I find that question from a retired LBC writer Magpie puzzling, for it presumes that all lepers want to be cured!
No power on earth can cure a leper if he does not want to be cured.
Treating that question as a metaphor, I can well ask, if one alcoholic can recover from alcoholism, why can’t all alcoholics?
I can also ask, if one politician can be honest, why can’t all politicians be honest, and so on and so forth.
In India, leprosy is by and large under control and yeomen service by government and non profit organisations do play a great role and providing relief and succor to lepers.
Why the disease cannot be completely eradicated is due to two factors closely interrelated. One is the unwillingness of the affected to go to such clinics/ashrams for treatment, cure and rehabilitation and the other, greed. The former is due to the affected getting hooked to either alcohol or drugs and feeding the habit by begging and the latter due to organised criminal gangs who recruit such lepers to beg and feed the habit but take the bulk of the takings away from them.
My answer to Magpie would be that we cannot cure them all because of unwillingness from the affected; and society’s unwillingness to treat the disease in a holistic manner by eliminating the darker side of the disease; the latter being the interlinked aspects of criminal, police, political nexus.
In other cases like addiction, corruption and politics, I would again stress on the need for willingness from the affected and the moral fiber of the person or group wanting to cure the malady.
I hope you enjoyed reading this post on the weekly Friday Loose Bloggers Consortium where twelve of us write on the same topic. Today’s topic has been chosen by Magpie who has retired from the LBC. The eleven other bloggers who write regularly are, in alphabetical order, Anu, Delirious, gaelikaa, Grannymar, Maxi, Maria SF, ocdwriter, Padmum, Paul, The Old Fossil and Will. Do drop in on their blogs and see what their take is on this week’s topic. Since some of them may post late, do give some allowance for that too!