India recorded 3,832 new leprosy cases among children in 2025-26, according to the National Leprosy Eradication Programme’s latest annual report. Of these, 37 children already had Grade-2 disability at diagnosis, a sign of delayed detection.

The child caseload was 91.6% higher than the programme’s target of 2,000 cases for the year. The World Health Organization treats new child cases as an indicator of recent transmission, which means the disease is still spreading in communities.

India is pursuing its National Strategic Plan for Leprosy 2023-27, which seeks to interrupt transmission at the district level by 2027. Under the roadmap, a district is considered to have interrupted transmission only after reporting zero new indigenous child cases for five consecutive years.

There is also long-term progress. India’s leprosy prevalence has fallen from 57.2 per 10,000 people in 1981 to 0.57 in 2025, according to the Press Information Bureau. The share of child cases among new detections dropped from 9.04% in 2014-15 to 4.68% in 2024-25.

Why it matters: child cases show where transmission is still active, and finding them early prevents lifelong disability.