With great interest and enthusiasm, we all have
seen the union budget of 2012. We all have noticed all the important points in
the budget which directly impacts us. We know about the taxes, we know about
the percentage increase in electronic goods, we know about the defense
allocations, we know about agricultural subsidy, etc. but with 100% guarantee I
can say that not a single person knows, what is the government budgetary
allocation for the health disorder which accounts for nearly a sixth of all
health related disorders.
I am talking about mental disorders. Believe it
or not its 13 Rupee a year, which is only 0.83% of the total health budget.
Last week when I was browsing the internet, I came across an article entitled Damned lives and Statistics, which revealed this shocking statistic. Not only
we, but all over the world people don’t take this disorder seriously; in most
countries only 1% of their health budget is kept for mental health services.
Here are some facts and figures for
you:-
- In our country with more than a billion people, we have only 43 mental hospitals
- Only 3-4 institutes have the facility for research and development
- Only 0.83% of our total health budget is used on mental health
- We have just 0.4 psychiatrists and 0.02 psychologists per 100,000 people
- We have 0.25 mental health beds per 10,000 populations
- There are 100 million people in India who suffer from some form of mental illness, of which 10 million needs hospitalization
If we will see the figures of health department, then
we will know that the individuals suffering from this disease mainly belong to
the age group 14-44, which is the most productive section of any society. If no
initiate is taken to stop this disorder then our dream to make India a
developed country will be shattered, because we can’t develop any country
without taking its youth in the process. Most type of mental illness is
curable, but the general public in our country thinks that mental illnesses are
not curable. During my research on this topic I found out that:-
- 50-60% cases with depression is curable with treatment in three to eight months
- 10-50% cases with schizophrenia, is curable with a combination of regular medication, family education and support
- Even adequate prevention & treatment can reduce suicide rates
Here I don’t want to discuss only about the
financial crunches which the patients are facing. Irony is not only this, the
existing hospitals which deal with such patients; they don’t handle their
patients like patients with other disease are handled in specialty hospitals. One
reason for this could be the fact that most of the hospitals functioning today
are run by the state government. The condition of these hospitals are
indescribable, from inside it looks like an asylum where patients are chained
with iron chains and are forced to live in dark and hot cells just like you can
see in jails. Most of these cells don’t have any facility for doing morning
chores, most of the time the poor patients who doesn’t have control on their
brain they urinate in the same cell and the caretakers don’t even care to clean
it. When the stink becomes unbearable for the staff they just pour a bucket of
water to clean it. The food supplied in such hospitals is unpalatable which
even animals will deny to eat. Here since demand and supply are not met, more
number of patients are packed in one room than its capacity, which results in
their injury, because unknowingly they fight with each other. It is not like
the government doesn’t takes care of such institutes, they send whatever fund
they allocate in their budget, but all the funds that come to the hospital for
clothing, food, and maintenance of hospital are siphoned off by the officials.
You can even find out the curtains and bedspread which are meant to be for the
patients are being used by the doctors and attendants in their home. I didn’t
get the chance to visit any such government funded hospital, whatever I
mentioned here is based on the images which I saw in Google so I think that the
real condition may be scarier.
These patients don’t just need a place to leave
rest of their life, they need care, and they need our special attention and
understanding towards them and their problem. They don’t just need something to
eat and wear, instead they need correct therapy and regular counseling to get
rid of their ailment. Not a single soul want to live in an unhealthy body,
likewise the soul of mental patients also want to live in a healthy body and
since they are mentally ill they can’t take care of themselves, it is our duty
to take care of such individuals to give them enabling environment so that they
can heal fast and return back to regular life. But it is sad to see today’s
world, where they are being treated as an unwanted people waiting in mental
asylum for their death.
I don’t understand how the family members of such
patients desert them at the time when they need more attention of their loved
one. I am not saying that all the mental patients meet the same destiny and die
in government hospitals. But at the same time, I am also not happy mentioning
the alternative steps which their family takes. We are in the 21st
century but still most of the Indian people believe in faith healers instead of
doctors. I accept that family members take their loved once to such place only
because they want them to be cured, but also such family members should see the
conditions under which they keep these patients. The so called faith healers
keep the mental patients chained and smear chili powder or hit them with hot
coins or rods to exorcise the demon believed to posses them. In the process
they also keep these patients without food for days. Many family members when
they come back empty handed from faith healers then they accept that they can’t
be healed and the poor souls are dumped in faraway illegal asylum where they
are tortured and even used for organ transplant.
Not only the illiterate people give heartless
treatment to their mentally disturbed family members, even the high society
people also treat badly with such cases. I came across one such story while
watching the new channel. A young couple living in Delhi’s posh area kept his
mentally disturbed mother hidden from the outside world till she died. When her
dead body underwent postmortem the doctors found out rope marks on her feet and
wrist, doctors also found out effects of lack of sunlight on her skin and eye.
When asked about the old lady from her neighbors they all said that they never
know that an old lady lives in that house.
But even those who care deeply for their
challenged ones face huge problems. While strolling in the park few months back
I bumped with a parent who has an 18 year old autistic son. They were ace
parent and have done everything they could and more for their child. Two months
back the boy turned 18 and the institution where he studies does not take
children after their eighteenth birthday. Now the family knows that the young
man cannot spend the rest of his life at home and needs to be in an enabling
environment which will allow him to progress. Sadly there are very few options
and long waiting lists. She is a working woman and needs to find a solution.
With few tears in her eye, she candidly asked whether I would open a day care
center for people like her son. I wish I could!
Wish apart from writing this article I could
have done something else for my mentally challenged friends. May someone will
hear their silent prayers, and they can get back their lost dignity in life
before their soul leaves their body.
References:-
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