MM: Dr A R K Pillai preferred to help fight leprosy in his city: May 30, 2008

One of a kindness

Dr A R K Pillai, founder of the Indian Leprosy Foundation (ILF), chuckles at the earliest memories of giving up his lucrative career and setting up his NGO. The man who is at the fore-front, fighting the disease, set up ILEF during Indira Gandhi’s reign. “In my first year I had a collection of only Rs 720. How do you run an organisation with that amount?” asks 80-year-old Dr Pillai.

Leaving behind a lucrative career in advertising and an experience in doing PR for the government, Dr. Pillai took the plunge in founding ILF. “I resigned from all my jobs. My friends and extended family thought I had gone insane,” he says. “Of course it was not the most normal thing to do.”

The turning point in his life came in the form of a conference in Frankfurt where he was doing PR work for the government. “Other than public relations we used to collect funds for our country from Germany. At one of the conferences someone said ‘Why don’t you raise funds from your own country?'” says Dr. Pillai.  Driven by national pride and discussions on the meaning of life he often had with his family, Dr. Pillai went ahead with his NGO plans.  In 1980-1983 there were 40 lakh people suffering from leprosy, now, there are around 70,000.

Dr. Pillai has now renamed ILF as IDF (Indian development Foundation). This newly christened NGO works on a four-fold programme: Awareness campaigns, education, rural development and monetary help. “Some people in tribal villages do not even know that not brushing your teeth may cause health problems,” he says. IDF helps people suffering form TB, HIV, Leprosy and Blindness. “There are 14 million visually-impaired people in this country and 80 per cent of them suffer from cataract. They don’t even know that they can be treated. The people who might want to donate money do not know these statistics. People need be made aware of things, only then will people be ready to give,” he says.

So, what does he think about Mumbai’s compassion quotient? He says, “Mumbai has gone through calamities, so Mumbaikars are resilient and overflow with compassion. If you tell people what the problems are they are ever-ready to help.” There’s proof of this: the generation of funds for the IDF has gone up from Rs 720 to almost Rs 1 crore.

Twenty years ago, there were 40 lakh people suffering from leprosy. The numbers have fallen drastically since then. Today, there are 70,000