MANGALORE, Oct 17 (The Hindu): Principal District and Sessions Judge and chairman of the District Legal Services Authority (DLSA) H.R. Deshpande has said that the property and inheritance rights of mentally challenged persons should be protected at all costs. “The DLSA will provide legal assistance to persons suffering from mental ailments in matters related to property and inheritance,” he added.
He was speaking at a seminar on mental health, organised jointly by the Roshni Nilaya School of Social Work, the DLSA, and the Family Cosmos Forum on Friday.
Earlier, principal of the Roshni Nilaya Jacinta D’Souza drew the attention of the audience to the fact that mentally challenged persons were often defrauded of their inheritance by their family members and outsiders.
Mr. Deshpande said that he shared her concern and added that mentally challenged persons were vulnerable to fraud. Although persons with mental ailments could enter into contracts of any sort, their rights to property were inalienable.
Lawyer Asha Nayak told The Hindu that in case a person was of unsound mind, the court could appoint a receiver to take care of the property. In such a case, legal aid was provided for both maintenance and discharge of property, she said.
Principal District Civil Judge (senior division) and member Secretary of the DLSA Anand N. Pattan said that mental health of individuals was directly connected to a healthy society. Changing lifestyles were putting great psychological pressure on individuals and led to several mental illnesses, he said.
Ms. D’Souza said that there was an alarming trend of suicide, drug addiction and stress in urban societies. All these symptoms were related to mental illness.
A lot of stigma was attached to mental illnesses and most people thought that anybody who was mentally ill was mad.
Recalling her past experience as a social worker, she said that even until the early 1980s, mentally ill persons were admitted to mental hospitals, which were nothing but prisons. “There was a lot of ostracism, but things have changed a lot in the urban areas.
The same is not the case in rural pockets where witch doctors and shamans are ritually summoned to treat the mentally sick.”
A majority of illnesses were completely curable with timely intervention and social support mechanisms, she said.