DOCSLIB.ORG

Treated Worse Than Animals” RIGHTS Abuses Against Women and Girls with Psychosocial Or Intellectual WATCH Disabilities in Institutions in India

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Treated Worse Than Animals” RIGHTS Abuses Against Women and Girls with Psychosocial Or Intellectual WATCH Disabilities in Institutions in India HUMAN “Treated Worse than Animals” RIGHTS Abuses against Women and Girls with Psychosocial or Intellectual WATCH Disabilities in Institutions in India “Treated Worse than Animals” Abuses against Women and Girls with Psychosocial or Intellectual Disabilities in Institutions in India Copyright © 2014 Human Rights Watch All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America ISBN: 978-1-6231-32088 Cover design by Rafael Jimenez Human Rights Watch defends the rights of people worldwide. We scrupulously investigate abuses, expose the facts widely, and pressure those with power to respect rights and secure justice. Human Rights Watch is an independent, international organization that works as part of a vibrant movement to uphold human dignity and advance the cause of human rights for all. Human Rights Watch is an international organization with staff in more than 40 countries, and offices in Amsterdam, Beirut, Berlin, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Goma, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Nairobi, New York, Paris, San Francisco, Sydney, Tokyo, Toronto, Tunis, Washington DC, and Zurich. For more information, please visit our website: http://www.hrw.org DECEMBER 2014 978-1-6231-32088 “Treated Worse than Animals” Abuses against Women and Girls with Psychosocial or Intellectual Disabilities in Institutions in India Terms .................................................................................................................................... i Summary and Key Recommendations ..................................................................................... 1 Methodology ...................................................................................................................... 22 I. Background ..................................................................................................................... 26 Inadequate Services and Support ........................................................................................... 27 New Mental Health Policy ................................................................................................. 34 Loss of Legal Capacity and Lack of Support to Exercise it ......................................................... 35 India’s Obligations ................................................................................................................. 37 II. Abuses in Institutions ..................................................................................................... 39 Stigma and Discrimination ...................................................................................................... 39 Social Exclusion .............................................................................................................. 40 Stigma in Institutions ....................................................................................................... 41 Lack of Alternatives to Institutionalization .............................................................................. 43 Abandonment in Institutions .................................................................................................. 45 Involuntary Admission, Arbitrary Detention ............................................................................. 47 Prolonged and Arbitrary Detention .................................................................................... 51 Conditions of Confinement ..................................................................................................... 53 Overcrowding, Poor Sanitation and Hygiene ..................................................................... 53 Denial of Education, Lack of Stimulation ........................................................................... 55 Lack of Adequately Trained Staff ...................................................................................... 59 Denial of Adequate and Appropriate Healthcare ..................................................................... 60 Involuntary Treatment ..................................................................................................... 62 Electroconvulsive Therapy ............................................................................................... 64 Physical, Sexual, and Verbal Violence .................................................................................... 69 Exploitation ..................................................................................................................... 72 III. Access to Justice ............................................................................................................. 74 Lack of Faith in Testimonies .................................................................................................... 76 Challenges in Reporting .......................................................................................................... 77 IV. Alternatives to Institutions/Community-Based Strategies ............................................... 79 V. Legal Framework .............................................................................................................. 83 Key International Obligations .................................................................................................. 83 Right to Equality and Non-Discrimination ......................................................................... 84 Rights of Women with Disabilities ................................................................................... 84 Right to Equal Recognition before the Law ........................................................................ 85 Right to Live in the Community ......................................................................................... 85 Freedom from Exploitation, Violence, and Abuse .............................................................. 85 Right to Liberty and Security of the Person ....................................................................... 86 Freedom from Torture or Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and Right to Protection of Personal, Mental, and Physical Integrity .................................................. 86 Right to Health ................................................................................................................. 87 Indian National Laws ............................................................................................................. 88 The National Trust for Welfare of Persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation and Multiple Disabilities Act, 1999 .................................................................................. 88 The Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995 ................................................................................................... 89 The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Bill, 2013 ............................................................. 89 Mental Health Legislation ................................................................................................ 90 Full Recommendations ........................................................................................................ 94 To the Central Government ..................................................................................................... 94 For Mental Health Facilities and Residential Care Institutions........................................... 94 For Legal Reform and Policy Implementation ..................................................................... 95 Data Collection to Inform Policy ....................................................................................... 98 For the Promotion of Mental Healthcare and Delivery of Services ...................................... 98 To State Governments ............................................................................................................ 99 For Mental Health Facilities and Residential Care Institutions........................................... 99 For the Promotion of Mental Healthcare and Delivery of Services ..................................... 101 To the Management of Mental Hospitals and Residential Institutions for Persons with Psychosocial or Intellectual Disabilities ................................................................................ 102 To National and State Human Rights Commissions................................................................ 103 To National and State Commissions for Women .................................................................... 103 To National and State Commissions for Protection of Child Rights ......................................... 103 To International Donors, including the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, and Bilateral Government Donors .............................................................................................................. 103 Acknowledgments ............................................................................................................. 104 Terms Beggars’ Home A place of detention to which a person who is found guilty of begging in the streets, for the first time, by a court of law can be sentenced for up to three years with a mandatory minimum of one year. Under the Bombay Prevention of Begging Act (1959), enacted by several states in India,1 people with leprosy or psychosocial disabilities can also be detained. Catatonia A syndrome that is usually associated with schizophrenia and mood disorders. A person with catatonia
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Sort out Conclusion (Check for Repetitions)
    Globalising Disorders: Encounters with Psychiatry in India China Mills A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the Manchester Metropolitan University for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Education and Social Research Institute Manchester Metropolitan University 2012 2 Globalising Disorders: Encounters with Psychiatry in India This is a thesis on Global Mental Health, on what it means for mental health to be ‘global’. It is a thesis about encounters; about research encounters, about psychiatry’s encounters with the global South, about colonial encounters. It’s about crises both individual and global, and the poltical rationales at work in the mediation of these crises. It’s about becoming and unbecoming psychiatric subjects, it’s about psychiatrization, about psychiatry’s creep out of asylums and across borders, into everyday life, globally. 2 Abstract Amid calls from the World Health Organization (WHO) and Global Mental Health to ‘scale up’ psychiatric treatments, globally, there are other calls (sometimes from those who have received those treatments), to abolish psychiatric diagnostic systems and to acknowledge the harm caused by some medications. This thesis elaborates a space for these arguments to encounter and to be encountered by each other. This is a thesis about encounters; about psychiatry’s encounters with the global South; about research encounters in India with mental health Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs); and about colonial encounters more generally. Drawing on analysis of interviews and visits to a range of mental health support provision in India, this thesis traces some conceptual and material mechanisms by which psychiatry travels - across borders - into increasing domains of everyday experience, and across geographical borders, into low and middle-income countries.
    [Show full text]
  • Mental Health Care and Human Rights
    Mental Health Care and Human Rights Editors D Nagaraja Pratima Murthy National Human Rights Commission New Delhi National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences Bangalore Title: Mental Health Care and Human Rights D Nagaraja Pratima Murthy Technical and Editorial Assistance Y S R Murthy, Director (Research), NHRC Utpal Narayan Sarkar, AIO, NHRC Joint copyright: National Human Rights Commission, New Delhi and National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences, Bangalore. First Edition: 2008 All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright holders ISBN- 978-81-9044117-5 Published by: National Human Rights Commission Faridkot House, Copernicus Marg New Delhi 110 001, India Tel: 23385368 Fax: 23384863 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.nhrc.nic.in Design and printed by Rajika Press Services Pvt. Ltd. Cover: Biplab Kundu Table of Contents Editors and Contributors............................................................... 5 Foreword........................................................................................ 7 Preface............................................................................................ 9 Editors’ Introduction.................................................................... 11 Section 1 Human rights in mental health care: ........................................... 15 an introduction Lakshmidhar
    [Show full text]
  • Women's Health and Access to Healthcare in India
    GENDERED VULNERABILITIES: WOMEN’S HEALTH AND ACCESS TO HEALTHCARE IN INDIA MANASEE MISHRA, Ph.d The Centre for Enquiry into Health and Allied Themes (CEHAT), Mumbai PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com First Published in July 2006 By Centre for Enquiry into Health and Allied Themes Survey No. 2804 & 2805 Aaram Society Road Vakola, Santacruz (East) Mumbai - 400 055 Tel. : 91-22-26673571 / 26673154 Fax : 22-26673156 E-mail : [email protected] Website : www.cehat.org © CEHAT ISBN : 81-89042-45-9 Printed at : Satam Udyog Parel, Mumbai-400 012. PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com FROM THE RESEARCH DESK Health and Human rights has explicit The Background Series is a collection of intrinsic connections and has emerged as papers on various issues related to right to powerful concepts within the rights based health, i.e., the vulnerable groups,health approach especially so in the backdrop of systems, health policies, affecting weakening public health system, unregulated accessibility and provisions of healthcare in growth of the private sector and restricted India. In this series, there are papers on access to healthcare systems leading to a women, elderly, migrants, disabled, near-total eclipse of availability and adolescents and homosexuals. The papers are accessibility of universal and comprehensive well researched and provide evidence based healthcare. A rights-based approach to health recommendations for improving access and uses International Human Rights treaties and reducing barriers to health and healthcare norms to hold governments accountable for alongside addressing discrmination. their obligations under the treaties. It We would like to use this space to express recognises the fact that the right to health is our gratitude towards the authors who have a fundamental right of every human being and contributed to the project by sharing their it implies the enjoyment of the highest ideas and knowledge through their respective attainable standard of health and that it is papers in the Background Series.
    [Show full text]
  • Final IDD Report
    COUNT ME IN Building an inclusive ecosystem for persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities 2 | Count Me In Count Me In | 3 Bank of America is one of the world’s leading financial institutions, serving large corporations, small- and middle-market businesses and individual consumers in more than 35 countries with a full range of banking, investing, asset management and other financial and risk management products and services. Bank of America Merrill Lynch is a global leader in corporate and investment banking and trading across a broad range of asset classes, serving corporations, governments, institutions and individuals around the world. The company provides, through various banking and broker-dealer affiliates, M&A advice, equity and debt capital raising solutions, lending, risk management, treasury, liquidity, and payments management. Bank of America Corporation stock (NYSE: BAC) is listed on the New York Stock Exchange. For additional information regarding Bank of America Merrill Lynch, please see www.bankofamerica.com/disclaimer. Dasra meaning ‘enlightened giving’ in Sanskrit, is a pioneering strategic philanthropic organization that aims to transform India where a billion thrive with dignity and equity. Since its inception in 1999, Dasra has accelerated social change by driving collaborative action through powerful partnerships among a trust-based network of stakeholders (corporates, foundations, families, non-profits, social businesses, government and media). Over the years, Dasra has deepened social impact in focused fields that include adolescents, urban sanitation and governance and has built social capital by leading a strategic philanthropy movement in the country. For more information, visit www.dasra.org 4 | Count Me In Count Me In | 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS 6.
    [Show full text]
  • Interrogating Interruptions: Exploring Young Women's Mental Health Issues
    – i INTERROGATING INTERRUPTIONS Exploring young women’s mental health issues Sama ii The information provided in this report is for wider dissemination and may be used by anyone with due acknowledgment to Sama. Sincere thanks to the American Jewish World Service for their support for the research and this report. Published in 2019 Published by: Sama–Resource Group for Women and Health B-45, 2nd floor, Main Road Shivalik, Malviya Nagar, New Delhi-110017 Tel: 011-65637632, 26692730 Email: [email protected] Web:www.samawomenshealth.in Cover by: FACET Layout andprinting by: Kishor Goswami iii CONTENTS Acknowledgements 1 Introduction 3 Methodology 7 Section A: Research design and objectives 7 Section B: Profile of research districts and participants 14 Endnotes 17 Findings 18 Section A:Perceptions of mental health Individual and community articulations of mental health 18 Perceptions of mental health by local healers and health care providers 21 Section B: Structural factors influencing mental health Intersection of gender, caste, sexuality and poverty 22 Poverty and caste 23 Early and forced marriages 24 Sexuality and mobility 30 Abuse and violence 35 Education 41 Section C: Young women’s agency and resistance 43 Endnotes Support, healing and health care 46 Section A: Sources of care and support 46 Emotional and psychosocial support: Family members, friends, organizations 46 Community-level support networks 48 Pathways of healing and health care 49 Healing and health care largely for physical symptoms 50 Section B: Availability
    [Show full text]
  • Understanding the Mental Ill Health – Poverty – Homelessness Nexus in India
    Understanding the Mental ill Health – Poverty – Homelessness Nexus in India: Strategies that promote distress alleviation and social inclusion Athena Institute, VU University Amsterdam Thesis Manuscript Vandana Gopikumar August, 2014 The Banyan, Chennai, India 1 Published by: Visual concept and cover design: Photography: Vandana Gopikumar, Chennai, India 2014 All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced by print, photocopy or any other means without written permission of the author. 2 VRIJE UNIVERSITEIT Understanding the Mental ill Health – Poverty – Homelessness Nexus in India: Strategies that promote distress alleviation and social inclusion ACADEMISCH PROEFSCHRIFT door Vandana Gopikumar The Banyan, Chennai, India 3 Promotor: Prof. Dr. J.F.G. Bunders-Aelen Co-promotor: Prof. Dr. S. Parasuraman 4 About this thesis This thesis enquires into the nature of distress experienced by persons with mental health concerns who live in conditions of poverty or homelessness. Having worked and lived with such persons for over two decades through The Banyan, an organization I co-founded, this inquiry is both poignant and significant. Driven by an agenda of understanding and communicating the nature of the complex problems experienced by such persons, this thesis aspires to contribute to a body of knowledge that will help alleviate the suffering of this vulnerable group. Without the users of The Banyan’s services, who shared their insights and experiences so trustingly and freely, this thesis and indeed, much of my learning and work,
    [Show full text]
  • Law, Medicine and Hijra Suicides in India
    Troubling Suicide: Law, Medicine and Hijra Suicides in India by Meghana Rao A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Center for Criminology & Sociolegal Studies University of Toronto © Copyright by Meghana Rao 2017 Troubling Suicide: Law, Medicine and Hijra Suicides in India Meghana Rao Doctor of Philosophy Center for Criminology & Sociolegal Studies Collaborative Program, Center for South Asian Studies University of Toronto 2017 Abstract Attempting suicide is a criminal offense in India, although in the recent past there have been many public and legal discussions considering decriminalizing suicide attempts. How is suicide conceptualized within criminal law? What are the knowledges that inform the complex and shifting views, claims, and legal decisions that constitute the legal regulation of suicide, in India today? Informed by Foucauldian works on governmentality and biopolitics, postcolonial studies, sociolegal scholarship, and queer theory, this dissertation attempts to answer these questions by tracing the discourses that inform the regulation of suicide in India and showing how they are put together (or kept apart) in various legal and governance networks. In addition to a systematic, original study of how suicide appears in criminal court decisions, law reform documents, and proposed laws, this dissertation also studies the framing of suicide within psychiatric and psychosocial public mental health programming. Along with studying the framing and the governance of suicide within law and medical systems, I also study a kind of suicide that exists at the edges of both medical and legal rights systems: hijra suicides. “Hijra” is a gender/sexual identity specific to the South Asian region that ii does not necessarily fit well under the label of ‘transgender’ (a label that has come into prominence in Indian rights law in recent years).
    [Show full text]
  • Empirical Study on the Challenges to Community Reintegration Under Mental Healthcare: an Analysis with Reference to SDG 2030
    Turkish Journal of Computer and Mathematics Education Vol.12 No.10(2021), 1297 - 1304 Research Article Empirical Study on the Challenges to Community Reintegration under Mental Healthcare: An Analysis With Reference to SDG 2030 Prof. Shirish Kulkarnia , Ms. Rini Jincy Paulb a Professor, Symbiosis Law School, Symbiosis International (Deemed University), Pune b Development Associate (Fundraising), Educate Girls NGO, Mumbai a [email protected] Article History Received: 10 January 2021; Revised: 12 February 2021; Accepted: 27 March 2021; Published online: 28 April 2021 Abstract: Background: Mental healthcare today has extended beyond treatment at mental hospitals to include community reintegration and rehabilitation. However, beyond the protective walls of institutional care lie neglect, stigma, poverty and lack of resources which often leaves mentally ill patients in a vicious cycle of relapse, re-admissions and discharge from hospitals. This is just tip of the iceberg when it comes to the pitiful plight of mentally ill persons and mental healthcare across the world especially in developing and under-developed economies. Aim: This empirical study was designed to collect data of both quantitative and qualitative nature on the socio-economic background of patients admitted in two state mental health institutions in Maharashtra, India though a review of patient case files. The study also adopted a method of co-operative inquiry and assimilated opinions from psychiatrists and psychiatric social workers to comprehend the challenges to community reintegration of patients and possible solutions. Methods and Materials: Data collection was carried out at Thane and Yerwada Regional Mental Hospitals. 30 case files of discharged or discharge eligible patients were referred for background information on type of illness, instances of relapse, occupation and activities during admission.
    [Show full text]
  • Abhivyakti Yearbook Colour1-3
    ABHIVYAKTI YEARBOOK 2018-19 Afliated to the Savitribai Phule Pune University ABHIVYAKTI YEARBOOK 2018-19 Editorial Team Faculty Members Ms. Vaijayanti Joshi Principal, ILS Law College, Pune Mr. Ashish Pawar Assistant Professor, ILS Law College, Pune Mr. Madhukar Togam Librarian, ILS Law College, Pune Student Members Saranya Mishra Shubhangi Sharma Mihir Govande Sneha Kulkarni ILS LAW COLLEGE Chiplunkar Road (Law College Road), Pune - 411 004 Tel.: 020-25656775; Fax: 020-25658665, Email: [email protected]; Website: www.ilslaw.edu <($5%22. ,/6/DZ&ROOHJH3XQH 35,1&,3$/3$*( Dear Students, I am privileged to place in your hand the annual volume of Abhivyakti Year Book for the academic year 2018-19. The Year Book has documented contribution of students and teachers to the curricular, co-curricular, and extra-curricular activities of the college very well. I am very glad to share with you the ranking of ILS by various magazines in the special efforts taken by them to identify educational institutions of high eminence. We stand in the 'Top 10' list of such institutions. Now we are awaiting a very precious Assessment and Accreditation by National Assessment and Accreditation Council, an autonomous body of the University Grants Commission. The peer team visit is due on 21st and 22 nd July 2019. Your positive participation will go a long way in this assessment and accreditation process. It will open a new world of opportunities for ILS to excel in legal education. At this exciting juncture we pay respectful homage to the departed souls – Late Shri. H. P. Deshmukh, Late Dr. Anupa Thapliyal – our former teachers and mentors for many students,P and late rof.
    [Show full text]
  • Guidance on Community Mental Health Services
    Guidance on community mental health services Promoting person-centred and rights-based approaches i Guidance on community mental health services Promoting person-centred and rights-based approaches Guidance on community mental health services: promoting person-centred and rights-based approaches (Guidance and technical packages on community mental health services: promoting person-centred and rights-based approaches) ISBN 978-92-4-002570-7 (electronic version) ISBN 978-92-4-002571-4 (print version) © World Health Organization 2021 Some rights reserved. This work is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 IGO licence (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/igo). Under the terms of this licence, you may copy, redistribute and adapt the work for non-commercial purposes, provided the work is appropriately cited, as indicated below. In any use of this work, there should be no suggestion that WHO endorses any specific organization, products or services. The use of the WHO logo is not permitted. If you adapt the work, then you must license your work under the same or equivalent Creative Commons licence. If you create a translation of this work, you should add the following disclaimer along with the suggested citation: “This translation was not created by the World Health Organization (WHO). WHO is not responsible for the content or accuracy of this translation. The original English edition shall be the binding and authentic edition”. Any mediation relating to disputes arising under the licence shall be conducted in accordance with the mediation rules of the World Intellectual Property Organization (http://www.wipo.int/amc/en/mediation/rules/).
    [Show full text]
  • Complete Dissertation.Pdf
    VU Research Portal Understanding the Mental ill Health - Poverty - Homelessness Nexus in India: Gopikumar, V. 2014 document version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Link to publication in VU Research Portal citation for published version (APA) Gopikumar, V. (2014). Understanding the Mental ill Health - Poverty - Homelessness Nexus in India: Strategies that promote distress alleviation and social inclusion. Lokavani Southern Printers Pvt. Ltd. General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ? Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. E-mail address: [email protected] Download date: 04. Oct. 2021 Understanding the Mental Ill Health-Poverty-Homelessness Nexus in India Strategies that promote distress alleviation and social inclusion Vandana Gopikumar August 2014 The Banyan, Chennai, India Published by Lokavani Hallmark Press Pvt. Ltd. Visual concept and cover design by Ashok Kumar Photography by Arun Titan © Vandana Gopikumar, Chennai, India, 2014 All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced by print, photocopy or any other means without written permission of the author.
    [Show full text]
  • “Treated Worse Than Animals” RIGHTS Abuses Against Women and Girls with Psychosocial Or Intellectual WATCH Disabilities in Institutions in India
    HUMAN “Treated Worse than Animals” RIGHTS Abuses against Women and Girls with Psychosocial or Intellectual WATCH Disabilities in Institutions in India “Treated Worse than Animals” Abuses against Women and Girls with Psychosocial or Intellectual Disabilities in Institutions in India Copyright © 2014 Human Rights Watch All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America ISBN: 978-1-6231-32088 Cover design by Rafael Jimenez Human Rights Watch defends the rights of people worldwide. We scrupulously investigate abuses, expose the facts widely, and pressure those with power to respect rights and secure justice. Human Rights Watch is an independent, international organization that works as part of a vibrant movement to uphold human dignity and advance the cause of human rights for all. Human Rights Watch is an international organization with staff in more than 40 countries, and offices in Amsterdam, Beirut, Berlin, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Goma, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Nairobi, New York, Paris, San Francisco, Sydney, Tokyo, Toronto, Tunis, Washington DC, and Zurich. For more information, please visit our website: http://www.hrw.org DECEMBER 2014 978-1-6231-32088 “Treated Worse than Animals” Abuses against Women and Girls with Psychosocial or Intellectual Disabilities in Institutions in India Terms ................................................................................................................................. 1 Summary ..........................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]