospitals and Dispensary in Orissa, for the year 1945 by Lt Col A N Chopra, OBE, IMS, Director of Health and Inspector-General, of Prisons, Orissa Suptd, Orissa, Govt Press, Cuttack, 1948.

Report on Civil Dispensaries 1853, 1867.

Report on the Health Survey and Development Committee - Vol II 1946. (Information on Leprosy)

Annual Public Health Report of the Province of Orissa 11. for the Year 1943. (Information on Leprosy)

Triennial Report on the working of Civil Hospital, and 13. Dispensaries in Orissa for 1945, 1949 and 1950.

Annual Public Health Report of the State of Orissa for the Year 1949.

Appendices for the Triennial Report on Health Services of Orissa for 1953, 1954 and 1956.

Annual Returns: Bihar and Orissa, 1930 - Hospitals and Dispensaries.

These reports/returns are available for the years 1914, 1915, 1917, 1918, 1922, 1923, 1924, 1925, 1926, 1927, 1928, 1932, 1933.

Entry made January-February 2002