Once called 'untouchable', leprosy survivors in India build communities after society shunned them

About 80 people live at the Bahar-Aar Sanatorium just outside Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian-administered Kashmir. They are survivors of leprosy, a disease that for many causes physical deformities, poor eyesight and other health problems. Although leprosy is fully curable today, for decades communities around the world have placed patients into quarantine in leper colonies. Of the hundreds of leper colonies that still exist today, most are in India. Bashir Ahmad Zagar has been at the…