Role of GIS in planning and evaluation of leprosy elimination programme Juxtaposition of this map with that depicting the prevalence rate will reveal the presence of any association between location of health facilities and prevalence rates and might suggest guidelines for building new health facilities and allocation of resources in order to maintain a regional balance with in the region under study. Besides the data generated by the service statistics, periodically special surveys have been conducted to focus on a particular aspect of the programme. One such survey, for example, explored the feasibility of implementing a slight modification of the leprosy elimination programme in the Tirunelveli district. This experimental programme was called the 'Modified Leprosy Elimination Campaign' (MLEC). Figures 3(a) and 3(b) present the distribution of leprosy cases detected in this campaign by the severity of the manifestations at the time of detection. Cases have been classified as 'single lesion cases' (SSL), pausi bacillary (PB) and multi bacillary (MB). The distribution of the type of cases has been presented for Rural areas (in Fig. 3(a)) and urban areas (in Fig. 3(b)). A comparison of these two figures reveals that in several locations in the rural areas, a large number of SSL cases have been detected while only in one location in urban areas they were detected. A possible explanation could be the IEC strategy to enlighten the people on the early symptoms of the disease has been successful in the rural areas while it did not produce an impact in the urban areas.  Figure 3(a) Rural  Figure 3(b) Urban Distribution of Leprosy Cases by typewise in Rural and Urban areas of Tirunelveli district detected during the special survey, Modified Leprosy Elimination Campaign during Jan. 2000 Summary and Conclusion: In the foregoing pages we have presented an example of the applications of GIS software in the National Leprosy Elimination Programme (NLEP) as implemented in Tamil Nadu. The paper has demonstrated the usefulness of the software for Health Care Programmes in general and in Leprosy Programme in particular for the purpose of Programme Planning and Evaluation. The worth of GIS as an effective tool for the policy formation and deployment of resources has been eloquently demonstrated. Acknowledgements I should not fail to acknowledge the encouragement provided by Ms.Nanda Paithankar, Monitoring Adviser, DANLEP, New Delhi and the assistance provided by Dr. N. Murugesan SPC, DANLEP, TN. I gratefully thank Dr. S. Gunasekaran, HOD, Sociology, Pondicherry University for his support in producing this write-up.
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