A new law that only hears select voices

The mentally ill are one of the country’s most disadvantaged groups. There’s little support for them, institutional or otherwise, and things look like going further downhill if the process of amending the Mental Health Act of 1987 is any indication.

Dr Achal Bhagat is a worried man. The consulting psychiatrist at Apollo Hospitals, Delhi and founder of Saarthak, an NGO working with the mental ill, has just read the first draft. “I never thought I would defend the existing act but some sections of the draft are retrogressive to say the least.” But what worries him more is that the draft doesn’t include the voices of the people who will be directly affected. “Less than 100 people in the country even know that such a process in underway,” he says.

How so? The decision to amend the act was taken in a meeting in January which included a few mental health professionals. At the end Dr Soumitra Pathare, a private psychiatrist was asked to take the lead in preparing a draft. That was done by February 28 and appears to be circulating among a slightly larger group for feedback.

Bhagat filed an RTI application with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. “I had asked 10 questions related to the process. The response was one line: the amendment process is on and the minutes of this January meeting were attached,” he says. The draft is not on the ministry’s website.

“The mentally ill are a neglected group. We have written to the health minister asking for a better process.” It is essential to spread awareness of these laws, he says.

Down south in Bangalore, Nirmala Srinivasan of Action for the Mentally Ill (ACMI) disagrees. “We have been waiting for this for such a long time. It is in the preliminary stages right now and soon the draft will be in the public sphere

for comments.”

Bhagat wants all voices to be heard in this process. “About 10 per cent of the people in this country will be affected. The discussion needs to be widened beyond a few psychiatrists and NGOs,” he says.

“The response from the government has been that they will have regional consultations but just 20 people here and there is not enough. How many people know about the UNCRPD?”

Bhargavi Davar, of the Bapu Trust in Pune, also feels strongly. “We are upset at the lack of participation.

The government seems to have outsourced to a private psychiatrist, when commercial interests could be served,” she says.

“When you read the draft, what they propose makes private mental hospitals commercially viable. As a survivor, it is my dream to see mental hospitals go

in my lifetime. The world over people are looking at community recovery centres as the alternative,” she points out. “The draft dismantles the role of the judiciary and puts all the power of arbitration in the hands of private psychiatrists.”

Srinivasan strongly disagrees. “It is indeed a challenge to amend the Mental Health Act to deal with the paradigm shift that the UNCRPD represents but I think the first draft has achieved 60 to 70 per cent of this,” she says.

Shalini Prasad, joint secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said the initial draft was more a working paper. “We will not rush into anything without further consultation,” she assures.

Javed Abidi, a disability rights activist, says, “This thesis that persons with mental illness cannot speak for themselves is an excuse given by psychiatrists and care givers. So the psychiatrists have represented themselves are the guardian angels of the sector. But the time has come for psychiatrists, and parents to take a back seat and allow the person with mental illness to come forward and speak their mind.”