Mental illnesses are the stuff that stigma is made of, and patients’ human rights are often violated, says Sakshi Nanda.
This is the third and last of our favourite blog posts tweeted to @AmnestyOnline on Blog Action Day 2013,
when thousands of people came together worldwide to blog about human
rights. The views expressed are the author’s own, and do not necessarily
represent the views of Amnesty International.
A couple of years back, I worked on a book called ‘Psychiatric
Hospitals in India’. I took on the project as a content advisor and
morphed into a co-researcher out of sheer interest. I was interested
since psychiatry is a field I did not know the ABC of. But as I went
deeper into writing, compiling, advising, designing sheets upon sheets
full of everything to do with mental hospitals, illnesses, problems and
recommendations, I realized it was not just that mental health was a
lesser known field but also that it was not covered as extensively by
popular media in my surroundings as maybe other similar concerns had
been.
Because in so many countries still,
mental illnesses are stuff that stigma is made of. And a mental asylum a
building housing men, women and even children who have been disowned by
their families.
And more often than not, the hospitals are far from asylums but
places which, knowingly or otherwise, violate human rights of the
mentally ill patients. And this is something that you and I do not read
about in the national dailies. Because somewhere, we either tend to not
notice or make unseen that semi-nude “mad man” with a matted beard
talking to the trees on the side of the road.
The author of this Blog Action Day 2013 post, Sakshi Nanda. © Aseem Nanda
Today, on Blog Action Day, I pen a few paragraphs of
information on Mental Health and Human Rights. I am no human rights
activist in the true sense of the word. I am not even taking action on
the patient’s behalf in this case. I am simply showing you the picture
and the perspective that I gathered along the way. Maybe hoping to bring
about a change, a change in the mindset which still uses words like
‘mental’, ‘psycho’, ‘schizo’ and ‘retard’ in a loose, irresponsible and
utterly insensitive way.
Health, as a right, was included only recently in the United Nations
‘Universal Declaration of Human Rights’, as Article 25 (Universal
Declaration), stating ‘Everyone has a right to a standard of living adequate for health and well-being of himself and his family…’
When we talk of Mental Health, it took a series of revolutionary minds
across the globe to emphasise that persons suffering from mental illness
shall enjoy the same human rights and fundamental freedoms as all other
citizens. They shall not be the subject of discrimination on grounds of
mental illness. They have the rights to professional, humane and
dignified treatment and will be protected from exploitation, abuse and
degradation. Elimination of prejudice and stigma attached to mental
illnesses will be aimed at and regardless of age, gender, ethnic group
or disorder, they will be treated in the same manner as other citizens
in need of health care.
In short, the world recognized the fact that the basic human rights
and freedoms of the mentally ill should be respected at all costs. The
relationship between mental health and Laws of the Land was established,
and even though a dynamic one, laid down set criterion for the
treatment of the mentally ill under various governments and nation
states.
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