Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T16:33:01.442Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Mental health legislation in contemporary India: a critical review

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Kunal Kala  and
A. K. Kala
Kunal Kala
Affiliation:
Manchester, UK, email kunalkala@hotmail.com
A. K. Kala
Affiliation:
95-A, Model Gram, Ludhiana 141002, India
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

After 20 years of experience with the legislation, it is now a good time to assess the Mental Health Act 1987 of India. How useful has it been to consumers, carers and the mental health profession? It has been perceived as isolationist because it deals only with psychiatric hospitals and excludes a large number of general hospital psychiatric units from its purview. It is also un-implementable in some parts of the country because of the shortage of resources. From a human rights perspective, it is deficient in two important ways: it failed to establish independent review bodies for involuntary admissions; and it lacks provision for research with people who have a mental illness.

Type
Special Papers
Information
International Psychiatry , Volume 4 , Issue 3 , July 2007 , pp. 69 - 71
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits noncommercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists 2007

References

Kala, A. K. (1997) A call for amendment to the licensing provision of the Mental Health Act 1987. Journal of Mental Health and Human Behavior, 2, 101–104.Google Scholar
Kala, A. K. (2004) Why we should opt for a new Mental Health Act and not tinker with the old one. Indian Journal of Psychiatry, 46, 96–98.Google Scholar
Khandelwal, S., Jhingan, H. P., Romesh, S., et al (2004) India: mental health country profile. International Review of Psychiatry, 16, 126–141.Google Scholar
National Human Rights Commission (1999) Quality Assurance in Mental Health. NHRC.Google Scholar
Patel, V. & Saxena, S. (2003) Psychiatry in India. International Psychiatry, issue 1, July, 16–18.Google Scholar
Sarkar, J. (2004) A new Mental Health Act for India: an ethics based approach. Indian Journal of Psychiatry, 46, 104–114.Google Scholar
World Health Organization (2001) Atlas Country Profiles of Mental Health Resources. WHO. See http://globalatlas.who.int/globalatlas/predefinedReports/MentalHealth/Files/IN_Mental_Health_Profile.pdf (last accessed 16 April 2007).Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.