Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
New Delhi (Agenzia Fides) - In India women with psychological or intellectual disabilities are often closed in institutes and subjected to all kinds of abuse and violence. According to a Human Rights Watch report (HRW), a copy of which was sent to Fides, women and girls with psychosocial or intellectual disabilities experience overcrowding and lack of hygiene inadequate access to general healthcare, forced treatment – including electroconvulsive therapy – as well as physical, verbal, and sexual violence..
The report, “Treated worse than animals”, includes interviews with 52 women who were or had been in such institutes and interviews with 150 medical staff and family members. In India, according to a government census, 2.21 per cent of the Indian population has a disability – including 1.5 million people (0.1 per cent of the population) with intellectual disabilities and a mere 722,826 people (0.05 per cent of the population) with psychosocial disabilities (such as schizophrenia or bipolar condition). However experts say these figures are too low for the world’s second most populated country. Indian women with intellectual and psychosocial disabilities are often put in institutes against their will by family members or legal guardians. In 1982 the Indian government launched a District Mental Health Programme to provide community-based services, but, according to HRW its reach is limited and implementation is seriously flawed in the absence of monitoring mechanisms. (AP) (3/12/2014 Agenzia Fides)
