In Mumbai in 1940, a boy named Vijaykumar Vinayak Dongre was born. He grew up to become a doctor, but he chose a path few others willingly walked: the care of people affected by leprosy, a disease still wrapped in fear and stigma.

For nearly thirty-five years he served as Medical Superintendent of Acworth Leprosy Hospital in Mumbai. He later worked with the Gandhi Memorial Foundation in Wardha and became Honorary Secretary of the Society for the Eradication of Leprosy. His work took him into urban slums, rural villages and tribal settlements across Maharashtra. He followed a clear method—survey, education and treatment—reaching patients early, treating them with dignity, and helping them return to normal life.

In 1981 India still had nearly four million people living with leprosy. Through the efforts of Dongre and many like him, the numbers fell dramatically. He wrote more than fifty booklets, delivered thousands of lectures, and worked tirelessly to change public attitudes so that patients were no longer cast out.

One former patient, after years of isolation, once told him, “Doctor, people used to turn away from me. Now they look me in the eye.”

Vijaykumar answered quietly, “The disease is treatable. The real illness was the fear in society. When that fear goes, healing is complete.”

He served as President of the National Leprosy Organisation, the Maharashtra branch of the Indian Association of Leprologists, and the Voluntary Health Association of India. In 2013 he received the International Gandhi Award for Leprosy from the President of India. In 2022 the nation awarded him the Padma Shri for his lifelong contribution to medicine and his dedicated service to leprosy patients.

From the wards of Acworth Hospital to remote tribal hamlets, Dr. Vijaykumar Vinayak Dongre spent more than five decades proving that skilled treatment combined with compassion can defeat both a disease and the stigma that surrounds it.