From CK Nayak
SC summons Chief Secy
New Delhi: The Supreme Court has summoned Meghalaya Chief Secretary Barkos Warjri after observing that the State Government has failed to provide data on facilities for the mentally-challenged which is much higher in the Hill State than the national average.
The apex court bench had sought responses of all states and Union Territories to an application filed by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) last month alleging that despite grants from the Centre to set up facilities for the mentally ill, the available infrastructure was woefully inadequate. The order was passed by a bench of Justice M.Y. Eqbal and Justice P.C. Ghose on Thursday.
The Supreme Court had entrusted NHRC with the task of monitoring the health of hospitals and institutes set up for the mentally ill. Their problems and constraints have not been fully attended to because of limited resources – human, material and financial and mental health in the overall scheme of development in the department of health does not receive the same attention as general health, the counsel for NHRC had said.
As per official statistics available there is a severe shortage of trained manpower required to cater to those suffering from various mental disorders in the State. Meghalaya also has a higher rate of cases of mental disorders as compared to the national average.
Institutes like Meghalaya Institute of Mental Health And Neuro Sciences (MIMHANS), SAN-KER, KRIPA Foundation and New Hope are catering to the mentally unstable but most of these are located in the city leaving the rural areas high and dry as far as mental health facilities are concerned.
Out of the 11 districts in the State, only three districts – West Garo Hills, East Jaintia Hills and West Jaintia Hills – are covered under the National Mental Health Programme (NMHP) but none of these districts have full-time psychiatrists for the programme.
NHRC had suggested that one of the priority areas to improve the condition of institutes catering to the mentally ill was to improve the number of psychiatrists in each of them.
The Commission had also said hospitals and institutes for the mentally ill faced serious financial crunch.
Besides Meghalaya, the apex court has also summoned the chief secretaries of Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Goa, Chandigarh, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep.
These States and Union Territories failed to file their response to the apex court’s directive to furnish status of facilities for the mentally ill.
