In response to the national call by our former Prime Minister Smt. Indira Gandhi to NGOs and public-spirited people to take up leprosy elimination work, Dr. A. R. K. Pillai, the Founder President, gathered a few Samaritans and founded the Indian Leprosy Foundation. The Foundation was registered as a Charitable Trust under the Societies Registration Act of 1860 and Bombay Public Trusts Act of 1950. The important purpose for which Foundation was formed is summarized below: