I had met them in different places - Manisha, Elizabeth and Shivnath.
Manisha , one of the triplets in the house next door at Gandhinagar in the state of Gujarat, during the nineteen seventies when my husband serving in the Indian Air Force was installing a radar with other personnel in Wadsar which was a village then. We would both go cycling to the market together to the corner shop which opened in the evening. It was run by the local school teacher who made money by lending out his books for a small amount. We both loved reading. My daughter was three years old then. She would curl into the shopping basket which was tied firmly to the handlebar of my bicycle, her gamine face peeping out, her hair streaming with the wind while I pedalled fast. After getting our books we would lie on the mats and read. Those were quiet times not knowing what the future would bring.
Elizabeth is a fighter pilot’s wife. I met her in one of the towns in Punjab where both our husbands were stationed. I loved the Easter lunches at Elizabeth’s place. Hot cross buns, mutton stew, aapams... Kerala cooking at its best spread out on the table from coconuts brought from home in Kuttanad. Elizabeth was from Kuttanad and I knew how much she missed her birthplace. She would sigh deeply when she talked about her home.
Shivnath is a taxi driver living in Delhi whose family stays in Joginder Nagar a small town located in Himachal Pradesh. He was happy when he knew that I had spent time at his native place several years ago. His daughter struggled with a severe mental illness too. So there was much in common to talk about besides the asparagus soup made from the shoots which grew abundantly in the mountains.
I had lost touch with Manisha and Elizabeth during the initial period of my daughter’s illness. It was much later that I knew that Manisha had moved to their ancestral home near the Rann of Kutch, Elizabeth to Kuttanad and both had severe mental illness. With the good times we had shared together we are now intertwined with the anguish and the struggle.
Like most families In India who were not aware of the nature of these illnesses the treatment had begun late.
And as for rehabilitation centres in India the few that exist are for the privileged and the rich.
‘Easy access to treatment and rehabilitation centres for people with mental illness living even in inhospitable terrains like deserts, mountains and islands. People living in Kuttanad (wetlands) in Kerala, Joginder Nagar (Himalayas) in Himachal Pradesh and Rann of Kutch (desert) must be able to access these centres.’ – was one of the recommendations made to the committee constituted by the Ministry of Social Justice, Government of India in June 2010, for the purpose of drafting a new legislation for people with disabilities to replace the Persons with Disabilities Act 1995 (PWD ACT 1995). As one of the members of this new committee, this recommendation was based on the experiences of people living in these areas, these three people, their families, who had to run around for two years for procuring a disability certificate. Basic health services are still distantly located from their homes.
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