News

Volume 8 Issue 4 - February 15, 2011

The draft Mental Health law is fascist: N.A.A.J.M.I.

D.N.I.S. News Network, India: The purpose of any Mental Health Act, if provided for in India, should be to create and enhance pathways towards overall community well-being and good mental health, insists National Alliance on Access to Justice for Persons living with a Mental Illness (N.A.A.J.M.I.). The organisation says that, in order to promote community care and support for vulnerable people, there is a need for a law that will enhance choices for total health and well-being of communities.

In its critique of the draft Mental Health Care Act, N.A.A.J.M.I. said that if passed, this law will be the highest atrocity committed on humanity as a whole and not just on Persons living with a Mental Illness (P.L.M.I.). The draft law is fascist and made by people who do not have any understanding of the role of the law in people’s lives, insist many members of the organisation.

N.A.A.J.M.I. also said that the draft law will shred the social fabric to bits on the bogey of ‘mentally ill’ and ‘competency test’. “We are disappointed that even this draft has kept its custodial content intact. It seems that the Ministry of Health is still working within the assumptions of the colonial asylum psychiatry. More than the earlier versions, this version is perpetuating the view of P.L.M.I. as ‘incapable’,” stated the organisation in its critique.

Click here to read N.A.A.J.M.I.’s comments on the new draft Mental Health law.(Word - 104 KB)