Over 900 mentally-ill patients still in Bengal hospitals post-recovery: NHRC

More than 2,000 cured patients are still housed in mental hospitals in India, said NHRC chairperson Justice (retd) Arun Kumar Mishra, adding that they should not stay there even for an extra day, according to a report published by the news agency PTI. 

Addressing a national conference on mental health at Vigyan Bhawan here, the NHRC chief said that a hospital is not a place where cured patients should be allowed to stay even for a single extra day. 

Union Minister of State for Health Bharti Pravin Pawar and other dignitaries were also present at the conference in the national capital. 

He referred to a report prepared by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) which is based on visits made by teams of the Commission and its special rapporteurs from July 2022 to January 2023 of various mental healthcare institutions in the country.

"The unfortunate situation is that half of them (over 900 patients) are housed in four hospitals in West Bengal. It is a travesty of justice," the NHRC chief said.

Recently, the Commission visited mental healthcare institutions and hospitals in Gwalior, Agra, and Ranchi. The findings of the conditions in these institutions prompted the Commission to depute its special rapporteurs to visit all the 47 mental healthcare institutions in various states, officials said.

A senior official said that their findings in a comprehensive report on the 'Status of Implementation of the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017' in the country and the related challenges, as per PTI reports. 

The NHRC chief also underlined that the society must "strive to eliminate mental health stigma and encourage open conversations that foster understanding and compassion".

"We require empathy towards mental illness, not mere sympathy. Dignity in mental ill health conditions is to be protected. We aim to achieve dignity through the Mental Health Care Act of 2017, which brought a paradigm shift in mental health care and aimed at protecting human rights and decriminalizing suicide attempts," he added.

(With PTI inputs)