Rev. Hemrich T Uffmann is a missionary who arrived to Purulia District with the sacred mission of indulging in certain social works. As a missionary of the German Evangelistic Mission, he arrived to Purulia in 1888. Though it may be stated that the strain of social work was in his blood it was the death of his daughter Maria that sharpened his sense perceptions who died of Leprosy. At this time celebration of its near victory over polio, the demons of the dreaded leprosy continues to haunt the government as well as the common mass.
The Leperosy Asylum at Purulia was started on a small scale in 1886-87 by the Rev. Hemrich T Uffmann of the German Evangelistic Mission in connection with the Mission to Lepers in India and the East at the bungalow adjacent to GEL Church, Ranchi Road, Purulia town. In 1897, the Leperosy Asylum was shifted to Bhatbandh with a large area of fifty acres. Rev. Uffmann served the leprosy patients for thirty five long turbulent years at this remote part of the world. There is a village "Uffmannpur` near Purulia town in his memory. The Purulia leprosy Mission is the largest in Asia and second largest in the world.
In a developing country like India, social stigma and discrimination is often encountered by the affected patients. Even those without infected by the disease and touched merely the address of a leper colony is reason enough for disqualification for applying to a job or being denied admission in a school. Hence the Leprosy Asylum had been a path breaking organisation that ushered in the path of new hope to the patients.
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