SC directs State Governments & UTs to Uphold rights of women in mental health centres

By: WE Staff | Friday, 3 September 2021

The Supreme Court has given state governments and union territories three months to take action to "alleviate" human rights violations faced by women incarcerated in government-run mental health facilities.

The order was based on studies undertaken by NIMHANS in 2016 and the National Commission of Women in 2020 regarding the deprivations encountered by hundreds of mentally ill women in institutional care.

The Bench stated in a 12-page order issued on Thursday that the research on these women's situation reveals a flagrant violation of the Mental Healthcare Act and other statutes. According to the study, they did not have basic constitutional rights such as dignity and privacy.

Advocate Gaurav Kumar Bansal brought the situation of the ladies and the availability of these studies to the court's attention in an application.

“The issues flagged in the application are of serious concern. The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment shall specifically raise each of the concerns which have been expressed in the research studies with the States/Union Territories…” the Supreme Court ordered.

The court ordered the Ministry to raise the problems during the monthly meetings between the Centre and the State governments to monitor progress in the building of half-way homes for cured mentally ill people who needed a place to reside, as the court had ordered.

The court has ordered the Centre to build an online dashboard that will allow states to give real-time data on half-way houses, facilities offered, capacity, occupancy, and regional distribution. Within four weeks of the Centre's creation of the online dashboard, the States must update the data.