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Doing Christ Proud
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fourth grade employee in the Railways was a happy man till leprosy infected him. Vishwanath
Jha was driven out of the job soon after the authorities detected the contagious disease infecting him.
Devoid of any other means to sustain him and his family, the Brahmin from Mithila landed at Raxaul
Bazaar with a begging bowl.
But alms too were not easy to come by. A shopkeeper threw water on him to drive the leprosy
infected beggar from his shop door. It hardly needs explaining that people in general abhor the
lepers. Few people venture to extend their helping hands to the leprosy patients still regarded as
pariah in the society.
Jha was delighted to see the shopkeeper, who had once thrown water on him, offering him chair in
his shop and treating him honourably when he went to Raxaul bazaar. Jha is a happy man again for
he has got the job and social respectability back. And the credit for it goes to Brother Christ Das, a
crusader for the cause par excellence.
Jha is not a lone person to get rid of the disease that the society abhors. Brother Christ Das,
popularly known as Baba among the lepers, has so far treated 42,000 lepers since 1981. "Baba is
our God & helper ;we owe our existence to Baba", says a woman weaving cloth at the
Spinning and Weaving Workshop that has come up in the lepers colony. The woman was a leprosy
patient. She is well and good now engaged in spinning and weaving cloth at the workshop.
The institution that Brother Christ Das has built up in the colony of the pariah of the society has
probably no peer in the entire country. The lepers have not only got rid of the disease that generates
awe and abhorrence in society. They have turned out to be productive manpower. They are
engaged in spinning cloth, producing food grains, raising cattle and selling milk. And the milk and
other products from the farm of the lepers' colony at Sunderpur are in greater demand at
Raxaul bazaar for their better quality.
In fact, the 130 bed Little Flower Hospital is only a branch of the gigantic institution that Brother
Christ Das has built up in the lepers' colony of Sunderpur. The institution spread over in 20 acres
lepers colony has a school for the children of lepers, a 60 animal cattle farm, a hostel for the children
of lepers and Spinning and Weaving Workshop. Besides, the institution has a 30 acre farm at
Dang 50 kms away from the colony to produce rice, wheat and sugar cane. Thousands of
`former lepers are engaged in these branches of the institution that Baba has created.
"My goal is to ensure that there is no leper left in this locality after the present generation of lepers
dies", says brother Christ Das adding : "My objective is also to ensure that all the lepers get well and
earn their livelihood with respect and dignity." "Leprosy is a curable disease", he says : "I treat them
with the medicine given freely by the World Health Organisation."
The colony of lepers at Sunderpur on the Bihar-Nepal border in East Champaran district was like
any other neglected and hated colonies of this disease infected people in the rest part of the country
till brother Christ Das made a chanced visit to it in 1981.
How did he manage the fund to build the institution? Brother Christ Das explains: "Managing the
fund was really a very difficult proposition at the outset." "I borrowed Rs 2000 from a friend of
Muzaffarpur to open a small thatched leprosy hospital in the locality." But the donations began
pouring in later. He says : "A friend from Holland Piter Dackson was the first to respond in big way by sending Rs. 1.60 lakh. I spent the money on the construction of a 47-bed hospital in 1982." It is now a 130 bed double storied Little Flower Hospital; thanks to the resources generated by the institution itself and generous offerings from the benevolent people and organizations.
"The institution has now 225 lakh as corpus fund", Christ Das says : "The institution itself is on way
to become self sustaining." Though Brother Christ Das is the guiding force behind this divine
institution, it is run by a Governing body. "One must have the experience of serving the lepers at least
for five years to join the Governing body;.it is the basic qualification", he says. Needless to
say that the "unscrupulous politicians" always eager to get control over any philanthropic institution
can not get their entry in the Governing body for few of them have the five years experience of
working among the lepers.
Fifty former lepers are engaged in the farm at Dang while about 300 men and
women-all former lepers- are engaged in the Spinning and Weaving Workshop that produces
handloom cloths. Christ Das himself wears the cloth spun in this workshop. This workshop supplies
bed sheets and pillow covers etc to the Kurji Holi Hospital in Patna besides other hospitals in
different parts of the state.
"The bulk of food grains produced at our farm at Dang is used for feeding the leprosy patients
admitted to the Little Flower Hospital", Christ Das says. Brother Christ Das' life is a saga of
yeoman service to the lepers. In fact, he himself got infected by the disease once while treating the
lepers. "I used the medicine that I administer to lepers to get well;.it was no problem."
Brother Chist Das has evolved a unique method to protest those trying to humiliate and harass the
lepers. A local RJD leader, Mr Satyanarayan Yadav and his henchmen abused and humiliated the
sisters engaged in the service of lepers and also the leprosy patients, the other day. Brother Christ
Das took thousands of lepers at Satyanarayan Yadav's door. The lepers began dressing
their wounds at the door of Mr Yadav in protest against the humiliation. Soon the son and relatives
of Yadav came out and bowed down before Christ Das begging a pardon.
The lepers belonging to different faiths and religions are allowed to adhere to their respective faiths
for "the institution does not preach any particular religion". Christ Das says : "No church or temple or
monastery has any say in the governance of the lepers institution of Sunderpur." And the prayer that
the lepers' children in the colony's school chant preaches humanism : "Es desh ko na Hindu
na Musalman chahiye; Har majhab jisko pyara oh insan chahiye (This country needs neither
Hindus nor Muslim ; It needs those human beings who love all the religions and faith)."
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But still it was not the end of the world for Jha. Somehow, he reached the Little Flower Leprosy
Hospital at Sunderpur near Raxaul on the Bihar-Nepal border and came into contact with its patron,
Brother Christ Das. He was treated and got well within short period of time. He has got a job also.
Jha is a teacher at the school of children of lepers that Christ Das runs in the 550 family colony of
lepers near the hospital.
Born at Edamavuku village in Kottayam district of Kerala in 1937, Brother Christ Das was the
Director of a Leprosy Hospital run by Mother Teresa Mission of Charity in Calcutta before he
happened to visit the colony of lepers near Raxaul. He decided to "stay in the colony till the last
breath of my life" after he visited them in 1981. He got constructed a small hut for himself to live
among the lepers. And it was the beginning of the construction of a virtual paradise for the lepers so
far hunted out and hated.
