Within the state of Tamil Nadu in Southern India, there are presently 42 active leprosy colonies. The decreasing rate of leprosy in India has not been trailed by a decline in leprosy colonies, but rather, an alteration in the demographic composition of the colonies has occurred. Leprous individuals no longer make up the dominant population of a colony with leprosy colonies now consisting largely of non-leprous children and grandchildren of the patients. Consequently, life in a leprosy colony no longer equates to being a carrier of the physical deformities of the disease.

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