Skip to main content

Govt of India finally decides to bring in new mental healthcare bill to address "inadequacies" in the system

Mental Healthcare Bill 2012, a considered a path-breaking law, is learnt to have received approval from the Indian Cabinet and is now awaiting parliamentary nod away from being enacted. Reliable sources close to the development say, after ratifying the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) in 2008, India was "under obligation to amend its disability laws to meet CRPD norms".Moreover, a 2005 report by the National Commission on Macroeconomics and Health recognised the huge burden of mental illness in the country and the inadequacy of the existing system to address the problem.
According to the report, nearly 65-70 million people in India have some kind of mental illness, and this excludes common mental disorders. The commission also estimated that there was a 70-80 per cent treatment gap for mental disorders.
"A new law is the need of the hour", Michelle Funk, coordinator of Mental Health Policy and Service Development at WHO's Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse, has been quoted as saying, “Too few people with mental disorders and psychosocial disabilities in India have access to good quality mental health care, and too many within the system have experienced extensive human rights violations, including inhumane and degrading treatment, restraint, seclusion, physical, sexual, or emotional abuse, and neglect”.
Keshav Desiraju, Secretary of Health and Family Welfare to the Government of India, has also bee quoted as saying that "mental health institutions in the government sector are depressing places which are starved of resources—both human and financial. The bill will provide an enabling structure for the government to provide more resources.”
But can the bill really deliver? Jayna Kothari, lawyer and founder of Centre for Law and Policy Research, Bangalore, thinks the new bill is groundbreaking because people with mental disorders have been granted legal capacity to take decisions about their health care and treatment. “No other law in the country dealing with disability—mental or other—grants such a right”, she says.
Soumitra Pathare, a Pune-based psychiatrist and coordinator of the Centre for Mental Health Law and Policy at the Indian Law Society, says the most important aspect of the bill is the right to mental health care. “Now it is the government's responsibility to see to it that everyone gets treatment for mental illness, whether they're rich or poor”, he says. Pathare wrote the original draft of the bill.
There are provisions in the new bill for a range of treatment options, including outpatient and community services and half-way homes. According to the new bill, every person (with or without a mental disorder) has the right to make an “advance directive”, which is essentially a written statement stating how they want to be treated when they're not in a state to make appropriate decisions.
For example, instructions in an advance directive would come into play when a person with schizophrenia is undergoing an acute phase of the illness and is unable to make decisions. An individual can also choose a “nominated representative” to assist them with the treatment and look after their interests when they cannot themselves do so.
The advance directive is being seen as a major shift in India's mental health-care system. Pathare says, “The provision of an advance directive will give people more control over their treatment and give them an opportunity to exercise choices even when they are incapacitated by mental health problems.”
Under the current law—The Mental Health Act, 1987—a patient cannot challenge a doctor's decision to admit them to hospital. Under the new bill, a patient can do so at any time by contacting a mental health tribunal.
Two other important features of the bill, welcomed by many observers, are the decriminalisation of suicide and a ban on electroconvulsive therapy without anaesthesia. Desiraju says the bill will be moved for discussion in the upcoming monsoon session of parliament, which is slated to begin in August. Kothari says if the bill is tabled, then there's a great likelihood of it passing.

Comments

TRENDING

Dalit rights and political tensions: Why is Mevani at odds with Congress leadership?

While I have known Jignesh Mevani, one of the dozen-odd Congress MLAs from Gujarat, ever since my Gandhinagar days—when he was a young activist aligned with well-known human rights lawyer Mukul Sinha’s organisation, Jan Sangharsh Manch—he became famous following the July 2016 Una Dalit atrocity, in which seven members of a family were brutally assaulted by self-proclaimed cow vigilantes while skinning a dead cow, a traditional occupation among Dalits.  

Global NGO slams India for media clampdown during conflict, downplays Pakistan

A global civil rights group, Civicus has taken strong exception to how critical commentaries during the “recent conflict” with Pakistan were censored in India, with journalists getting “targeted”. I have no quarrel with the Civicus view, as the facts mentioned in it are all true.

Whither SCOPE? Twelve years on, Gujarat’s official English remains frozen in time

While writing my previous blog on how and why Narendra Modi went out of his way to promote English when he was Gujarat chief minister — despite opposition from people in the Sangh Parivar — I came across an interesting write-up by Aakar Patel, a well-known name among journalists and civil society circles.

Remembering Vijay Rupani: A quiet BJP leader who listened beyond party lines

Late evening on June 12, a senior sociologist of Indian origin, who lives in Vienna, asked me a pointed question: Of the 241 persons who died as a result of the devastating plane crash in Ahmedabad the other day, did I know anyone? I had no hesitation in telling her: former Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani, whom I described to her as "one of the more sensible persons in the BJP leadership."

Why India’s renewable energy sector struggles under 2,735 compliance hurdles

Recently, during a conversation with an industry representative, I was told how easy it is to set up a startup in Singapore compared to India. This gentleman, who had recently visited Singapore, explained that one of the key reasons Indians living in the Southeast Asian nation prefer establishing startups there is because the government is “extremely supportive” when it comes to obtaining clearances. “They don’t want to shift operations to India due to the large number of bureaucratic hurdles,” he remarked.

Unchecked urbanisation, waste dumping: Study warns of 'invited disaster' as khadi floods threaten half of Surat

An action research report, “Invited Disaster: Khadi Floods in Surat City”, published by two civil rights groups, Paryavaran Suraksha Samiti and the People's Union for Civil Liberties, Surat, states that nearly half of Gujarat's top urban conglomerate—known for its concentration of textile and diamond polishing industries—is affected by the dumping of debris and solid waste, along with the release of treated and untreated sewage into the khadis (rivulets), thereby increasing the risk of flood disaster.

Two decades on, hunger still haunts Gujarat: Survey exposes stark gap behind poverty claims

A Niti Aayog report , released about two years ago, estimated that in Gujarat — which our powers-that-be have long considered a model state — 11.66% of people are "multidimensionally poor," a term referring to an index that seeks to estimate "multiple and simultaneous deprivations" at the household level across three macro categories: health, education, and living standards.

Boeing 787 under scrutiny again after Ahmedabad crash: Whistleblower warnings resurface

A heart-wrenching tragedy has taken place in Ahmedabad. As widely reported, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner plane crashed shortly after taking off from the city’s airport, currently operated by India’s top tycoon, Gautam Adani. The aircraft was carrying 230 passengers and 12 crew members.  As expected, the crash has led to an outpouring of grief across the country. At the same time, there have been demands for the resignation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, and the Civil Aviation Minister.

English proficiency for empowerment: Modi’s SCOPE vision contrasts Amit Shah’s remark

While Union Home Minister Amit Shah may have asserted that soon a time would come when those speaking English in the country would “feel ashamed”, it is ironic that Narendra Modi, when he was Gujarat chief minister, had launched what was called the SCOPE programme, actively involving the University of Cambridge to provide opportunities to the youth of Gujarat to "become not just job seekers but job creators (entrepreneurs)."