Agra and Bareilly are known for two mental asylums of Uttar Pradesh that are renowned all over India, publicized even in Bollywood through various allegories. However, in the real world, there are several dark stories buried in the files of these asylums and a social activist has decided to highlight these through the Supreme Court’s intervention.

According to Gaurav Kumar Bansal, who had filed a petition in the Supreme Court requesting its intervention in the operations of the mental asylum, there are several people who are completely healthy and are yet admitted in the asylum as mental patients.

NOTICE TO UP GOVERNMENT

Following the petition, the Supreme Court has now issued a notice to the UP government and the mental asylum administration, demanding details of all those patients who have been declared healthy and are still living in the asylum.

Bansal alleged that while the hospital administration has alerted the families concerned to take their relative back home, they were yet to receive any response. Consequently, such people are still living in the asylum even though they are free of mental illness.

CASES

Anjana Kumari (name changed) told India Today that her husband got her declared insane as he was in love with someone else and wanted her out of the way. Since her husband was a government servant and could lose his job if he married again, Anjana was admitted into the mental asylum and promptly forgotten. She has been living in the asylum since then, even though the hospital administration has informed her husband several times to take her back.

  

A former senior employee of the mental asylum told India Today that there are dozens of ‘Anjana Kumaris’ in this asylum who have been sent here by their husbands. On the other hand, several male patients were kept in the asylum so that their relatives could capture their property on pretext of their mental illness.

Talking to India Today, social activist Vishal Sharma said that keeping healthy people confined inside a mental asylum is mere violation of their right to live a free and healthy life. If the patients are declared free of mental illness, they should be considered capable of taking their own decision and should be allowed to return home by themselves.

Vishal further said that not only the state government, but the central government should also take this situation into its notice and issue relevant directives in this regard, to avoid violation of human rights in the asylum.

When India Today tried to contact Dr Sudhir Kumar, director of the asylum, but in vain.