On April 12, 2007, Vice President Shri Bhairon Singh Shekhawat of India, in his role as chairman of the Gandhi Memorial Leprosy Foundation, presented Yohei Sasakawa, chairman of The Nippon Foundation and WHO Goodwill Ambassador for Leprosy Elimination, with the 2006 International Gandhi Award. What follows is the vice president's presentation speech.

Namaskar! Good Afternoon.

It is a rare privilege for me to be at Sewagram in Wardha, a place that bears the life-imprints of Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of the Nation. This place witnessed an eventful period of our freedom movement and continues to reverberate with the nationalist spirit even today. It is certainly a place of pilgrimage for those who cherish our freedom and uphold the Gandhian values of service and sacrifice, care and compassion, equity and human dignity. The choice of this place as the venue of this International Gandhi Award presentation ceremony could not have been more appropriate.

2. Today, we are here to recognize the dedicated work of an exceptional man of our times in the field of leprosy eradication, Mr. Yohei Sasakawa, the Goodwill Ambassador of the World Health Organization and to honor him with International Gandhi Award instituted by Gandhi Memorial Leprosy Foundation for the year 2006. May I say on behalf of the Jury of the award, that it was our great pleasure to unanimously decide on his name.

3. In a career studded with achievements, Mr. Sasakawa has worked with uncommon commitment for leprosy eradication across the globe. His espousal of the cause of both the leprosy affected and also the leprosy cured persons ahs been driven by a deep humanistic urge and profound sensitivity for their condition. I have had an occasion to get a glimpse of his wide knowledge and experience in the field of leprosy eradiation when I had inaugurated the National Conference on the People Affected with Leprosy in New Delhi in October last year. I offer Mr. Sasakawa our warm greetings and felicitations.

4. Friends, working in the area of leprosy is a challenge. Leprosy, as a disease, has an ancient past. But there was hardly any treatment for this disease till as late as 1950s. The lack of knowledge and treatment of leprosy made the life of those affected by it miserable, besides creating social discrimination, superstitions and stigma against leprosy. But with the rapid advances made in the field of medial sciences and strengthening of global efforts towards eliminating the problem, there has been tremendous progress in this field.