mental health rights group

Sign the Petition

Mental Health Rights Group has come together with Disability Rights Group and National Alliance for Access to Justice for Persons living with Mental Illness (NAAJMI) to boycott the consultations being organized by the Government of India for amendments to Mental Health Act, 1987. The three organizations with the support nearly forty other organizations from across India have also petitioned the Health Minister to stall the process of amendments as these are not rights based and not aligned to the United Nations Convention for Persons with Disabilities. Read and sign the petition online -

Signed by the following and endorsed by members of Disability Rights Group, Mental Health Rights Group and NAAJMIJaved Abidi, NCPEDP and Disability Rights Group (DRG), New Delhi. Syamala Gidugu, Action for Ability Development and Inclusion and DRG, New Delhi. Vandana Bedi, DRG, New Delhi, D. Naidu, National Alliance for Access to Justice for persons living with Mental Illness, Bangalore Achal Bhagat, Saarthak and Mental Health Rights Group (MHRG), New Delhi. Bhargavi Davar, Bapu Trust and NAAJMI, Pune. Abdul Mabood, Snehi and NAAJMI , New Delhi. Ratnaboli Ray, Anjali and NAAJMI, Kolkatta. Dr. Mani, Basic Needs India, Bangalore. Dr. Debashsis Chaterjee, Ishwar Sankalp, Kolkatta. Ratna Golaknath, Saarthak and MHRG, New Delhi. Deepak Jain, BraveHeart Club and MHRG, New Delhi. Zoengpari Gohain, VOLCOMH and MHRG, Mizoram. Suzie, NAAJMI, Mumbai. Kanchan Pamnani, Disability Rights Advocate, Mumbai. Rakesh Thukral, Citizens for Mental Health and MHRG, New Delhi. Arman Ali, Shishu Sahroti and DRG, Guwhati. Anita Khanna, Citizens for Mental Health and MHRG, New Delhi. Rajiv Rajan. Lavanaya Seshasayee, NAAJMI, Bangalore. Rajive Raturi, HRLN and NAAJMI, New Delhi. Anup Dhar, CSCS, Bangalore. Sudhanshu Mishra, Snehi, New Delhi. Jhilmil Breckenridge, New Delhi. Sunitha Krishnan, Prajwala and MHRG, Hyderabad

A Joint Petition by Concerned Citizens, Persons living with Mental Illness, National Mental Health and Disability Rights Organizations and Networks to Mr. Ghulam Nabi Azad, Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.

7th July 2010

Mr. Ghulam Nabi Azad
Honourable Minister, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare,
Governemnt of India, Nirman Bhavan, New Delhi, 110001

Dear Mr. Azad,

We, the undersigned, are persons living with mental illness, friends and caregivers of persons living with mental illness, service providers of mental health services and concerned citizens. We have collectively been working for the rights of persons living with mental illness for past two decades across India.

We write to express our anguish and concern at the current Mental Health Act Amendments process being pursued by the Health Ministry. We have decided to boycott the current process of consultations regarding the amendment of the Mental Health Act, 1987. We strongly feel that the proposed amendments to the law are written in the framework which considers persons living with mental illness as non-people. The current law and its amendments see persons living with mental illness as people who are incapable or dangerous. This is unacceptable.

We believe, every person living with mental illness, irrespective of the severity, is an equal citizen with fundamental rights for justice, liberty and equality. The promotion and protection of the rights,freedoms and dignity of persons with mental illness will make a significant contribution in addressing the profound social disadvantage faced by persons living with mental illness.

We believe that it is in this spirit that India has signed and later ratified UNCRPD. The process of ratification places an obligation on the Government of India to ensure the adherence to the provisions of UNCPRD and amend the National Acts accordingly. It is perhaps also in this light that Government of India had initiated the process of amendments for The Mental Health Act, 1987. The implemenation of UNCRPD in right earnest will promote participation of persons living with mental illness in the civil, political, economic, social and cultural spheres with equal opportunities. Such inclusion would contribute to enhancing the well being and psychosocial health of people living with mental illness and prevention of institutionalisation. It will prevent torture, degrading and inhuman treatment of the persons living with mental illness. It will also help India emerge further towards being a Society for all.

However, the drafting body has chosen to ignore the UNCRPD completely. The process of amendments and the content of the amendments have not addressed the issues of discrimination, assumption of incapacity and recognition of other rights of the person living with mental illness.

The drafting body has focused on making a law that still talks about the process of Institutionalization and governing mental health facilities, as opposed to acknowledging and ensuring rights of persons living with mental illness as equal citizens. It reinforces all the stereotypes about persons living with mental illness and does not lay down the path and vision for inclusion of persons living with mental illness in a society, nor does it allow for choices in seeking care.

The reality is that the current Mental Health Act cannot be brought in consonance with the UNCRPD. It is an Act which restricts the rights and it cannot be used as a vehicle for the rights for persons living with mental illness. It is our belief that rights of persons living with mental illness should be acknowledged by all laws of India. We believe that the new Persons with Disabilities Act should be the legislation that addresses the dreams and aspirations of all persons living with disability, including those living with mental illness. If over and above this it is felt that a law is required for persons living with mental illness, a new law should be formulated in the rights based UNCRPD paradigm to replace the current retrogressive Act.

The present process of the amendments needs to stop immediately as it is non-participatory and discriminatory. There also has been no attempt to consult with the Nodal Ministry for the affairs of disabled persons, the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, which is in the process of formulating a comprehensive law for the rights of all Persons with Disability. It will mean that either persons living with mental illness will be addressed through two very different paradigms in law or that their rights will still not be addressed at all in any of the laws.

We request you to see this as a matter of grave urgency as it is causing concern to millions of people around the country. We request that the process of amendments of Mental Health Act be stalled till the new Persons with Disabilities Act is drafted. This new Act is more likely to address the rights of all persons with disabilities, including those living with mental illness.

If a restrictive draft of Mental Health Act is in place then unfortunately it will be the primary law that addresses persons living with mental illness. This will render the new Persons with Disabilities Act inconsequential for persons living with mental illness. Whatever rights are accorded to the persons living with mental illness in the new Persons with Disabilities Act would have already been taken away by the Mental Health Act amendments. We are extremely worried that this reality will then determine the fate of persons living with mental illness for the next few decades or so!

We hope that the Health Ministry would not like to be seen as being responsible for bringing in a law that violates the rights of people instead of furthering them.

We also seek an early appointment with you to emphasize our concerns to you in person.
The continued silence of the Health Ministry on our concerns is apalling! Please do intervene, Mr. Azad!

Persons living with mental illness are people too!
We look forward to a positive and rights based response from you

Thanking you,
With warm regards

I have read the petition and I'm willing to sign and endorse it.

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273 concerned individuals have signed the petition. MHRG thanks every one of them for their support.


Somya Bhardwaj, Lady Shri Ram college for Women
Chung-deh Tien
P S R KANAKAMBARAM, KARD ORGANISATION MENTAL HEALTH RIGHTS GROUP'S ACTIVITIES ARE VERY GOOD AND I AM VERY MUCH INTERESTED TO BE INVOLVED IN THESE ACTIVITIES.
P S R KANAKAMBARAM, KARD ORGANISATION MENTAL HEALTH RIGHTS GROUP'S ACTIVITIES ARE VERY GOOD AND I AM VERY MUCH INTERESTED TO BE INVOLVED IN THESE ACTIVITIES.
lubina ahmed azeez The condition of Lubina Ahmed Azeez ),The 1st week after we return from India she is very OK.. She understand what we ask her even she do some homework with interest , in general [ cipralex + parcetare 2mg ] is very good for her . But some days she speaks with herself even laugh ,this occur after .this may be the Resperidone 4mg tablet not like opollo company .although she take Resperidone from other Indian company , or may be the does of drug not enough to cover all the day . N
Aarthi Rajan, Advocate, Supreme Court of India In light of the judgments of the Supreme Court holding that non-criminal mentally ill persons must not be kept in prisons, and recent amendments to the Code of Criminal Procedure that allow for discharge of mentally ill accused persons, there needs to be an overhaul of the various legislations dealing with persons with mental illness. If the Persons with Disabilities Act can eventually provide a comprehensive, rights-based regime in this respect, then surely the MHA is redundant and deserves to
Amit Kochhar, PDDUIPH Occupational therapy should be included in the bill as OT is the professional directly dealing with this population and thus bringing a great change.
Sastha Prakash, Independent Absolutely needed.
Amrutha Anand
suraj, Home
Megha Goyal Jain, Kochhar Psychiatry Center
Rajnish Saran
neha swain, delhi school of social work i have been working with the people living with mental illness for a year now. i stand by the petition as i want to suppoert my friends..
Armaan
Chhavi Pandit
Kanika Jindal, IHBAS (M.Phil trainee)
Rohit Pandita I fully support the stopping any knee jerk amendments, instead call for an inclusive approach with all the stakeholders, especially my voiceless fellows struggling with mental illnesses, families, care providers, ..
Vipul Gupta, Symbiosis Institute of Media an Communication, Pune
Edward Charles All have equal rights in this democratic country with or without any sort of illness, we should hold our hands together and fight against this inequality. I confirm my sincere participation.
azra khatoon, student
ARQAM CHOUDHARY, BISME EDUCATION SOCIETY its nice n interesting...
Amita Joshi, Mangal Deep Vidya Mandir, Almora I am sure the Act will be positively modified, thanks to the participation of everyone here. Best wishes.
Aditya Joshi
a nadeem
sumbul
sana fareed
mahjabi
s m abbasi
raheela
Vandana Datt Anand, Delhi government HAM HONGE KAAMYAB!!!!!
Rashad Ghani, AL futtaim
ankit baghel, student
Kavita
Harsha Hardhagari, UF
Qaseem, Mbic
raminder, aadi supporting with full agreement for the petition
emad akhtar farooqi, student
nadeem akhtar
sajjad ali
tehreema ahmed
tazein
Ishrat Kamal, Compass Marketing Communication
Deepti Sharma, Kingfisher Airline Ltd. ppl with mental illness are equally important....please dont ignore them......
Patrick John Ashing, Camaldolese Benedictine Monk
Gajendra Kumar, Refresh Ideas
Gireesh Kumar, TVS&SONS LTD
svetleena, Bubble Fuelled
Arif Rizvi I Support this cause, they too are human beings!!!
Arif Rizvi I Support this cause, they too are human beings!!!
Farida Rizvi As Individual capacity I support the cause!!
Tarannum Salman
Manvinder Roy I think all of us as responsible citizens of India should collectively address to the above said and many other wrong practices prevalent in the society.
Rahul Chaman Saxena, TCS
Gauri Johri, Educomp
Abhijit Sengupta
Dr Nikhil Grover
shubho ray
Arjun, Refresh Ideas
Avik Chattopadhyay
Atif
Hasan Abdullah
Hasan Abdullah
megha pushkarna, PSRI, New Delhi
Asif Fouzi, TCS
Charneeta Kaur, Pearl Academy of Fashion
Kavita Verma, Teleca
Samreen Siddiqui
sushma kumari, aadi hi, i strongly support you all. people should be treated as people, we all ,whether disabled or non disabled are equal citizen of this country no matter how much we are able to contribute.
tanveer ahmed, student
zainul abdin, Al hassan group of constructions
krishnapriya, Ogilvy & Mather Pvt. Ltd
Parvati M. Krishnan
Sujit Kumar, SCO Group Ltd.
Manisha Shrivastava, Saarthak and MHRG
Sayana Mukherjee, Saarthak and MHRG
Jamal Siddiqui, MIA
Shweta Verma, Saarthak and MHRG
Monica Anand, ICICI Bank Have watched my mother work for mental health ever since i can remember. every bit any one of us can do is important.
kapil, streetanchor.com over 70 million disabled people live in india and they deserve to live better and with full dignity.
Sunaina Rastogi
Nidhi, Nidii
Sushma Joshi
Gaurav
Pragya, IHBAS
ashish chawla, ashish chawla .
Ravi Grover , Individual Good going!!! lets hope the outcome is postive
Madhu Grover, AADI The amendments must be done !!
Maneesh, Himal Trade
varun chawla
Anita Lodhi, AADI
Nidhi Grover , Saarthak people with mental illness are people first , ... Lets start by treating them as people & not by their diagnosis . By doing so give them rights that any citizen of India has... why should it be any different!!!
Nidhi Grover , Saarthak people with mental illness are people first , ... Lets start by treating them as people & not by their diagnosis . By doing so give them rights that any citizen of India has... why should it be any different!!!
B D Chandna, Individual Appreciate the efforts of MHRG for this noble cause.
Abhijit Panda, Associate Clinical Psychologist, Orissa wonderful beginning....we will work together....
Neelam Dutt, AADI
Darsana Khir, AADI
Shweta Ladsaria, AADI (Action for Ability Development and Inclusion)
padmaja mohanty, aadi I would like to join u in this battle of injustice.
Saloni Singh
Simrit Gill, Citibank
shena gamat
Nivya Nair
anita walia, clinical psychologist make right to mental health a FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT OF EVERY HUMAN BEING
Mohammed Hafeez, AREVA T&D All citizens have a right to live and lead a decent life. So what if they are mentally ill.Mental illness is treatable and curable.Do not deny them their right.
aarti
A.K.Jha, Physios, New Delhi the concern of positive mental health especially in India is more demanding because of changing patterns of lives in this country.
iqrar ahmad, vahid associates, bahrain they too are God's creation, we should be benevolent towards them so that we could face a benevolent God in the after-life.
narender sharma, smart
pupul sagar pushkarna
ekta sharma, impetus technologies, inc.
richa gusain
Meghna Datta Roy, Student
malik shamim parvez, delhi administration
Kirit Kiran
Rahul Bhardwaj I agree and support the cause and hope goverment will take some serious action over it.Dont do this to them they are human too.
shaalu mutreja, saarhak
Gunjan Kachroo
Shahamat Ferozie
Gulzar Harrison
kamin bedi, consultant as a special educator hi its so hearting to see people associated with the cause . i am a special educator dealing with children with autism and learning disability .
kamin bedi, consultant as a special educator hi its so hearting to see people associated with the cause . i am a special educator dealing with children with autism and learning disability .
Tarannum Pasricha
Sandeep Reelh
veenu i support this cause, they are human beings too.
Youla Khurana, Mindseye
Jawahar Please Save those innocent souls
L. Tochhawng
Rina Behaviourial science and psychiatry does not define "normal" because it does not exist ...nonetheless deviations can happen to anyone, especially those under extreme pressure. We need to remove the stigma attached to mental health that itself calls for a cure. I fully support the petition and hope this contributes to awareness and lend help to those who need it .
Siya Bhalla , Equinox
Gurneet Bhatia The least the organisation deserves is a personal hearing!!!
ALI HAIDER KADERI, PERSONAL my elder brother suffers from scizophrenia past 20 yrs and he is not at all DANGEROUS and inacceptable.I have enough concern and right to stand up against the cause. Ali Haider ..
Maj. Gen. A. Joshi, ( Retd) Hopefully the Government will wake up now and respond in rightful earnest to the letter sent to them on 7 Jul 2010
pallavi mallick
Kurnal Kapoor, FICCI Mental Hospitals lack the very basic nature of a Human Being i.e. HUMANITY
ruhi dewan, cherubic india
Mehul Kumar i support it too
g swathy, NA i fully support this!
Asmita Singh, Thunderbird, Arizona I hope the voices are heard..
Avani Malhotra, Christ University Please make this happen
Aditi Kulkarni
ARCHIT GUPTA, AMBEY GROUP i support the much deserved fight!
Sugandha Gaur, TBWA/INDIA I hope our small effort will do something big fr dis.
Priyanka Dang
Ravee Botalje This is the least we can do in our busy life. Thank you !
Bhupinder Singh Ubhi, Cauveri Furniture
Rizvi, designbar Bhale kaam me der kaisi? Do it ASAP.
Shubhra Sharma, Saarthak
Pulkit Aggarwal
raj kaushal, fuel
Mohammed Sirajuddeen
manoj jacob, euroRSCG Advertising fight for the right.
Sandeep Sahu, JIM Noida In any way (hook or crook)...the justice must be done to every human being.
Anshika Saxena, Euro RSCG India
U Z Daniel Rao, MWG TAG
ANAND BHUSHAN, MWG TAG
Neha Prakash, Contract Advertising
aakash verma, euro rscg We together can make an impact and help the people suffering from mental illness..I am with you!!
Divya Saxena Good Work!! Keep it up!!!
Divya Saxena
Yashaswi Bhatt, EuroRSCG India
Amol Salekar, Euro RSCG Heats Disability is our Dis ability.
Hari Worth appreciating for a cause. Keep it up
shalini ganguli, Euro RSCG
Shweta Sharma, Euro RSCG, India
Anuranjan Singh Dogra, EuroRSCG It's time government and bureaucrats listen to people who know their job and have spent their entire life learning and working for this cause and not just work with a blind eye and listen to people who will do anything for their ulterior motives. Wake up, their are other intelligent people out there too. Listen to them.
sarina bhusal gupta we want........ whatt we deserve........ !!
Nidhi Kankan I fully endorse this cause!
ranjan
ruchika dua, AADI
alka sudhir bhalla, freelance social worker Its painful to know how persons living with mental illness are treated in our country. We certainly need to support them and our government must work towards that along with all of us!!
Sunita Kumar
Vikram Joshi Finally a ray of hope for us the underprivileged
Titir Sengupta
Manish Katiyar, HCL Technologies Ltd
Chinna Dua Keep up the good work.God Bless.Hope we all together, are able to make a difference.
Ramiya Nambiar, Contract Advertising
Tania Khosla
Shubho Ray
Renjith P Sarada, Etisalcom Bahrain WLL Thanks to the Group for organizing this and spreading an awareness. Hope that the nodal authorities would look into this matter with appropriate importance. Best Regards, Renjith P Sarada
Payal S. Jain, Freelance Designer
kirti reelh
neha agarwal, Euro RSCG India
Nupur Bhargava, Laksh Foundation
Abhinav Bhatia very important for the future of our existance.
Akshay Malhotra
Jasdev Singh, NA When will the Government Of India start thinking link a normal Indian who can look at all the problems he is facing in his day to day life?
kamal bhatnagar, Ogilvy & Mather pvt. Ltd.
Dibakar Das Roy, Independent Please act up!
Kaneez Fatima, Saarthak persons with mental illness have equal rights as evrybody else and its high time we all realise that and work on it.
ahmer anis
ahmer anis
Khalid Anis Ansari, The Patna Collective
Reetika Dwivedi
harita rao
Basit Moiz
Renu Advitha, student I strongly support and believe in the cause.
mallika dua
Anuradha Sehgal Mental illness is an illness just like a physical one - often rooted in some chemical imbalance. We need to approach it exactly like we approach physical illness and not like some unmentionable. Because the treatment is often long drawn and not as profitable as physical illnesses, you will rarely find hospitals devoting space or resources to this speciality. That needs to change too ! Perhaps there could be a law for that !
Rohan Kumar, Amity University
Tanisha Chawla
Kanikashree Bhalla, Action for Ability Development and Inclusion (AADI)
Sidharth Dewan, Individual Im happy that someone is doing something about these problems.. keep it up and best of luck.
Asfar Sohail Azmi, Wayne State University
Gaurav Alagh , CNN IBN
Romila Sundaresan, Veda Informatics All the best
abhishake das, reprise media pvt ltd I hereby sign the petition, & support the cause.
Neha Dwivedi, Redifusion Y&R
Nikita, Euro RSCG
Tulika Tagore, RK Swamy BBDO
Shuchi Thakur
Paramjeet Singh, Retired professor
Davinder Pal Singh
Nikhil Sinha, Delhi
abhishek sharma
komal malik
Amrita Gupta It is high time for India to change.
Aiyesha Bahadur, The Sunday Guardian
seema lalani, Indication instruments limited I believe in equality and dignity for all and so am with this petition.
Anjali
kavitha reddy Simple truth and law is every living being has got a equal right to live the way nature has meant them to be,but when we come across people with mental disabilities,we, the so called normal people tend to overlook or look down on their basic needs and rights thinking that they are oblivious of happenings around,let us be civilised enough to know that they deserve an equally dignified and compassionate reach out,i too strongly support this cause and hence signed this petition.
sabeena william
Ankit Duggal
Vasudha Gidugu, Boston University- Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation
Amy
Namaah Kumar
Amrita Basu
Gerard Jayaranjan
AVIK MUKHERJEE, SPACE
Shubham Garg, SPace bravo! lets make a difference
Vikrant Narang, SPACE
tasneem jamal, saarthak please make it a reality..... mein akela hi chala tha janib e manzi magar log saath aate gaye or kaarvan bantaa gaya
Amrita
asif khan, verizon
Saloni Taneja, Saarthak and MHRG
Vehrnon Ibrahim, TVToday I am glad some one is doing something about these poor people... if there is anything else I can do pls let me know...
Syed Ashraf shahzad, Grundfos Gulf Distribution
Subir Kr. Singh, ABC Consultants
Neel Chaudhuri, The Tadpole Repertory
Sweta Rawat, The Hans Foundation
Nitin Pasricha, Free Lancer I strongly support the cause.
Alyesha Bakshi, Events Every person irrespective of their drawbacks are equals......mental illness is not a disease....these people should be seen as equals and not isolated.......please lets come together and help them...... i support this cause whole-heartedly.
Divya Chandra
Nitn Malik, Parikrama
Mukul Soni, SCOA Please help these people.
Sarabjit S Chadha, Leo Burnett
Suresh Nair, Asha Advertising Every living person has a right to Equality & Liberty and no excuse/law should curtain that right.
Shweta Ratra, NYC Department of Education, USA
anuj golaknath, SELF EMPLOYED this needs to be done.
anuj golaknath, SELF EMPLOYED this needs to be done.
Ananya Kumar, Advocate
Gajendra Kumar, Software Agree
Meher Rehman, Family Health International
Anita Shrivastav
Esther Thangjom Schomberg I am expat of India , I was student of DU with Psychology Hons back in the 90's , I now live in Israel and I am comparing the kind of services given to people with mental disabilities , India as growing and developing country and she should be proud of the economic potential she has , its really is a high time welfare services are given to people with challenges with this special population .If given the right amount of support , they can be productive and can contribute to the society .
Shipra Bansal, Naukri.com Persons living with Mental Illness,Should have the Right to live.
Himani Chandra, Quadrangle It is a very good initiative taken for the safety and equal survival of the people who are suffering from mental sickness. As a Universal Law we all are created by the Almighty GOd and he has made all of us equal. The inequality in terms of caste,creed and rights assigned to a person are made by us which is inhuman and unacceptable. I too fell proud to endorse this. Regards Himani
Pramada Menon
Mona Sharma I support the fight, by sharing the efforts of mhrg with friends who care for the human rights.
Subhalakshmi Nandi
Tanushree
Shreya Jha
Lekha Mohan, DeVine Ventures
Kanika
Saif, IBM
Sanjay Khare, Pinstorm I request and urge you to please visit http://www.adhar.org/ & talk to chairperson/head of this instituted/organization, they are doing great work thank you.
Suman Srivastava, Euro RSCG
Deepak Singh Dogra
Nishita Panicker, JWT, Mumbai
Chandramouli Prasad
Manish Bhatnagar, Visual Asylum I hope that something gets done about it asap. I'am curious to know about the kind of deceases that some of these people have been diagnosed with, keeping in mind their surroundings & the behavior/attitude of the authorities that they have to deal with on a regular basis. It would be helpful to know more about deceases such as paranoia & schizophrenia in detail, & their origins & impact on the human psyche in the long run....& maybe if it has had any impact on these people,
Iram Jafri, Quadrangle
Saad Khan, Self Employed
Deepak Singh Dogra

Somya Bhardwaj, Lady Shri Ram college for Women

Chung-deh Tien

P S R KANAKAMBARAM, KARD ORGANISATION
MENTAL HEALTH RIGHTS GROUP'S ACTIVITIES ARE VERY GOOD AND I AM VERY MUCH INTERESTED TO BE INVOLVED IN THESE ACTIVITIES.

lubina ahmed azeez
The condition of Lubina Ahmed Azeez ),The 1st week after we return from India she is very OK..
She understand what we ask her even she do some homework with interest , in general [ cipralex + parcetare 2mg ] is very good for her .
But some days she speaks with herself even laugh ,this occur after .this may be the Resperidone 4mg tablet not like opollo company .although she take Resperidone from other Indian company , or may be the does of drug not enough to cover all the day .
N

Aarthi Rajan, Advocate, Supreme Court of India
In light of the judgments of the Supreme Court holding that non-criminal mentally ill persons must not be kept in prisons, and recent amendments to the Code of Criminal Procedure that allow for discharge of mentally ill accused persons, there needs to be an overhaul of the various legislations dealing with persons with mental illness. If the Persons with Disabilities Act can eventually provide a comprehensive, rights-based regime in this respect, then surely the MHA is redundant and deserves to

Amit Kochhar, PDDUIPH
Occupational therapy should be included in the bill as OT is the professional directly dealing with this population and thus bringing a great change.

Sastha Prakash, Independent
Absolutely needed.

Amrutha Anand

suraj, Home

Megha Goyal Jain, Kochhar Psychiatry Center

Rajnish Saran

neha swain, delhi school of social work
i have been working with the people living with mental illness for a year now. i stand by the petition as i want to suppoert my friends..

Armaan

Chhavi Pandit

Kanika Jindal, IHBAS (M.Phil trainee)

Rohit Pandita
I fully support the stopping any knee jerk amendments, instead call for an inclusive approach with all the stakeholders, especially my voiceless fellows struggling with mental illnesses, families, care providers, ..

Vipul Gupta, Symbiosis Institute of Media an Communication, Pune

Edward Charles
All have equal rights in this democratic country with or without any sort of illness, we should hold our hands together and fight against this inequality. I confirm my sincere participation.

azra khatoon, student

ARQAM CHOUDHARY, BISME EDUCATION SOCIETY
its nice n interesting...

Amita Joshi, Mangal Deep Vidya Mandir, Almora
I am sure the Act will be positively modified, thanks to the participation of everyone here. Best wishes.

Aditya Joshi

a nadeem

sumbul

sana fareed

mahjabi

s m abbasi

raheela

Vandana Datt Anand, Delhi government
HAM HONGE KAAMYAB!!!!!

Rashad Ghani, AL futtaim

ankit baghel, student

Kavita

Harsha Hardhagari, UF

Qaseem, Mbic

raminder, aadi
supporting with full agreement for the petition

emad akhtar farooqi, student

nadeem akhtar

sajjad ali

tehreema ahmed

tazein

Ishrat Kamal, Compass Marketing Communication

Deepti Sharma, Kingfisher Airline Ltd.
ppl with mental illness are equally important....please dont ignore them......

Patrick John Ashing, Camaldolese Benedictine Monk

Gajendra Kumar, Refresh Ideas

Gireesh Kumar, TVS&SONS LTD

svetleena, Bubble Fuelled

Arif Rizvi
I Support this cause, they too are human beings!!!

Farida Rizvi
As Individual capacity I support the cause!!

Tarannum Salman

Manvinder Roy
I think all of us as responsible citizens of India should collectively address to the above said and many other wrong practices prevalent in the society.

Rahul Chaman Saxena, TCS

Gauri Johri, Educomp

Abhijit Sengupta

Dr Nikhil Grover

shubho ray

Arjun, Refresh Ideas

Avik Chattopadhyay

Atif

Hasan Abdullah

megha pushkarna, PSRI, New Delhi

Asif Fouzi, TCS

Charneeta Kaur, Pearl Academy of Fashion

Kavita Verma, Teleca

Samreen Siddiqui

sushma kumari, aadi
hi, i strongly support you all. people should be treated as people, we all ,whether disabled or non disabled are equal citizen of this country no matter how much we are able to contribute.

tanveer ahmed, student

zainul abdin, Al hassan group of constructions

krishnapriya, Ogilvy & Mather Pvt. Ltd

Parvati M. Krishnan

Sujit Kumar, SCO Group Ltd.

Manisha Shrivastava, Saarthak and MHRG

Sayana Mukherjee, Saarthak and MHRG

Jamal Siddiqui, MIA

Shweta Verma, Saarthak and MHRG

Monica Anand, ICICI Bank
Have watched my mother work for mental health ever since i can remember. every bit any one of us can do is important.

kapil, streetanchor.com
over 70 million disabled people live in india and they deserve to live better and with full dignity.

Sunaina Rastogi

Nidhi, Nidii

Sushma Joshi

Gaurav

Pragya, IHBAS

ashish chawla, ashish chawla
.

Ravi Grover , Individual
Good going!!! lets hope the outcome is postive

Madhu Grover, AADI
The amendments must be done !!

Maneesh, Himal Trade

varun chawla

Anita Lodhi, AADI

Nidhi Grover , Saarthak
people with mental illness are people first , ... Lets start by treating them as people & not by their diagnosis . By doing so give them rights that any citizen of India has... why should it be any different!!!

B D Chandna, Individual
Appreciate the efforts of MHRG for this noble cause.

Abhijit Panda, Associate Clinical Psychologist, Orissa
wonderful beginning....we will work together....

Neelam Dutt, AADI

Darsana Khir, AADI

Shweta Ladsaria, AADI (Action for Ability Development and Inclusion)

padmaja mohanty, aadi
I would like to join u in this battle of injustice.

Saloni Singh

Simrit Gill, Citibank

shena gamat

Nivya Nair

anita walia, clinical psychologist
make right to mental health a FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT OF EVERY HUMAN BEING

Mohammed Hafeez, AREVA T&D
All citizens have a right to live and lead a decent life. So what if they are mentally ill.Mental illness is treatable and curable.Do not deny them their right.

aarti

A.K.Jha, Physios, New Delhi
the concern of positive mental health especially in India is more demanding because of changing patterns of lives in this country.

iqrar ahmad, vahid associates, bahrain
they too are God's creation, we should be benevolent towards them so that we could face a benevolent God in the after-life.

narender sharma, smart

pupul sagar pushkarna

ekta sharma, impetus technologies, inc.

richa gusain

Meghna Datta Roy, Student

malik shamim parvez, delhi administration

Kirit Kiran

Rahul Bhardwaj
I agree and support the cause and hope goverment will take some serious action over it.Dont do this to them they are human too.

shaalu mutreja, saarhak

Gunjan Kachroo

Shahamat Ferozie

Gulzar Harrison

kamin bedi, consultant as a special educator
hi its so hearting to see people associated with the cause . i am a special educator dealing with children with autism and learning disability .

Tarannum Pasricha

Sandeep Reelh

veenu
i support this cause, they are human beings too.

Youla Khurana, Mindseye

Jawahar
Please Save those innocent souls

L. Tochhawng

Rina
Behaviourial science and psychiatry does not define "normal" because it does not exist ...nonetheless deviations can happen to anyone, especially those under extreme pressure. We need to remove the stigma attached to mental health that itself calls for a cure. I fully support the petition and hope this contributes to awareness and lend help to those who need it .

Siya Bhalla , Equinox

Gurneet Bhatia
The least the organisation deserves is a personal hearing!!!

ALI HAIDER KADERI, PERSONAL
my elder brother suffers from scizophrenia past 20 yrs and he is not at all DANGEROUS and inacceptable.I have enough concern and right to stand up against the cause.
Ali Haider ..

Maj. Gen. A. Joshi, ( Retd)
Hopefully the Government will wake up now and respond in rightful earnest to the letter sent to them on 7 Jul 2010

pallavi mallick

Kurnal Kapoor, FICCI
Mental Hospitals lack the very basic nature of a Human Being i.e. HUMANITY

ruhi dewan, cherubic india

Mehul Kumar
i support it too

g swathy, NA
i fully support this!

Asmita Singh, Thunderbird, Arizona
I hope the voices are heard..

Avani Malhotra, Christ University
Please make this happen

Aditi Kulkarni

ARCHIT GUPTA, AMBEY GROUP
i support the much deserved fight!

Sugandha Gaur, TBWA/INDIA
I hope our small effort will do something big fr dis.

Priyanka Dang

Ravee Botalje
This is the least we can do in our busy life.
Thank you !

Bhupinder Singh Ubhi, Cauveri Furniture

Rizvi, designbar
Bhale kaam me der kaisi? Do it ASAP.

Shubhra Sharma, Saarthak

Pulkit Aggarwal

raj kaushal, fuel

Mohammed Sirajuddeen

manoj jacob, euroRSCG Advertising
fight for the right.

Sandeep Sahu, JIM Noida
In any way (hook or crook)...the justice must be done to every human being.

Anshika Saxena, Euro RSCG India

U Z Daniel Rao, MWG TAG

ANAND BHUSHAN, MWG TAG

Neha Prakash, Contract Advertising

aakash verma, euro rscg
We together can make an impact and help the people suffering from mental illness..I am with you!!

Divya Saxena
Good Work!! Keep it up!!!

Divya Saxena

Yashaswi Bhatt, EuroRSCG India

Amol Salekar, Euro RSCG
Heats Disability is our Dis ability.

Hari

Worth appreciating for a cause.
Keep it up

shalini ganguli, Euro RSCG

Shweta Sharma, Euro RSCG, India

Anuranjan Singh Dogra, EuroRSCG
It's time government and bureaucrats listen to people who know their job and have spent their entire life learning and working for this cause and not just work with a blind eye and listen to people who will do anything for their ulterior motives. Wake up, their are other intelligent people out there too. Listen to them.

sarina bhusal gupta
we want........ whatt we deserve........ !!

Nidhi Kankan
I fully endorse this cause!

ranjan

ruchika dua, AADI

alka sudhir bhalla, freelance social worker
Its painful to know how persons living with mental illness are treated in our country. We certainly need to support them and our government must work towards that along with all of us!!

Sunita Kumar

Vikram Joshi
Finally a ray of hope for us the underprivileged

Titir Sengupta

Manish Katiyar, HCL Technologies Ltd

Chinna Dua
Keep up the good work.God Bless.Hope we all together, are able to make a difference.

Ramiya Nambiar, Contract Advertising

Tania Khosla

Shubho Ray

Renjith P Sarada, Etisalcom Bahrain WLL
Thanks to the Group for organizing this and spreading an awareness.

Hope that the nodal authorities would look into this matter with appropriate importance.

Best Regards,
Renjith P Sarada

Payal S. Jain, Freelance Designer

kirti reelh

neha agarwal, Euro RSCG India

Nupur Bhargava, Laksh Foundation

Abhinav Bhatia
very important for the future of our existance.

Akshay Malhotra

Jasdev Singh, NA
When will the Government Of India start thinking link a normal Indian who can look at all the problems he is facing in his day to day life?

kamal bhatnagar, Ogilvy & Mather pvt. Ltd.

Dibakar Das Roy, Independent
Please act up!

Kaneez Fatima, Saarthak
persons with mental illness have equal rights as evrybody else and its high time we all realise that and work on it.

ahmer anis

Khalid Anis Ansari, The Patna Collective

Reetika Dwivedi

harita rao

Basit Moiz

Renu Advitha, student
I strongly support and believe in the cause.

mallika dua

Anuradha Sehgal
Mental illness is an illness just like a physical one - often rooted in some chemical imbalance. We need to approach it exactly like we approach physical illness and not like some unmentionable. Because the treatment is often long drawn and not as profitable as physical illnesses, you will rarely find hospitals devoting space or resources to this speciality. That needs to change too ! Perhaps there could be a law for that !

Rohan Kumar, Amity University

Tanisha Chawla

Kanikashree Bhalla, Action for Ability Development and Inclusion (AADI)

Sidharth Dewan, Individual
Im happy that someone is doing something about these problems.. keep it up and best of luck.

Asfar Sohail Azmi, Wayne State University

Gaurav Alagh , CNN IBN

Romila Sundaresan, Veda Informatics
All the best

abhishake das, reprise media pvt ltd
I hereby sign the petition, & support the cause.

Neha Dwivedi, Redifusion Y&R

Nikita, Euro RSCG

Tulika Tagore, RK Swamy BBDO

Shuchi Thakur

Paramjeet Singh, Retired professor

Davinder Pal Singh

Nikhil Sinha, Delhi

abhishek sharma

komal malik

Amrita Gupta
It is high time for India to change.

Aiyesha Bahadur, The Sunday Guardian

seema lalani, Indication instruments limited
I believe in equality and dignity for all and so am with this petition.

Anjali

kavitha reddy
Simple truth and law is every living being has got a equal right to live the way nature has meant them to be,but when we come across people with mental disabilities,we, the so called normal people tend to overlook or look down on their basic needs and rights thinking that they are oblivious of happenings around,let us be civilised enough to know that they deserve an equally dignified and compassionate reach out,i too strongly support this cause and hence signed this petition.

sabeena william

Ankit Duggal

Vasudha Gidugu, Boston University- Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation

Amy

Namaah Kumar

Amrita Basu

Gerard Jayaranjan

AVIK MUKHERJEE, SPACE

Shubham Garg, SPace
bravo! lets make a difference

Vikrant Narang, SPACE

tasneem jamal, saarthak
please make it a reality.....
mein akela hi chala tha janib e manzi magar
log saath aate gaye or kaarvan bantaa gaya

Amrita

asif khan, verizon

Saloni Taneja, Saarthak and MHRG

Vehrnon Ibrahim, TVToday
I am glad some one is doing something about these poor people... if there is anything else I can do pls let me know...

Syed Ashraf shahzad, Grundfos Gulf Distribution

Subir Kr. Singh, ABC Consultants

Neel Chaudhuri, The Tadpole Repertory

Sweta Rawat, The Hans Foundation

Nitin Pasricha, Free Lancer
I strongly support the cause.

Alyesha Bakshi, Events
Every person irrespective of their drawbacks are equals......mental illness is not a disease....these people should be seen as equals and not isolated.......please lets come together and help them...... i support this cause whole-heartedly.

Divya Chandra

Nitn Malik, Parikrama

Mukul Soni, SCOA
Please help these people.

Sarabjit S Chadha, Leo Burnett

Suresh Nair, Asha Advertising
Every living person has a right to Equality & Liberty and no excuse/law should curtain that right.

Shweta Ratra, NYC Department of Education, USA

anuj golaknath, SELF EMPLOYED
this needs to be done.

Ananya Kumar, Advocate

Gajendra Kumar, Software
Agree

Meher Rehman, Family Health International

Anita Shrivastav

Esther Thangjom Schomberg
I am expat of India , I was student of DU with Psychology Hons back in the 90's , I now live in Israel and I am comparing the kind of services given to people with mental disabilities , India as growing and developing country and she should be proud of the economic potential she has , its really is a high time welfare services are given to people with challenges with this special population .If given the right amount of support , they can be productive and can contribute to the society .

Shipra Bansal, Naukri.com
Persons living with Mental Illness,Should have the Right to live.

Himani Chandra, Quadrangle
It is a very good initiative taken for the safety and equal survival of the people who are suffering from mental sickness.

As a Universal Law we all are created by the Almighty GOd and he has made all of us equal.

The inequality in terms of caste,creed and rights assigned to a person are made by us which is inhuman and unacceptable.

I too fell proud to endorse this.

Regards
Himani

Pramada Menon

Mona Sharma
I support the fight, by sharing the efforts of mhrg with friends who care for the human rights.

Subhalakshmi Nandi

Tanushree

Shreya Jha

Lekha Mohan, DeVine Ventures

Kanika

Saif, IBM

Sanjay Khare, Pinstorm
I request and urge you to please visit http://www.adhar.org/ & talk to chairperson/head of this instituted/organization, they are doing great work thank you.

Suman Srivastava, Euro RSCG

Deepak Singh Dogra

Nishita Panicker, JWT, Mumbai

Chandramouli Prasad

Manish Bhatnagar, Visual Asylum
I hope that something gets done about it asap.

I'am curious to know about the kind of deceases that some of these people have been diagnosed with, keeping in mind their surroundings & the behavior/attitude of the authorities that they have to deal with on a regular basis.

It would be helpful to know more about deceases such as paranoia & schizophrenia in detail, & their origins & impact on the human psyche in the long run....& maybe if it has had any impact on these people,

Iram Jafri, Quadrangle

Saad Khan, Self Employed

Deepak Singh Dogra

One in five people in India live with mental illness

There are only 5000 qualified mental health professionals in India for a population of more than a billion

Join the campaign against the stigma of mental illness. Support us now

Mental illness is like any other illness and can be cured with treatment and support

Only 2% of our total health budget is allocated for mental illness.

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