Drive to rescue and rehabilitate mentally-ill homeless persons begins
The Hindu
Activists raise concerns, Commissioner says no forcible rounding up of people
The Greater Chennai Corporation launched a drive to rescue and rehabilitate mentally ill homeless persons in the city along with the Health and Family Welfare department and the National Health Mission on Thursday. Ahead of this drive, however, activists in the city had raised concerns about how rounding them up en-masse will infringe upon their rights and argued that it is not an effective method of psycho-social rehabilitation. Archana Sekar, a city-based activist, represented the Greater Chennai Corporation and said that “such drives are a violation of the concerned persons' constitutional rights and rights guaranteed by the Mental Health Care Act, 2017.” Ms. Sekar said “during such mass drives, several homeless persons or shabbily dressed persons which include persons with disabilities and homeless migrant labourers who do not speak the local tongue are picked up on suspicion of being mentally ill. The team engaged to round up people often lack the necessary training to engage with or respond to the needs of a person with mental illness,” and had also pointed out how persons with mental illnesses might not be subjected to a necessary proper assessment when rounded up en-masse.More Related News