Who ever is reading this article; I am sure he/she may have seen a mad man or woman at least once in his/her life for sure. I had the same many times. But most of us may not have visited a mental hospital I guess. What kind of expression or feeling does the scene creates in your mind? Sometimes we make fun out of these human beings, thinking that they don’t remember us, they don’t think, they don’t take revenge. Better to say, we don’t care about their intellectual feeling or their identity.
Here I would like to mention something about the protection given by our constitution or any country to mentally handicapped people by birth or who became mentally disordered in some point of their life. I am doubtful about the law since I am able to find a lot of contradictions on how these people are treated by the rest of the world. Following are the arguments that strengthen my doubt.
1. Mentally disordered people are not given voting rights. (I have to verify for the accuracy of this statement, since the above statements are on the basis of what the society do).
2. Decision that comes out of the minds of these people is not considered as valid by others, including the judiciary system.
3. Once a human being is proved to be mentally disordered, crimes committed by him/her are not taken into consideration by the court.
We may have seen many cinemas where one is freed from the crime if he/she is able to prove that he is mentally ill during the time of committing the crime. Yes, it may be true, decisions and actions taken by a mentally handicapped person may not be upon his/her own will or with their own mental awareness. We should be really considerate to mentally handicapped persons. But theses privileges are widely misused by many. It is very easy to prove that one person is mentally ill. Some times a prescription for a medicine which is used for treating mental patients and proof that the person was using the particular medicine will be sufficient to prove that he/she is mental.
People who are really having mental disorders never feel that they are. For them, the rest of the world is mad. The rest of the world treats them as mental patients. We have seen many times stories of people being rescued from situations like where they were kept away from the society after being allegedly proved mentally disordered. The motives behind such crimes are generally to acquire the possessions of them. They are not allowed to live freely, talk and denied justice.
The other side of the above scenario is people makes people mentally disordered. The movie “Manichithrathazhu” in Malayalam is a best example for such an incident. When a human is told to be mad by some one, all others take every action of these people as indication of madness. Just, the attitudes towards them by others make them mad, or madder. Once they are doubted to be mentally disordered, their feelings are not cared any more.
I identified three kinds of mentally disordered people.
1. People who are really mentally disordered.
2. People who are allegedly treated as mentally disordered.
3. People who are made mentally disordered because of others.
It is great that there are government procedures for the treatment of mentally disordered people and many other charity institutions that takes care of such abandoned people. But there are institutions which accept money and make people mentally disordered.
My point here is there should be very strict laws and special authorities and procedures to verify whether any one is mentally disordered or not. Once any one is proved to be mentally disordered, there should be special procedures for their treatment and to keep watch the improvements of mentally disordered. I mean that, there should be some authorities who make sure that no human rights violation occurs. There should be some one who can speak on behalf of them. When a child is given baptism, their parents or grand parents speaks to the priests on behalf of them. Parents very rarely do hate their children, so their decisions will be 99.99% towards their good will. Similarly, in the case of mentally disordered people, there should be some one who can speak or take decisions on behalf of them who do really care for their rights.
Here I would like to mention something about the protection given by our constitution or any country to mentally handicapped people by birth or who became mentally disordered in some point of their life. I am doubtful about the law since I am able to find a lot of contradictions on how these people are treated by the rest of the world. Following are the arguments that strengthen my doubt.
1. Mentally disordered people are not given voting rights. (I have to verify for the accuracy of this statement, since the above statements are on the basis of what the society do).
2. Decision that comes out of the minds of these people is not considered as valid by others, including the judiciary system.
3. Once a human being is proved to be mentally disordered, crimes committed by him/her are not taken into consideration by the court.
We may have seen many cinemas where one is freed from the crime if he/she is able to prove that he is mentally ill during the time of committing the crime. Yes, it may be true, decisions and actions taken by a mentally handicapped person may not be upon his/her own will or with their own mental awareness. We should be really considerate to mentally handicapped persons. But theses privileges are widely misused by many. It is very easy to prove that one person is mentally ill. Some times a prescription for a medicine which is used for treating mental patients and proof that the person was using the particular medicine will be sufficient to prove that he/she is mental.
People who are really having mental disorders never feel that they are. For them, the rest of the world is mad. The rest of the world treats them as mental patients. We have seen many times stories of people being rescued from situations like where they were kept away from the society after being allegedly proved mentally disordered. The motives behind such crimes are generally to acquire the possessions of them. They are not allowed to live freely, talk and denied justice.
The other side of the above scenario is people makes people mentally disordered. The movie “Manichithrathazhu” in Malayalam is a best example for such an incident. When a human is told to be mad by some one, all others take every action of these people as indication of madness. Just, the attitudes towards them by others make them mad, or madder. Once they are doubted to be mentally disordered, their feelings are not cared any more.
I identified three kinds of mentally disordered people.
1. People who are really mentally disordered.
2. People who are allegedly treated as mentally disordered.
3. People who are made mentally disordered because of others.
It is great that there are government procedures for the treatment of mentally disordered people and many other charity institutions that takes care of such abandoned people. But there are institutions which accept money and make people mentally disordered.
My point here is there should be very strict laws and special authorities and procedures to verify whether any one is mentally disordered or not. Once any one is proved to be mentally disordered, there should be special procedures for their treatment and to keep watch the improvements of mentally disordered. I mean that, there should be some authorities who make sure that no human rights violation occurs. There should be some one who can speak on behalf of them. When a child is given baptism, their parents or grand parents speaks to the priests on behalf of them. Parents very rarely do hate their children, so their decisions will be 99.99% towards their good will. Similarly, in the case of mentally disordered people, there should be some one who can speak or take decisions on behalf of them who do really care for their rights.
ur contradictory work is being criticized by most of them in our batch...i appreciate "There should be some one who can speak on behalf of them"....even though u wont find much nummber in society,most of the rules are in papers and most violeted one.ur blog addresses their problems and spread light to the society...
ReplyDeleteHi Sreejith,
ReplyDeleteFirst of all thanks for putting the comments.
I would like to here the comments from your class mates.
Even though we may not find many in number, we can do one thing. The society can be atleast considerate towards mentally disoriented people and at least refrain from treating as a joker. The decides and do what ever they feel right. Others should understand that sometimes big inventions and discoveries comes from such mad mind.
Many times their actions may turn to be true, only because of one reason. They do not fear any kind of power imposed on them.
Deepu
ReplyDeletePosting any social matter on blogs and doing anything for that particular social matter is entirely different. i appreciate ur step to make people aware of the wrong attitude towards mentally handicapped people. But it wont make any difference till u take any steps to make it right.
So i think u have two ways...
1.Easy way--continuously speak about social awareness
2.Much Harder-- is to do something that may be useful for those people.
k , u can choose.
Hi Sandeep,
ReplyDeleteThanks for visitting and leaving the comments. Yes, I agree with you. Talking or writing is easy than doing something. But let me say you something. When I write something here, it can be based on my real experiences which I would like to share with you but not like to reveal everything here.
You may not need to go to court or do things in public to help the poor or mad, there are a lot of silent ways. Silence is always powerful
--Deepu George V
The following link will be supplementary to my article above, and will provide and insight into
ReplyDeletehow much the justice and injustice done towards mentally disordered people.
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/article2472144.ece
Hi da, Nice to see such articles, I agree by the way u put tht laws shud b made much more humane... but thts just not enough.. we need to change de way society thinks or deals with such people n thts de most difficult thing of all..as Sandeep said we can choose from 2 ways ,i wud put forward a 3rd alternative... spending some time with those people whom de society terms as Mad.. i think they will understand things more effectively than de society.... all they need is a luving touch... dunno as sandeep said itz easy to say things.. atleast we can give a try to change things.. coz while trying we can atleast change the way we think abt those helpless people... changing a society begins from changing ourselves... I am not commenting coz i have done something but i wanna b a part of such a change myself more than others.. ya itz easy to put things up but when we suddenly end up in a company of such poor people we first try to get rid of them... i wanna change tht...
ReplyDeleteSreekumar, Thanks for visiting and leaving the comments.
ReplyDeleteI saw your article in your blog. It was a very good one. Keep blogging.
if you are really interested in helping poor and others, there are lot of oppurtunities around us, we just need to open our eyes. our own neighbour may be th very first person who requires a help. Which may be negligible to us but great to him. Never miss a chance to practice being considerate to the society around you.
--Deepu George V