The Madras High Court on Monday directed the State government to spell out its stand on implementing the State-level Mental Health Policy so that “the mentally challenged are accorded the basic human dignity to which they are entitled to and the larger society begins to take care of such vulnerable section”.
Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy called for the government's response by August 2.
Framed in 2019
The order was passed on a public interest litigation petition filed by CHEER, a non-governmental organisation based in Chennai, which insisted upon effective implementation of a policy framed in 2019.
Observing that the immediate need was to provide shelter to mentally challenged destitutes and vaccinate them against COVID-19, the judges directed the government to put to effective use a 10.5 acre facility available in Tiruvallur district and make sure that the inmates of that facility were vaccinated on priority.
Care at local-level
“There are many persons who are abandoned by their families and roam around in the streets. They should be taken care of at the local level. Municipalities, corporations and panchayats should pay attention that such persons are provided some shelter and vaccinated,” the court ordered.
Referring to a special drive carried out in Chennai to vaccinate the home-bound differently abled people at their doorsteps, the court ordered that a similar drive should be conducted for the mentally challenged too in the next five weeks and a status report should be filed in the court by the Health Department.
“It is imperative that a special vaccination drive be undertaken, by whatever means that may be effective, to prioritise the mentally ill persons and ensure that they are vaccinated. The policy of having mobile teams travel to persons with disabilities, rather than making such disadvantaged persons come to vaccination centres, may be adopted in case of mentally ill persons too,” the Bench ordered.
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