Fighting for their rights
Most government-run mental hospitals are in a deplorable state. Patients there are treated in the most inhuman way possible with insufficient food, dirty clothes and poor hygiene. Emphasis in most hospitals is on medication. Often patients are too sedated to object and the ones that do are then either kept secluded or in isolation.
It is the prevalence of such horrific conditions in hospitals that forced Ratnaboli Ray to work in the field of helping patients reclaim their rights. Her organization ANJALI works closely with institutional authorities and patients to ensure inmates’ voices are heard and their rights respected and protected.
It is through the efforts of ANJALI that today many hospitals are in a better state. However there is an urgent need for more such watchdogs to ensure true healing happens in these hospitals.