The Tribune - Windows

TAKING NOTE
No refuge for mentally ill
Bijender Sharma

Ramaiya, suffering from a mental disorder, lives near the bus stand in Jwalamukhi. A few years ago, a tourist identified him and said he belonged to Kerala. "Ramaiya speaks an unknown language and has never begged for alms," says a dhaba owner who regularly gives food and tea to this destitute in dire need of psychiatric help.

An aged lunatic lives in a ruined structure in Indira Colony in the same town. Inadequately dressed, he can be seen eating filth. The structure in which he lives is rickety and can collapse any time.

A mentally challenged youth can be spotted in front of Hotel Jwala Ji. He does not speak, behaves like a child and repeatedly burns his clothes. He falls ill but hardly gets any treatment. A shopkeeper, who provides him meals and clothes, says all his efforts to help the youngster usually go in vain.

Balo, another young man suffering from a psychological ailment, is normally seen at the local bus stand crying and running helter-skelter.

BESIDES the above, there are a number of other poverty-stricken mentally ill persons languishing in this temple town of Himachal Pradesh. With no institutional help and care available, they are at the mercy of the people around them. In fact, most such persons are not even in the position of approaching anybody for help.

The town neither has a mental health centre nor a hospital equipped to impart psychiatric treatment. Also, the number of mentally challenged people in the town is increasing. Residents suspect that a number of these people are outsiders who have been deserted by their families.

A mental health or rehabilitation centre is the need of the hour, says Pardeep, Director of the Society for Environment and Rural Awakening, an NGO that has chalked out a plan to provide better facilities to the mentally sick individuals who are getting no financial and emotional support.

Though the state human rights commission has expressed concern about the plight of the mentally ill living in inhuman conditions and has directed the police to locate all such abandoned persons, the authorities concerned have paid no heed to the directive and continue to be apathetic.