English
Goa Central Leprosarium
Macassana, Goa, India
Equipment and Infrastructures
The Goa Central Leprosarium named after Dr Froilano de Melo is located on high ground and covers about 18 hectares near the village of Macassana in Salcette. The first known reference to the creation of a central leprosarium dates to February 1916 when Alberto Germano Corrreia, charged by the government to present the respective plans, submitted his proposal for consideration. It envisaged the creation of an agricultural hospital-colony with isolated pavilions, based on the model already tried in northern Europe and defended at the 2nd International Leprosy Conference in 1910. However, only in 1926 and on the initiative of Froilano de Melo was a congress held to discuss and attempt to resolve the problem of leprosy in the Estado da Índia. Its conclusions included the possibility of creating a leprosarium. State participation was joined by the efforts of charity institutions. The personal commitment of Froilano de Melo also enabled funds to be gathered by public subscriptions, festivals and a large number of activities. The chapel was blessed in 1932, when it was first inaugurated; the official ceremonies took place on 28 May 1932. At the time, the leprosarium comprised three infirmary wards and the chapel, while a fourth ward was under construction. The patients were kept separate. The area destined for them was divided into two zones: one for men and the other for women. In 1937 the infected part of the complex comprised seven infirmary wards and two bedroom wards. The men’s area comprised three wards, each with capacity for 24 beds, along with a 6-bed ward for Hindus and two bedroom wards able to house a maximum of two patients. The women’s area comprised three wards with capacity for 18 beds. A separate ward also housed a kitchen and bathrooms. The patients were also divided according to the state of the disease and the care they required. The healthy area contained a residential ward for the doctor and other staff. It also had offices, three small buildings for service personnel, a storage area for food and medicines, a chapel and the chaplain’s residence. There was also a Hindu temple, an operating hall and a laboratory. Wards continued to be built until the mid-1950s. The leprosarium also had its own cemetery and, according to oral testimony, a crematorium. All patients with conditions to work did so in the kitchen or laundry, in agriculture, in the various gardens or also in the construction of roads for the other leprosarium wards. Major efforts were also made to plant the area with trees. Some of the built structures have since disappeared. But those that remain provide an idea of what the complex was like. The open pathways along the densely forested property and four building clusters have been maintained. The first cluster is encountered when arriving at the property from the road linking Curturim to Macassana. It corresponded to the healthy area; the leprosarium services building can be seen, where the administrative services still function. There are also various buildings built in the 1980s. Moving southward through the property, a second cluster is encountered, with a ward now in ruins. According to oral testimony from employees, this was a festival hall. There is also an old sick ward as well as two infirmaries, one for men and the other for women, built in the 1980s, which are still operational. Behind the women’s infirmary stands a recently built Hindu temple, given that the old one, on top of the hill, no longer exists. Near this cluster the road forks: one way leads to the cemetery, the other to the chapel area, where a third building cluster stands. The latter included the chaplain’s residence, since disappeared; but the kitchen building is still operating. In front of the chapel was once a garden. The fourth building cluster comprised three infirmary wards, thought to be the three main men’s wards, located at different levels of the slope. The buildings are closed but still reasonably well preserved. All are similar, with a large hall containing the infirmary proper and a treatment room next to the entrance. The others are similarly organised: a large ward in the centre; at one end near the entrance, a room used either for treatment or to isolate more serious cases; at the other end the bathrooms, which must have been added later; outside, a second volume connected to the infirmary functioned as a kitchen and space whose functions varied. The care regarding ventilation is evident, the upper part of the roof is raised to ensure constant air circulation in the ward; there are also verandas on three of the façades, onto which the ward opens through various doors. The number of buildings built or rebuilt in the early 1980s leads to conclusion that the Indian government then made a serious effort to revive the leprosarium. But the changed manner of treating patients, nowadays preferably at home, meant the number of users was quite small.