At least once, we all have seen, felt bad, taken pity andquickly forgotten some mentally ill person loitering in the streets, dressed intatters if dressed at all, hurling stones or expletives or both. But how manyof us have even once thought, let alone believe, that they are patients in direneed of medication and that they can be cured completely?
The Institute of Human Behavioural and Allied Sciences(IHBAS), the only government hospital in Delhi treating the mentally ill, inpartnership with Aashray Adhikar Abhiyan (AAA), an NGO that works for thehomeless in old Delhi area, and Delhi State Legal Service Authority (DSLSA)started running a weekly clinic near Jama Masjid to provide medication to thementally ill in 2008. In the past four years, the initiative has brought changein the lives of many.
Annu is one such patient. Dressed in an oversized shirt andequally oversized trousers, he stands quietly under a tarpaulin shade in Urdupark, opposite Jama Masjid’s gate number two. Clutching the hand of hiscaretaker Prakash Singh from AAA, Annu stares vacuously at the ambulance parkedin front of him.
Recalling the day Annu was found, Singh says the informationhad come from a constable at the Lahori Gate police station. When Singh alongwith another volunteer Shailendra reached the spot, they found him lying on thepavement with seizures and froth oozing out of his mouth. He was in need ofimmediate medical attention.
For the first few days, a volunteer from AAA had to be withAnnu all the time. “He had to be taken to the toilet, bathed, cleaned and fedby one of us for a week,” says Mohammad Usman, another volunteer.
In the past one year alone, the outreach programme at JamaMasjid has registered 49 such cases of obsessive compulsive disorder, epilepticseizures, non-affective psychosis, bipolar affective disorder, severedepressive episode, mental retardation and other mental disorders.
The volunteers/staff for AAA at Jama Masjid ensure thathomeless patients with severe mental illnesses are identified within thecommunity and are brought to the clinic with the help of local people forassessment and treatment.
But more than cure, the mentally ill need care. That’s wherethe NGO plays an active role. AAA not only locates patients and gets them tothe clinic, it also helps in their rehabilitation. “We have 12 shelters all over Delhi for thehomeless,” says a volunteer, Usman.
