Between rice fields and coconut trees on Indonesia's"paradise" island of Bali, a man lies chained by the ankles to arotting wooden bed in a garden, staring at roosters tottering by. Ketut Lingga,54, has schizophrenia and is one of more than 15,000 Indonesians with a mentalillness who are either chained, caged or placed in primitive stocks, accordingto health ministry data. They are known as "pasung" -- which looselytranslates to "shackled" -- and are considered lost causes.
Lingga's family shackled him 30 years ago, and he has neverbeen unchained since. When he is relaxed, he rarely moves or speaks, but duringan episode, his family fears him. "He attacked me one day, so we had nochoice but to chain him up," Lingga's sister-in-law, Wayan Reti, 50,claimed. "He ripped off my clothes and tried to strangle me, and he's beenshackled ever since. What else could we do?"
In his early 20s, Lingga began threatening to kill or beatpeople. He was taken for just three visits to the mental hospital, where he wasgiven medication but no counselling. After that his family could no longer paythe $15 fee for each visit. Some 50 pasung exist in Karangasem alone, accordingto psychiatrist Dr. Luh Ketut Suryani, who discovered the extent of the problemearly last decade while researching a spike in suicide rates in the district.Suryani identified 895 people in Karangasem with mental disorders. But with herthin resources already stretched, she is unable to treat them all.
Helped by her son, who is also a psychiatrist, and threepaid volunteers, she treats and monitors almost 700 patients withanti-psychotic drug injections, counselling and meditation. She has also usedsinging sessions, which she said helps patients to relax and focus.
The Balinese government in 2009 granted Suryani more than$500,000 to keep up her work, which she had for years funded herself, but thatmoney was cut after complaints of her meditation and singing sessions. "Weinclude meditation because it's the Balinese Hindu belief, and using a methodpatients believe in means they accept us into the community," Suryanisaid.
A health ministry survey in 2007 showed that 11.6 percent,or more than 27 million Indonesians, have some kind of mental or emotionaldisorder, while around a million have psychotic or serious mental illnesses.Less than five percent are treated. Around two percent of the national budgetis slated for health next year, and only one percent of that is typically allocatedto mental health, ministry data show.
This gross underfunding is evident in Karangasem, whereschizophrenic Nengah Surung, 65, lives in a government-builtthree-by-four-metre concrete cell with a barred door and window. His homeprison reeks of faeces and urine. He was chained for nine years before Suryaniconvinced his family to unchain him.
Surung is cared for by his 29-year-old son, I Nengah Sarita,who makes 40,000 rupiah ($4) a day as a labourer when work is available. Helives with a dog and four cats in a hut with thatch-grass walls and a tin roofmetres from his father. The men and animals alike eat only rice.
