Chennai: “Ensuring that those distressed or mentally unstable, understand what the Mental Health Care Act, 2017, is all about is the need of the hour and it is also necessary that all psychiatrists, doctors, counsellors and the like understand that these patients have rights too,” said Keshav Desiraju, former health secretary, Government of India. At an event to commemorate the 31st anniversary of Sneha – a suicide prevention centre – on Saturday, Desiraju, the architect behind the bill, said, “The Act does not decriminalise suicide – which will not be done until the IPC Act 309 is scrapped – but it recognises that an individual who has attempted suicide is someone who is under immense stress and requires special care, and not imprisonment.”
The Act serves to provide mental health care and services for persons with mental illness and to protect, promote and fulfil the rights of such persons during delivery of mental health care and services and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto. Recalling the incident, which sparked an interest to stand up for the decriminalisation of suicides, founder of SNEHA, Dr Lakshmi Vijayakumar, said, “I came across a case of a young girl who had eloped. Her parents managed to bring her back home and chastised her. She attempted suicide and was immediately hospitalised. She recovered and was brought back home. However, policemen approached the village in search of her and registered her under IPC 309. Filled with shame, the young girl hung herself and died.”
Dismissing the various myths tagged to the need for such an Act, Dr Lakshmi said, “Based on various researches, we found that the distress in those who had attempted suicide only increases when registered under the Act. A large number of lives would be saved if suicides are decriminalised.” Kanimozhi, MP, Rajya Sabha, stressed on the need for the government to invest its efforts in checking suicides as the country is already lacking in the number of psychiatrists, counsellors and mental health care givers.
