In Bengali, Udayan means dawn or resurrection, and by providing children who might otherwise be shunned at the first sign of the disease and reduced to a life of begging, crime or prostitution, with accommodation, education and medical care, the home seeks to give them a new beginning.

Udayan was founded in 1970 by an English businessman, James Stevens who, after spending two years in India, felt called to serve the poor. When he asked Mother Teresa who amongst, the poorest of the poor, she felt were most in need, her response was unhesitating: the children of lepers. Borrowing a truck from her, he ventured into Anand Nagar (the City of Joy) slum and managed on that first occasion to persuade some of the lepers in its least accessible reaches to let him take eleven children into his care.

Today Udayan is home to some 300 boys and girls, aged between 4 and 18, who are looked after by about 30 staff. Leprosy is a curable disease. With multi-drug therapy, a nutritious diet, a clean environment, exercise such as yoga, dance and cricket, and proper treatment of any other medical conditions, the children can be restored to health however most children born into leprosy-affected families get caught in a vicious, intergenerational cycle of leprosy.