Dear friends,
I write to you because you are courageous human beings and you have the capacity to care. Here is a
challenge to your courage. Try to feel the anguish of persons living with mental illness. If you have the
courage to feel the anguish of someone who lives with mental illness you do not have to attempt to feel
the pain of being burnt alive. You do not have to feel the cold rusted chains around your thin legs. You do
not have to eat maggots that infest your scalp. You do not have to listen to comments and criticisms of
those who love you. You do not have to live the confusion that your experiences cause you. All you have
to do is to close your eyes and for a minute think, think that anyone, almost anyone in the world can
humiliate you and you cannot do anything about it. If you have the courage, feel it and feel the anguish!
Feel it, once. Feel it for this is the reality of persons living with mental illness.
This is the reality that persons living with mental illness survive everyday. This is the reality sanctioned
by the laws of our country. The anecdotes of evidence of this reality are everywhere around you. Yet, you
do not see these evidences. You do not see the evidence of neglect because like most in the society you do
not want see that person living with mental illness who is there around you. Your second cousin, your
grandmother, you friend and even you, yourself may have experienced mental illness like many millions
in our country. You fear being excluded by others around you, you fear the wrath of the Society that
considers mental illness to be the result of a sin.
It is easier to deny it and look past it. It is easier to worry about floods, sexual abuse, violence, AIDS, or
orphans. It is easier to deny than to question one as to why do we not talk about mental illness in this
country when it affects nearly one fourth of the population of the country? Why do we not allocate resources
for caring for those who live with it? Why do abandon those who experience it?
Yet I do not write only in anguish. I write with hope. I hope that this is the reality that we can change.
This reality of persons living with mental illness cannot be forever. The reality has to change, as it has been
a few centuries. It has been a few centuries now and ten more years. Centuries of being locked up; centuries
of being isolated; centuries of being treated as non-persons; centuries of being voiceless; centuries of being
treated incapable and dangerous. There is another reality. The reality is that persons living with mental
illness also smile, think and feel. Persons living with mental illness also care for their children, hold jobs,
contribute to the development of the country. Not one but many thousands and millions recover from their
illnesses but many a times they do not recover from the experiences that they face because of the label of
their experiences. The legacy of these centuries has to be demolished and replaced with an acknowledging
and enabling society that believes in equality of all people including those living with mental illness. You
and I can choose to demolish the legacy and contribute to the development of the new reality.
We have a choice to make. The choice is simple. Are we like those before us going to continue to support
the treatment of persons living with mental illness in a humiliating and degrading manner or are we are
we going to undo the mistakes of the past and recognize persons living with mental illness as a part of
human diversity? Are we the votaries of change or are we too comfortable in our silences and denials? Are
we human enough to recognize other human beings as human or are we going to continue to allow them
to be exploited? You are human and you have the responsibility to make this change possible.
Here is what you can do on the 6th of August or on any other day to show solidarity with the belief that
persons living with mental illness are people and have rights as any other human being.
- You could think for two minutes about persons living with mental illness as
able people who can take decisions regarding their own life and are not
dangerous to others.
-
You could acknowledge that you must know someone with mental illness in
and around your community, family or friends. Just have a cup of tea with
them and acknowledge them as a person just as you would any other friend.
Without pity or embarrassment or patronizing suggestions to solve their
problems. Do so only if they want to spend time with you. Seek permission;
respect their choice if they do not want to be with you.
- Read about the myths about mental illness and tell ten friends about what
you have learned.
- Resolve not laugh at a joke about persons living with mental illness
- Resolve not to use words like ‘mental’, ‘mad’, ‘nitwit’, ‘pagal’ in your everyday
language
- Visit a Mental Hospital or an NGO working on this issue of Rights of Persons
living with Mental illness, seek to learn more and contribute time to the
cause.
- Write to your local MLA or MP regarding the reality of persons living with
mental illness and ask them to raise the issue in their respective parties.
- If you are a law maker or policy maker, make laws and policies that recognize
and fulfill the rights of persons living with mental illness and provide resources
for care
- Adopt mental health friendly policies in your workplace.
- Look after yourself, seek help of you are going through a difficult time. Support
your family and friends if they want to seek help. It is alright to seek help.
- Let us pray that we do not have to cry for another Erwadi. There have been
enough Erwadis already.
The following events are being organized in Delhi to remember and resolve for change:
- 6th August 2010, 6 to 8pm, Raj Ghat, Candle lighting organized NGOS
including Whole Mind Foundation, Snehi, Saarthak, Sanjeevni
- 7th August 2010, 11:30am onwards, ‘No More Erawadis’ at NCUI Convention
centre, 3 Khel Gaon Marg, Conference room BETA, second floor, Organized
by Saarthak, AADI, Snehi, IHBAAS, DRG, Legal Services
- 7th August 2010, 4 to 7pm AIIMS Auditorium, Ring Road, organized by
Delhi NGOs
Please do join us! We need you to think about us. Take Care! Remember, persons living with mental illness
are people first.
Dr. Achal Bhagat