With more than 1,30,000 leprosy patients in India, it accounts for 54 per cent of all new leprosy cases reported in the world where lepers are still treated as untouchables and forced to live in isolation. This has been the same state of affairs since the Gandhian era where he tried his best to help remove the stigma about leprosy among Indians.
 

Kabita Bhattarai is a lone crusader in the battle against leprosy now in India. She has an ashram in a remote corner near the Bihar-Nepal border, where she has treated nearly half a million patients for free in her 240-bed leprosy hospital. Kabita manages 21 leprosy colonies, provides free education to over 1,000 children. The model she has evolved is quite innovative. Patients get admitted for free treatment of their disease and in turn, their family members work voluntarily at the fields, hospital, school and dairy farms owned by her organization called 'Little Flower'. The peripheral activities that 'Little Flower' generate enough income to sustain its core activity of treating leprosy patients.

Kabita is akin to a modern day Mother Teresa and Teluguone salutes her.