The Pakistani Spectator

Today is World Mental Health day.  In India we have one national institute dedicated to Mental health called NIMHANS at Bangalore. As per WHO , 2% of a  nation’s population suffer from some sort of mental illness while 1% suffer from serious conditions like Schizophrenia,bipolar,severe depression etc. We have 3200 psychiatrists,900 psychologists,700 psychiatric nurses  for a population fo 1 billion.so mostly the mentally ill are catered to by temples,mazhars of Sufi saints and also faith healers.

In Erawady, a mazhar of sufi saint in Tamilnadu state  specifically cater to mentally ill.the ill are kept chained to the mazhar of the sufi saint till they are supposed to get a dream and get cured. I have heard from some who strongly believe in it. Ofcourse lot of small lodges have sprung up to cater to families stay at Erawady.In 2001 , some 25 chained mentally ill patients were charred to death when the thatched roof over the mazhar got fire.Our Supreme court took suo moto action and asked the state and central governments to establish NIMHANS like hospitals in every state. And also those who donot get cure inspite of most modern treatment be taken care by including them in the National trust act 1999 which was passed specifically for this purpose for the  all the disabled. Unfortunately this order of Supreme court remains in paper.While other disability groups who are members of this act go and take part in Ambi Olympics, ask for special access , some even ask for voice activated toilets!!!The psycho social disabled are abandoned in streets to beg and abused. This is essentially due to the babudom in our social justice Ministry do not even understand  that Mentallyill could be disabled.They think once more psychiatrists are created the problem will be solved.They don’t understand that mental illness are ONLY TREATABLE BUT NOT CURABLE. Even the best of treatment in Switzerland leaves 30% of the population severely disabled and continue to live without any cure.

So we the parents of mentally ill ask for INCLUSION of psychosocial disabled in the national trust act while the entrenched bureaucracy fool the politicians by doing all sort of gimmicks. India is a member of UN Convention fo Disabilities 2005 but Psycho social disability is not included in the national trust act 1995. Even INCLUSION INTERNATIONAL and other NGOs don’t even understand the difference between Mentally challenged, Intellectually challenged,mentally retarded and psycho social disabled due to mental illness.so the disabled due to mental illness continue to suffer.

Psychiatry and treatment is controlled in India by the mental health act 1987( successor to Indian lunacy act 1912 of British) and under Health Ministry. The disabled are covered by Social justice ministry which  also covers women welfare,upliftment of dalits etc.The price of psychiatric drugs are controlled by ministry of Petroleum.These guys donot understand the importance of  even Cl0zapine  which is not in the WHO essential drug list of 354 molecules which in turn is controlled by drug Multi nationals headquartered in Geneva.The pharma companies openly say that their consumers are Psychiatrists and NOT pateients!!!So another world mental health day has come with some articles in newspapers and gone as ususal.Parveen babi who adorned TIME cover once  died in her  5 Crore rupee home due to schizophrenia with her body been discovered after 6 days.