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The Circle of Benevolence
A few events happened in the last couple of months which were positively
invigorating and truly worth sharing.
The first was the visit to the abode of my Mentors Baba & Prakash Amte at
Anandvan and Hemalkasa, after some years. The homage at Baba Amte and
Sadhana Tai's Samadhi in Anandvan was emotional and endearing.
Being chosen as one of the Speaker Guests at the Function held at Hemalkasa
to celebrate 50 years of Prakash & Mandakini Amte's Lok Biradari Prakalp
brought tears to my eyes. The disciple (shishya) was being honoured by the
Teacher (Guru).
While returning from Hemalkasa, I happened to meet up with the Padma Shri
Dr Abhay Bang and visit his SEARCH Institution in remote Gadchiroli District
in Maharashtra. Dr Abhay and his wife Dr Rani Bang were the pioneering
people behind reduction in infant child mortality in Maharashtra. It was an
ab-reactive inspirational meeting. What in Marathi would be termed 'Great
Bhet'.
Super charged-up as I was with this, I put in a long overdue visit to
Vinoba Bhave's birthplace at Gagode Budruk in Raigad District of
Maharashtra. Vinoba Bhave was the legendary social worker behind the Bhoodan
movement in India in the 1950s (wherein thousands of acres of land were
donated by the privileged haves of India to the underprivileged impoverished
have-nots). It was a mesmerizing visit, to put it mildly. That a Godly human
could and had taken birth in a small village in the remote interiors of our
India, made us bow our heads in humility to the Creator. Vinoba Bhave,
coincidentally was the Mentor of our very own Mentor Baba Amte.
To add to this momentum came the final acknowledgement, in response to our
heart-felt appeal, of the pitching in of Azim Premji Foundation for some
partial funding for Shraddha for the next 5 consecutive years, a major
endorsement of the tireless efforts of our Team Shraddha.
And last but not the least, an interaction between the Amtes and us at
their Golden Jubilee Function at Hemalkasa led to the fruition of the
coveted collaboration between Shraddha and Amte's Maharogi Seva Samiti (MSS)
to setup an ancillary Shraddha Center at their Ashokvan branch in Nagpur.
Adding wings and upon our earnest request, the Psychiatric Society, Nagpur
(PSN) has also graciously agreed to pitch in with external support to this
initiative of ours and we hope that this collaboration between Shraddha, the
Amtes and the Psychiatric Society, Nagpur, will become a landmark role-model
venture in India for the cause of the wandering mentally ill roadside
destitutes.
As a mark of respect for our Mentors, we have decided to name the Project
as 'Shraddhavan' in deference to the name Shraddhavan of Baba
Amte and
Sadhana Tai's Samadhi at their final resting place in Anandvan.
To complete the Circle of Fortune, Prakash and Mandakini Amte have
graciously agreed to inaugurate this 'Shraddhavan' Project in Nagpur
on the
auspicious day of Gudi Padwa, April 9th 2024. Synchronized Coincidence being
what it is, it was the very same Prakash Amte who inaugurated Shraddha
Center in Karjat on the very same auspicious Gudi Padwa day of 2006.
On the work front, we completed 949 Reunions of recovered destitutes with
their families (including 3 in distant Tripura, 1 in Bangladesh, 1 in New
Zealand and 9 in Nepal) in the year 2023 gone by. Averaging 80 a month, this
was a decent number, underscoring the commitment of Team Shraddha. And in so
doing, we officially crossed the 10000 Reunion Mark, since the inception of
the Shraddha Project in Karjat in 2006. Most importantly, in 3 consecutive
years, the year just before Covid and the two years immediately after Covid,
we have averaged a 1000+ Reunions every year.
And step-by-step, with literally slow Everest-summiting scaling,
Shraddha
has moved forward.
To end, words of phenomenal encouragement from fellow-colleague
Psychiatrists Dr B R Ravi Shankar Rao & Dr G Swaminath from whose
Chittadhama NGO in Mysore, we transferred a recovered mentally ill roadside
destitute to our Shraddha Center in Karjat and who was later reunited by the
Shraddha Team with his family in West Bengal. Upon sharing this news and
photos with them, Dr Ravi Shankar Rao's words - 'Thank you Dr Bharat. We are
so happy to see Kumar with his mother and family. A special thanks from
Chittaprakasha Charitable Trust for the support and help of Shraddha! The
effort and perseverance of your staff is commendable! An uphill task. You
are showing the way admirably! Followed by Dr G Swaminath's pearls - 'Thanks
a lot sir. Kumar was always smiling and we were endeared to him as he
saluted us with his unaffected left hand. We were resigned to him staying
with us. We now know Shraddha does not accept such feelings. I salute you
and team for the phenomenal effort.'
Friends, such words from the heart and your immeasurable blessings over the
years have meant a lot to us. Whether we truly have done anything worthwhile
for the cause of the wandering mentally ill roadside destitutes of India
over the years, is a matter of conjecture and doubt, but our efforts have
been reasonably persistent. And barring these efforts and our silent prayers
of hope for their betterment, we indeed have nothing more to offer to these
wandering mentally ill.
As the renowned philosopher Hannah Arendt puts it - 'Even in the darkest of
times, we have the right to expect some illumination, and that such
illumination may well come from the uncertain, flickering and often weak
light that some men and women, in their lives and their works, will kindle
under almost all circumstances and shed over the time span that was given
them on Earth.' Whether the illumination is the light of a candle, or that
of the blazing sun, only the future will tell. What is clear is that 'In
dark times, Light is precious, it always matters'.
May our hopes, our efforts endure.
Wishing each & every one of you an abundant Benevolence of Peace & Bliss
from the Gods above in the Year ahead.
We have completed 422 reunions of the recovered wandering mentally ill
roadside destitutes with their families across the length and breadth of
India in the 6 months gone by from January thru June 2023. Averaging 70
a
month, we have had more than our share of emotional catharsis during
these
reunions.
But the single reunion which has not only touched our hearts, but also
the
hearts of all those with whom we have shared the news, has been the
reunion
of a mentally ill destitute of Bangladeshi Nationality, Md Rahman with
his
family in Thakurgaon District of Bangladesh.
Giving you a brief summary
of
the case -
We had rescued off the roads in Karjat in 2019 a wandering mentally ill
called Moti. It took us quite some time to develop rapport with him.
Though
he was speaking Bengali, sometimes he would lapse into a different
dialect
of Bengali spoken in the border regions of West Bengal.
A few months passed and Covid set in and he continued to be sheltered
in
our NGO for the entire two years of the pandemic. He received both the
doses
of the Covid vaccination.
After the Covid, another NGO called Snehalaya in Ahmednagar (headed by
Girish Kulkarni) organized a 75-day Cycle Rally called Sadbhavna Rally,
beginning on Gandhi Jayanti 2021 from Ahmednagar to Gandhi Ashram (at
Noakhali in Bangladesh) to celebrate the 50 years of Independence of
Bangladesh.
After the successful completion of the Sadbhavna Rally, Girish Kulkarni
invited some dignitaries of Bangladesh to Ahmednagar and felicitated
them on
August 15th, 2022. These dignitaries included Raha Naba Kumar Das
(Director
of the same Gandhi Ashram Trust), his wife Tandra Barua and Major
General
Jiban Kanai Das (Trustee of Gandhi Ashram Trust).
Our Bengali Social Worker Nitish Sharma attended that Felicitation
Program
and broached the topic of Moti from the Bangladeshi student-volunteers
(Names-Nafis Nawal and Habib) and the media people accompanying the
troupe.
Nitish was wondering whether the patient might be originally from
Bangladesh. The students were very obliging and upon a detailed video
interview with the patient Moti (sheltered in our Karjat Center), they
too
felt that Moti might be belonging to Bangladesh. They took all his
details &
assured that they would attempt to trace out the relatives upon their
return
to Bangladesh.
After weeks of intense searching, the Bangladeshi students, Nafis Nawal
and
Habib, were successful and managed to trace out the family of Moti.
Apparently, Moti's real name was Md Rahman and he belonged to Thakurgaon
District of Bangladesh. Multiple video calls with his relatives and the
relationship between Moti and his family was established.
The father disclosed that Md Rahman had a history of mental illness
prior
to his disappearance from his home town in Bangladesh in the year 2002.
Unfortunately, there was no treatment taken for the mental illness by
the
family in Bangladesh.
In the months that followed, the father (who was an ex-Army Corporal)
started following up with the Deputy High Commission of Bangladesh,
Mumbai
and due thanks to his efforts, the Commission in Mumbai finally posted
us
the Travel Permit of Md Rahman allowing him entry into Bangladesh. The
Travel Permit (TP-08/2023 dt 12th June 2023) is attached herewith.
Our Associate Psychiatrist, Dr. Swarali Kondwilkar and
Shraddha
Social
Worker, Nitish Sharma, whose great-grandfather was from
Bangladesh,
volunteered to go with him. A going-back-to-the-roots kind of experience
for
Nitish.
Accordingly, both of them applied for, and received on the very same
day
itself, their Visas from the Deputy Commission of Bangladesh in Mumbai.
One
Shri Asif over there, familiar with the case of Md Rahman, made the
Approval
seamless. The copies of the Visas are attached.
Assuming that Md Rahman's father had completed all formalities, none of
us
even dreamt that anything more would be required from either the
Bangladeshi
end or the Indian side.
Md Rahman had been missing from his home since 2002 as per the first
Missing Police Complaint filed by his father. Dr. Swarali and Nitish
Sharma
were escorting and reuniting Motiur with his long-lost family in his
hometown in Bangladesh after a
span of 21 years.
Respecting his father's emotional appeal that his son celebrates Eid
(falling on 29th June 2023) with his family, Shraddha Team decided to
go
for the reunion of Motiur on 27th June.
It was at the Indo-Bangladeshi Border that the Officers raised the
technical issue of the Exit Permit, stating that it was a mandatory
requirement, given that Md Rahman did not have a valid Passport. The
Officers mentioned that the Exit Permit was to be obtained from the
FRRO
Office in Mumbai. Though all the Authorities were very sympathetic
with Md
Rahman after hearing his story, and praised us for taking so much
efforts
for the repatriation of a single mentally ill roadside destitute who
was
not even from India, but was a Bangladeshi National, they felt that
neither they, nor us, should circumvent the prevalent laws of the
land.
Unfortunately, us being in the medical field were not aware of this
formality, and the Bangladesh Commission too had not made any mention
of
this in their communications with either the father of Md Rahman or
with
us.
As such, our Shraddha Team had no option but to return to Mumbai with
Md
Rahman. The father of Md Rahman was explained the technical hitch, and
was
made to converse and reassure his son Md Rahman of being reunited with
his
family in the immediate near future.
Subsequently we went on 3rd July and put up our case in front of Shri
Bhupesh Bawankar (the Assistant Foreigners Regional Registration
Officer)
in the FRRO Office. He was very VERY sympathetic and got so moved by
the
whole story of Md Rahman, that he requested his staff to literally
personally guide us in filling the Online Application Form for the
Exit
Permit. Though routine procedural time for Approval was two weeks,
Bawankar Sir ended up giving the same on the very next day itself and
we
received the Official Exit Permit on 4th July 2023.
However, not wanting to take any chances, we communicated with Shri
Bhaskar Subba, the Officer-in-Charge of Immigration at the Phulbari
Indo-Bangladesh Border and shared the same Exit Permit with him. He
said
that one more requirement was to get a Police Clearance Letter,
stating
that no case is registered against the said Bangladeshi Foreigner Md
Rahman.
Police Inspector Shri Garad of Karjat Police guided us to the
existence
of a Bangladesh Vishesh Pathak, a special cell in Alibag (the
headquarters
of Raigad District) for matters related to Bangladeshi Foreigners.
Shraddha Team personally went over to Alibag & explained the legal
requirements of the Reunion to the concerned Officers of the
Bangladesh
Vishesh Pathak Cell.
Long standing Shraddha well-wisher and fellow psychiatrist Dr Harish
Shetty contacted Dr Mahendra Kalyankar (an IAS Officer and the
Divisional
Commissioner of Konkan Division, as well as the Collector of Raigad
District) who whole-heartedly agreed in supporting the cause of Md
Rahman
and immediately activated his Raigad District Level Administration.
Everybody in Alibag-Raigad was super-cooperative. Though they were
perhaps dealing with a Bangladeshi having mental illness & hence
staying
on in India, not truly
illegally, but by default because of and in a
psychiatrically disturbed state, for the first time, they
rose to
the
occasion.
The IPS Superintendent of Police & FRO, Raigad-Alibag, Shri Somnath
Gharge after enquiries at his end, gave the necessary Police Clearance
on
the 14th of July, which is attached herewith.
The Officer-in-Charge of the specially formed Bangladesh Vishesh
Pathak
Cell, one Shri Somnath Vishnu Lande, proactively called up Bhaskar
Subba,
the Officer-in-Charge of Immigration at the Phulbari Indo-Bangladesh
Border, and validating the case of Md Rahman, became continuously
involved
in streamlining the entire proceedings.
Noting that the Police Clearance Letter of Gharge Sir, the Raigad IPS
Superintendent of Police, was addressed to the Officer-in-Charge of
Immigration at the Phulbari Border, Lande Sir, not wanting to leave
any
stone unturned, suggested that it would be wiser & safer to
incorporate
the mention of the Exit Port as Phulbari in the existing FRRO Exit
Permit.
He coordinated with the FRRO in Mumbai, and the Shraddha Team followed
it
up once again with another personal visit to the FRRO Office. This
time
they were guided by a very courteous API Shri Digambar Salunkhe, who
got
the suggested addition of mentioning the Exit Port as Phulbari
incorporated in the FRRO Exit Permit. The same is attached herewith.
Synchronization being what it is, API Digambar Salunkhe had had
first-hand experience of Shraddha activities a few years ago, and
remembered Denit Mathew, our present Trustee. He was help personified,
beyond human measure.
Lande Sir went the ultimate distance & followed up with an email to
the
Immigration Officials at the Indo-Bangladesh Border informing them of
the
developments.
Since Md Rahman was suffering from mental illness all along and not
truly
staying illegally on Indian soil, he was technically not a
criminal, and
hence the requirement of sending a police escort till the Border was
not
deemed necessary by the Authorities, as pointed out and confirmed by
Madam
Sujata Shinde, the Judicial Magistrate - First Class, Karjat Court.
The entire FRRO Officers in Mumbai, Dr. Mahendra Kalyankar and the
Raigad Administrative Personnel, the Raigad District Police, the
Karjat
Police, the Karjat Court Magistrate and Personnel deserve a big
salute.
It is proactive
compassionate
actions such as what they have exhibited,
which reaffirm everyone's Faith in the inherent Goodness of
Mankind &
Humanity.
The same Shraddha Team of Dr. Swarali Kondwilkar & Nitish Sharma,
with
Md Rahman in tow, headed towards Kolkata & thence to New Jalpaiguri
(NJP) in West Bengal, from where they crossed the Phulbari
Indo-Bangladesh Border, which was a mere 10 kms away, on Friday, the
21st of July, and reunited Md Rahman with his family waiting at the
Border itself. The emotional video of the Reunion is attached
herewith.
A million words cannot describe the emotions depicted in the
video.
The media of Bangladesh went ballistic and highlighted the reunion of
Motiur Rahman in their leading newspapers (The Daily Prothom Alo,
prominent amongst others) and TV Channels and praised both our NGO
Shraddha and our country India for taking so much personal efforts in
the
reunion and repatriation of a single wandering mentally ill, hailing
from
their country. All links of the media coverage are attached herewith.
Dear Friends, Mental Illness per se is a taboo subject. And the
wandering
mentally-ill, not just in India but across the world, have
always
been a
shunned, rejected and denied lot. This became an opportunity for
Shraddha
to showcase that India was taking a pioneering step (albeit a small
one)
in their rehabilitation, and exemplified our commitment to the
underprivileged of society. Given the media exposure that this case
has
received, we are hopeful that the ripples of this particular reunion
of Md
Rahman with his family in Bangladesh will do some good for this much
neglected cause of both, the mentally ill roadside destitute and
mental
illness per se.
In fact, the Shraddha Team felt the ripples on the next two days
itself,
when they stayed over at Md Rahman residence in Thakurgaon in
Bangladesh,
post the Reunion. Almost 60 odd mentally ill patients were brought by
their relatives, some from as far as 50-70 kms away, for evaluation,
assessment and hopeful treatment by our Associate Psychiatrist Dr
Swarali
Kondwilkar. Many of the patients had never received prior psychiatric
treatment. The consultations which started at 10 am in the morning
literally went on till midnight. Sharing photos of the same. In fact,
there was no electricity in the area on that particular day, and
someone
or the other kept continuously manually fanning over Dr Swarali and
Nitish
mentioning 'gorom lagey, gorom lagey…' The shackles of social Taboo
had
indeed been broken forever. It was a cathartic experience for all
involved. The commonality of human pain and suffering, the Empathy for
it
and the attempts at its amelioration are always beyond man-made
Territorial Borders of countries.
We believe that this is not an isolated instance of a Bangladeshi
National having wandered across the Border under the influence of
Mental
Illness. In fact, there must be many Indians too who must have
wandered
across the Border into Bangladesh (and perhaps even Nepal, Bhutan,
Myanmar
and Pakistan) under the influence of Mental Illness and vice versa. All
these human beings, whether sheltered in NGOs or Govt Mental Health
Institutions in any country, have to be empathized and sympathized
with.
They are not there
voluntarily,
but have ended up where they have, because
of mental illness. Their families must be pining for their
return
in their
respective homes, in their respective countries.
In fact, we have already received emails from the relatives of two
Bangladeshi citizens who were suffering from mental illness, and have
gone
missing, and who may have, under the influence of the mental illness,
wandered across the border into India. The relatives have requested
our
help in their search. Gut wrenching emails, both.
Shraddha shall attempt to do its bit for the above appeals. Just as
it
has, over the past 35 years, attempted to do its bit for the plight of
the
wandering mentally ill roadside destitute.
To end, we are grateful to all of you for all the unconditional
support over the years, and believe that we have reached where we
have,
because of your limitless Blessings.
A bottom-of-the-heart Regards, Respects and Affections.
Dr Bharat Vatwani
Ramon Magsaysay Awardee 2018
Member - Maharashtra State Mental Health Review Board (Thane District)
P.S. - The Reunion has already received widespread coverage in
Bangladesh
with names & identities of all involved flashed across prominent
newspapers & the social media of Bangladesh. Md Rahman himself and his
relatives are very broad-minded & mature & going beyond giving
informed
consent, hope that the media coverage will do some good for the
wandering
mentally ill of both India & Bangladesh, who may have tragically
crossed
over international borders under the influence of the mental illness &
may
still be alive somewhere, with both the families & their mentally-ill,
pining for each other. A very far-reaching thought, this. Deserving of
an
Emotional Salute.
Nitish
rang up the father of Md Rahman on his return to the
Indo-Bangladesh Border, and the father apparently broke down. Nitish
shared with us 'to get so much love, felt like my second home is
Bangladesh, lovely journey...'
We complete 2022 sailing high, with the Gods having been benevolent
through
and through. We were able to reunite 1030 recovered wandering
mentally-ill
roadside destitutes with their families across the length and
breadth of
India. Keeping aside the two years which went under because of the
ravaging
Covid pandemic, Shraddha has crossed 1000 reunions in two
consecutive
calendar years, with 1114 in 2019 and now 1030 in
2022. We
feel humbled at
our own contribution to the cause of the wandering mentally ill.
A well-wisher recently asked us to share the reasons for the growth
in
the
quantum of work from a mere 47 reunions in 2006 to the
current
1000+ for two
consecutive years. We feel that we should share the same with you
also,
considering you as family.
Setting up a Team:
Right from inception, we realised that the rehabilitation of the
mentally
ill patient with his/her family depended not merely upon the
empathy/efficacy of the treating doctors but instead depended
largely
upon
the presence of regional social worker staff who belonged to the
milieu
of
the State to which the patient belonged and who could communicate in
the
regional language which he understood. Be it Telugu, Tamil, Kannada,
Bengali, Punjabi, Maithili/Magadhi (the languages of Bihar) or
Urdu/Bhojpuri
(the languages of UP) the presence of kindred lingual skills helped
establish the much-desired rapport, paving the way for more clarity
on
the
family antecedents and ultimate reunion. This required investment in
human
resources, which was antithetical to the functioning of the bulk of
the
NGOs
prevalent at that time. But we went ahead and appointed social
workers,
offering them accommodation and commensurate salary in our Karjat
Center.
The next step was to reduce the patient-stay cycle-time in the
Karjat
Center. We realised that when we directly rescued the mentally ill
from
the
road, almost a month went by in getting their general physical
health on
track, given that they were majorly malnourished and debilitated.
Giving
them nutritious food, intravenous fluids, vitamins and antibiotics
(the
destitutes invariably had some infections) took up days and energy.
We
proactively initiated interactions with NGOs across India sheltering
destitutes per se & started sending our Shraddha Team for
transferring
their
destitutes to our Center. Though the transferred patients would be
psychiatrically unwell, in terms of physical health, they would
invariably
be in a better shape than the ones rescued directly by Shraddha from
the
road. This saved precious cycle-time of stay in our Center.
Collaboration with
NGOs:
What were a few NGOs in 2010 by now have become a collaboration
with
101
NGOs across the length and breadth of India. These collaborations
yielded
positive results on all counts. It reduced the cycle-time of stay at
our
end, allowing more reunions of the recovered destitutes with their
families
with the same manpower we employed. It allowed the NGOs more freedom
to
rescue more destitutes from nearby their areas of operations. Since
we
would
share the reunion details with them, it inculcated a sense of hope
and
fulfilment in the NGOs about the future of their inmates. Lastly it
often
brought them to enlist the services of a local psychiatrist for
their
own
inhouse-patients treatment. From merely providing food and shelter,
many
of
the NGOs had/have shifted their goalposts to
treatment-recovery-reunion
of
the wandering mentally-ill sheltered within their set-ups. The act
of
offering collaboration by Shraddha yielding results manifold.
Reaching out to
Govt-run
Psychiatric Institutions:
The next step was to reach out to institutions where psychiatric
treatment
was already being administered, but the institutions lacked the
different
regional-languages speaking staff to bring about the final reunions.
These
were the Govt-run Psychiatric Institutions. On this count, it was
Providence
showing the path with Dr Sarada Menon, the Padma Shri First Female
Psychiatrist of India and ex-Director of Institute of Mental Health
(IMH) in
Chennai, reaching out to Shraddha and requesting our help in the
reunions of
the out-of-State recovered patients from within IMH, Chennai. My
personal
meetings with her were inspirational and etched in memory till date.
One
of
the great, caring, concerned and compassionate human souls, which
hath
ever
existed in our country. Where Dr Sarda Menon left off, Dr Poorna
Chandrika,
the current Director of Tamil Nadu State Mental Health Authority
took
over.
Another caring, compassionate soul. We are interacting as on date,
with
8
Govt Institutions from Tamil Nadu alone.
Gradually the collaborations increased with the
broad-gestalt-visionary
Dr
Ajay Chauhan of Gujarat, the then Director and current
Secretary
and
Nodal
Officer of Gujarat State Mental Health zealously setting in place
collaborations with Ahmedabad, Bhuj and Vadodara Mental Hospitals.
Professor
Sonia Deuri at Regional Institute of Mental Health, Tezpur,
Assam
took
the
initiative for assistance in the rehabilitation/reunions of their
out-of-State patients. All these collaborations too have been
win-win
situations for the cause of the wandering mentally-ill all around.
And their final culmination was in Official MoUs being
signed
with
the
Institute of Mental Health (IMH) Chennai, the Andhra Pradesh State
Mental
Health Authority (Shri Ajeya Kallam, Principal Advisor to the CM, Dr
M.
Raghvendra Rao and Dr S. Neelima, CEO & Deputy Director respectively
of
APSMHA being the prime movers) and the Maharashtra State Mental
Health
Authority (under the tutelage of Dr Padmaja Jogewar, Jt. Director,
Health
Services and Dr Swapnil Lele, Additional Director, Mental Health).
Since 2010 we have interacted and transferred patients from 26
Govt
Institutions across India to our Karjat Center. Shraddha work
spreading
wings, literally.
Police Sensitization:
For police sensitization in the Mumbai, Karjat, Thane, Kalyan and
Pune
belts, our Team had interacted many times with them and often sent
the
reunion details of the reunited patients, spontaneously motivating
them
to
rescue the wandering mentally ill whom they happen to sight. God
bless
their
souls, the police in particular are very sensitive to the wandering
female
mentally ill and have often rescued and brought them to Shraddha at
unearthly hours, re-affirming our faith in the inherent goodness of
police
personnel across India. In the years gone by, we have had 102
Different
Police Stations from across Maharashtra officially referring
the
wandering
mentally-ill to us.
And step-by-step, with literally slow Everest-summiting scaling,
Shraddha
has moved forward.
A word about the
Shraddha
Team:
The Shraddha Team of social workers is a Team to beat all Teams. As
I
write
this, they were in Delhi in biting 1 degree cold, transferring
12
wandering
mentally ill female roadside destitutes from an NGO called Apna Ghar
to
our
Karjat Center. Another Team was in Odisha, transferring 12
mentally
ill from
3 NGOs in Bhubaneswar to Shraddha Karjat Center. Proactive,
proactive
and
more proactive. Achieving literally 3 Reunions of recovered patients
with
their families every single day of the calendar year for two
consecutive
years is no small achievement on their part. A big applause and
above
all, a
big Thank You. These are the same human resources which other NGOs
hesitate
and shirk to appoint, majorly claiming that they are a drain on
their
finances.
A word of Special
Thanks
to
our Regular Donors:
The renowned Azim Premji Philanthropic Initiatives (APPI), General
Insurance Corporation (GIC-Re), ValueLabs (Hyderabad),
Parker-Hannifin
Pvt
Ltd, the Tarsadia Foundation and Arpan Foundation (both US based),
Rotary
Club of Queens Necklace, the ever-green octogenarian Ramesh Kacholia
of
Caring Friends and innumerable others (a legion unto themselves) who
have
stood as rock-solid pillars of support over the years. Had their
blessings
not been there, all of Shraddha would have come to naught.
To end, sharing an
Incident
depicting the Power of Goodness:
Our social workers Nitish Sharma and Ajay Ransure had gone to
reunite a
recovered destitute (an original Chennai Mental Hospital pickup,
later
transferred to Shraddha) in Arunachal Pradesh. A 72-hour
journey
of
train &
road travel combined, brought them to the border of Arunachal
Pradesh.
Here
they met the Officer-in-charge T. Tamut, Bordumsa Police, District
Changlang
for the mandatory Govt authorized Inner Line Permit (ILP) to enter
the
State. Getting to know the reason for the visit, T. Tamut bypassed
the
Permit requirement and let them enter. Going a step further, and
recognising
the philosophy behind Shraddha work, he requested Nitish and Ajay to
help in
reuniting a wandering mentally ill who had wandered into Arunachal
Pradesh
because of the mental illness but had unfortunately ended up in jail
for
being thought of as a suspected child-snatcher, since from within
the
locality some child-snatching had coincidentally happened in the
previous
month. T. Tamut recognised the presence of mental illness within the
jailed
so-called child-snatcher and attempted to rescue him from possible
permanent
by reaching out to Nitish and Ajay. Going beyond, he even came
forward
with
Rs 1400/- for his travelling expenses. The Shraddha Team rose to the
occasion and the patient was transferred to Karjat, was given
appropriate
psychiatric treatment and reunited with his family in Jharkhand a
couple
of
months later. Touching, Inspirational and Redeeming our Faith in the
Goodness of Mankind, the entire event. The photos of the Letter from
the
Officer T. Tamut and the patient are attached herewith.
Going the distance in saving lives, Shraddha, since the
last
one
year, is
proactively following up on all the reunited patients (who hailed
from
a
poor economic background and who had prior history of mental
illness),
and
is sending maintenance medicines to them vide post, to prevent
relapses.
This and the attaining of the 1000 Reunion mark in a
calendar
year
does
not come without its costs. Our expenses too have touched a lakh
of
rupees
a day with every patient (from pickup thru reunion thru follow-up
medicines posting) Reunion Cost averaging Rs 36000+.
But all of you and the Gods above have been with us through this
arduous
journey, and so shall it remain. Good work continues as long as
there
is
inherent goodness in the work. Hence our goalpost was/is, and
shall
hopefully remain, the maintaining of an inherent goodness within
the
efforts of Shraddha. And were this to happen, yet still, shall we
(you,
me, all of us) endure.
Wishing each and every one of you a Happy Makar Sankranti,
Uttarayana,
Lohri and Pongal. May Good be harvested onto the face of this
Earth,
unto
infinity.
We are happy to inform you that we have reunited 520 wandering
mentally
ill, post their recovery, with their families across the length
and
breadth
of India during the last 6 month period from 1st January to 30th
June
2022.
While these many numbers are usually the norm in Shraddha over
the
past
few
years, what has set our efforts apart this time around has been
that
out
of
the 520, only 392 were reunited from our own Shraddha Karjat
Center,
while
the remaining 128 (amounting to almost 25% of the total
reunions)
were
directly from our ancillary NGO collaborations. Giving
specifics, 9
of
these
were from our collaboration with Girish Kulkarni Snehalaya’
newly
established Sneh Manoyatri Project in Ahmednagar, 79 from Apna
Ghar
NGO
Delhi, 37 from Apna Ghar Jodhpur, 1 from Missionaries of Charity
Center
in
Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh and 2 from Tezpur Govt Mental Hospital,
Assam. A
reasonably decent culmination of our outreach programs to
different
NGOs
across India.
We are hopeful/confident that these numbers will increase over
the
years.
At the end of the day, whatever approach we have adopted for the
wandering
mentally ill in Shraddha Karjat is not exactly rocket science.
It is
easily
replicable and we believe that with a little persuasive
proactiveness
from
our side, it will get duplicated in NGOs across India. Only then
will
the
plight of the mentally-ill roadside destitute get true
addressal. A
single
Shraddha is not the solution to the existence of their 10 lakhs
plus
numbers
in India.
Another epoch-making development was the signing of the
Memorandum
of
Understanding with Andhra Pradesh State Mental Health Authority
in
April
2022. This entire collaboration was brought about because of my
meeting
with
one B. Ramakrishna Raju who was so moved by the cause of the
wandering
mentally ill which Shraddha espoused, that he subsequently
conceptualized an
NGO ‘Mano Bandhu’ in Andhra Pradesh, dedicated exclusively to
the
same
cause. He brought together senior functionaries of the AP Govt
to
address
the cause.
On a public platform Ajeya Kallam, the Principal Advisor to the
AP
State
Govt noted that there was a need to enhance infrastructure like
building
shelter homes and creating facilities for their rehabilitation.
Kallam
appealed to various organizations to join the cause, and urged
NGOs
to
sensitize the people and Govt on the issue. M. Raghavendra Rao,
the
Director
of Medical Education, on the same public platform, went the
distance
and
publicly announced that the AP Govt would sign a MoU with
Shraddha
by
Ugadi
Festival (the Telugu New Year Day) on April 13th 2022, to extend
services to
the wandering mentally ill in AP, and incredible as it may
sound,
the
MoU
was actually signed before the due date. We bow our heads in
front
of
luminaries with such high integrity and value systems.
In accordance with the MoU, Shraddha has already transferred 11
mentally
ill destitutes from the Govt Mental Hospital in Vishakhapatnam
to
Shraddha
Karjat and have successfully reunited 9 of them with their
families.
A
word
of praise for Dr Ramanand Satapathy, the current Superintendent
of
Govt
Mental Hospital, Vishakhapatnam who personally oversaw all the
transfers.
Continuing glad tidings, ValueLabs, an IT company based in
Hyderabad
and
a
regular well-wisher of Shraddha, vide their heart-of-gold CEO
Arjun
Rao,
spontaneously came forward with a Force Ambulance which has
already
been
stationed permanently in Andhra Pradesh dedicated to the
collaboration.
The above is the fructification of brilliant efforts all
around,
proving
that good like-minded souls exist, and if all of these souls
come
together,
then the productivity within the work can be raised
exponentially
and
taken
to the next level. Sometimes the very ease and smoothness of
well-meaning
souls coming together gets you by your jugular, leading one to
believe
that
it is well-and-truly a God above who orchestrates these events,
and
you
are
just an onlooker in the proceedings.
Our collaboration with the Tamil Nadu State Mental Health
Authority
continues with the Memorandum of Understanding having been
signed in
August
2021 itself (the dynamic super-proactive path-blazing Director
P.
Poorna
Chandrika setting the way), and 25 mentally ill being
transferred
from
Chennai Mental Hospital and various Tamil Nadu Govt run
institutions
across
the State to Shraddha Karjat Center in the six months gone by.
Shraddha continues with its recently-founded involvement with
mother-child
cases (cases wherein a mentally ill mother wanders out of her
home
with
her
child in tow). In the 6 months gone by, we have reunited 5
mother-child
duos
with their families across India. A very slow arduous process
with
the
mentally-ill mother being treated out of her illness,
simultaneously
care
being taken to ensure that no harm occurs to the child during
the
entire
period and enhancing the mother-child bonding all along the way.
Tough
going, but a very, very emotionally-gratifying journey, this.
We are pleased to inform your good selves that Shraddha has
received
approval for the presentation of an academic-scientific paper on
the
above
mentally-ill-mothers wandering with-their-children-in-tow in the
9th
International World Congress on Women’s Mental Health scheduled
in
November
in The Netherlands.
On the donations front, while innumerable well-wishers have
continued
to
show solidarity with Shraddha, a mention must be made of the
newly-founded
Rotary Club of SOBO. Following the tradition of Rotary (many
Rotary
Clubs
have supported Shraddha in the past), Rotary Club of SOBO came
forward
with
11,18,000/- to sponsor the costs of 35 wandering mentally ill
from
their
pickup thru their reunions with their respective families. A
very
encouraging initiative on their part.
To end, we share with you two attachments.
One is a newspaper coverage of a reunion in Uttarakhand wherein
the
title
of the article says it all ‘Mothers Day ke din ghar laute Bete
ko
dekh
chhalak aaii Maa ki aankhen’ meaning ‘On Mothers Day, the return
home of
her
son brought tears cascading in the eyes of a Mother’.
The second is the photo of 12 recovered mentally ill patients
being
escorted by our Shraddha Ambulance Team from Apna Ghar NGO Delhi
to
their
homes and villages in Uttar Pradesh/Bihar, to which our newly
joined
Associate Psychiatrist Dr Swarali Kondwilkar spontaneously gave
the
apt
title of ‘One Cricket Team at a time…Beating chronic
Institutionalization’.
Love and Respects to all of you who have been with us through
thick
and
thin, and ultimately become a part of our lives and the lives
of
the
thousands of the wandering mentally ill roadside destitutes
that
we at
Shraddha may have helped along the way.
While Darkness
may never be dispelled,
in its supposedly, seemingly,
all-pervasive encompassing entity,
Light too can
never be quelled,
in its definingly, definitely,
all-endearing ever-radiating Soulful Glory,
For the Light
shall burn its brightest,
when it is held in Your Hands.
And it is held in Your Hands.
Sorry for a somewhat delayed 6 monthly update from our end.
Me
and
family
were down with Covid and have just barely got back on even
keel.
The highlight of the six months gone by has been a
phenomenal
output by
the Shraddha Team resulting in 442 reunions of recovered
mentally-ill
roadside destitutes with their families across the length
and
breadth of
India, averaging 74 reunions every month, no mean feat given
the
ongoing
Covid. A big salute to the Team. A very rare touching
poignant
tale
of a
reunion from the hinterlands of Jharkhand, which will move
you
to
tears,
is attached herewith.
We continue to be grateful to all our donors who have
contributed
funds
despite the ongoing pandemic most probably having impacted
their
own
resources. This is true giving from the heart. A special
word of
thanks
for GIC-Re, Azim Premji's APPI, Parker Hannifin India and
ValueLabs
who
have proactively come forward and literally walked the talk
in
their
concern & empathy for the cause of the wandering mentally
ill
and
Shraddha.
I think there have been three distinct features in terms of
newness
for
Shraddha's functioning in the past few months.
The first has been Shraddha's involvement with mother-child
cases
on
the
roads, be they together or sheltered under different
agencies of
Mumbai.
In the last 12 months, we have reunited 10 mother-child duos
(with
one
mother found on the roads by Bandra Police Station with four
of
her
children) with their families in India. While this number
may
sound
less,
but it involves huge all-around efforts from many agencies,
including
the
Child Welfare Committee, Mumbai (handled so sensitively by
Milind
Bidwai
and Urmila Jadhav), the shelter homes for women Kasturba
Mahila
Vastigruh,
Mumbai and the Shasakiya Krupa Mahila Vastigruh, Karjat, the
Maharashtra
State Women's Council's Asha Sadan Rescue Home in Byculla
(housing
the
young infants), the paediatric departments of Nair and Sion
Govt
Municipal
Hospitals of Mumbai pitching in to handle the medical
emergencies in
the
child when the child is in the Govt shelter-home custody,
the
police
(the
Nagpada, Juhu, MR Ambedkar CSMT, Bandra and Dadar Railway
Police)
who
are
super-sensitized and alert in reporting such cases, the very
senior
local
Borivali paediatrician Dr Vasant Khatav, who does not charge
a
penny
(his
remark of don't rob me of an opportunity to do my bit still
warms
the
cockles of our hearts), the female social workers
responsible
for
the
actual reunions (Farzana Ansari, Poli Das, Laxmi Priya
Bishoi,
Aditi
Shejul and Sulakshana Aher), the entire Shraddha team
instrumental
in
tracking down the addresses/relatives of these destitute
mothers
in
remote
tribal corners of India and last but not the least, the
nursing
staff of
Shraddha who invariably double up as the mothering staff of
the
children,
while the destitute mother is recovering from the mental
illness. A
huge
amalgamation of efforts with the whole gestalt far, far
greater
than
the
sum of its individual parts, ending up in the reunion of the
destitute
mother-child combo with their families, bringing joy to
multiple
lives
all
around.
This entire newness of issue tackled by Shraddha was due
thanks
to
the
immense focus & limelight which the mother-child duo
Shraddha
rescued
last
year, received. To refresh your memory, a legal battle of
sorts
had
happened between Shraddha and the powers-that-be on who
should
get
an
infant child? Whether possession should go legally to the
biological
mother (in this case a recovered mentally ill roadside
destitute
mother
belonging to a family in Bihar represented by Shraddha) or
the
foster
parents (in this case a prominent Bollywood Director). The
battle
was
eventually won by the biological mother.
And going further from that singular victory, Shraddha has
been
instrumental in reuniting the above mentioned 10
mother-child
lives.
A
small seed of Truth fought for with all our might a year ago
has
yielded
definite dividends, with more destitute mother-child cases
being
referred
to Shraddha. As Gandhiji once said, one must never
underestimate
the
power
of Truth and even if Truth is in the minority of one, the
Truth
remains
the Truth.
The second newness in our functioning has been that we have
been
able
to
place our senior social workers in 3 different NGOs across
India
(the
Apna
Ghar Ashram individual branches in Delhi and Jodhpur,
Rajasthan
and
Annam
Seva Foundation in Khammam in Telangana). These social
workers
are
salaried by Shraddha and have with them adequate supplies of
the
entire
gamut of medicine stock which we use in our Karjat Center.
The
strategy
is
this. The videos of the patients in these NGOs are shared by
these
social
workers with us and based on these video assessments, the
appropriate
treatment of the patients is initiated and re-evaluated
again
vide
video
at weekly/fortnightly intervals. Gradually the system has
got
streamlined
and we have been able to successfully treat and reunite with
their
families all over India 51 mentally ill roadside destitutes
directly
(yes,
directly, without them entering our Karjat Center) from Apna
Ghar
Ashram,
Delhi, 7 recovered mentally ill destitutes directly from
Apna
Ghar,
Jodhpur, while 15 wandering mentally ill are under treatment
in
the
Khammam NGO in Telangana as on date. This reduces the burden
all-around
of
transferring the roadside destitutes for assessment and
treatment to
our
Karjat Center (as was the previous protocol) and thereby
considerably
reduces the load on our already overburdened infrastructure.
Azim Premji Philanthropic Initiatives have proactively
reached
out
to
Shraddha with a concept for creating a training module for
fresh
social
workers at our Karjat Center, and post their training, these
social
workers would be placed in different NGOs across India which
are
sheltering the wandering mentally ill, and Shraddha would be
the
nodal
coordinating hub. While the talks are still in the nascent
brain-storming
preliminary stage, fingers crossed that something concrete
works
out
of
this proposed collaboration.
Sharing the last piece of newness and good news. I was
invited
by
the
Registrar of Maharashtra University of Health Sciences
(MUHS) to
give a
motivational talk on this Republic Day which just passed by.
The
talk
was
broadcast to all the 423 colleges under the MUHS ambit and
was
well
received with over 16000 views on YouTube (Link attached
below).
MUHS
has
now sent a proposal to Shraddha to give summer training to
their
prospective doctor students (from various medical colleges
and
all
streams
be it allopathy, homeopathy, ayurveda, unani) in our Karjat
Center
for
6-8
weeks. Again, fingers crossed that something tangible works
out
on
this
front too.
These concepts of increasing the number of social workers
and
the
doctors
involved in social work has been the theme focus of all our
efforts
and
talks with various NGOs, agencies and on public platforms
for
the
past
few
years. We believe that the manpower and the human resources
involved
with
ameliorating not just the plight of the wandering mentally
ill,
but
with
all other social issues across the board in our beloved
country
India,
has
to be increased substantially. And by substantially we mean
really,
really
substantially. Then and only then will equality and social
justice
no
longer be a distant dream, but instead shall become the true
harbinger
of
Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore's poem 'Into that Heaven of
Freedom,
my
Father, let my country awake....'
Thank you for being with us for over 3 decades. On behalf
of
the
entire
team of Shraddha, a big thank you. Stay safe. Stay blessed.
This has been a tough six months all around. Our Karjat
Center
staff
and patients were afflicted with the Covid virus and a
total
of 27
of
us
got it in the second Covid wave. While none succumbed to
the
same,
our
dedicated nurse since innumerable years Asha Marade (loved
by
all
of
us)
was not so lucky. She lost her husband to Covid the very
next
day
after
she delivered her second child. The entire Shraddha Team
was
shell-shocked and beyond tears. Asha herself has not yet
recuperated
and
is still coming to terms with her grief. Difficult
real-life
blows
are
never easy to deal with. Shraddha is supporting her
financially
throughout her slow uphill healing process.
As regards our core work focus for the mentally ill
roadside
destitutes, we were able to reunite only 217 recovered
wandering
mentally ill with their families across the length and
breadth
of
India
from January through June 2021.
But the unique feature of these reunions was that in
almost
all,
the
emotional response was fantastic from the relatives.
Perhaps
since
Covid
had been on for almost 1.5 years, these relatives had
given up
hope
and
had presumed that their mentally ill loved ones (who had
been
separated
from them under the influence of the mental illness) had
succumbed
to
Covid and were no more. Now seeing the same relative alive
in
flesh
and
blood and in a much better mental health than at the time
of
separation,
their happiness knew no bounds.
Given lockdown conditions all around the country, many
relatives
managed and willingly came to the nearby major railway
station
in
their
respective States to accept their relatives.
Almost all the reunions at Guwahati railway station in
Assam
ended up
with the relative offering an Assamese towel as a token of
their
gratitude to our social worker Nitish Sharma, who has
become a
super-expert in contacting and tracing out relatives in
West
Bengal,
and
the North-East Indian States. (Photos attached)
A reunion done by Sunil Das in Orissa was broadcast on a
TV
channel
and
the YouTube upload of the same received 1.22 million views
within
a
week. So much of an emotional response has never been
witnessed by
our
Shraddha Team before. The general society is stunned and
overwhelmed
by
the very news of the mentally ill being alive, being
rescued
and
treated, and finally being reunited by the Shraddha social
workers
in
such turbulent times. The treatability of mental illness
and
the
plight
of the wandering mentally ill across India received that
much
coverage,
and the immense awareness this created was an added
bonanza to
the
viral
viewing of the video clip.(Link
to
actual video clip)
Giving another example, our female social worker
Laxmipriya
Bishoi
was
able to track down the brother of a female who was being
treated
in
our
Karjat Center for over a month. The brother hailed from a
distant
village in Chhattisgarh. He broke down on mobile video
call
and
requested Laxmipriya to send her before the forthcoming
Rakshabandhan
event on coming Sunday, so that he could get a Rakhi tied
by
her.
Coincidentally Laxmipriya was booked to go to Rourkela in
Odisha
for
reunion of four other recovered female destitutes. The
brother
was
more
than ready to come down to Rourkela Railway Station in
Odisha
to
pick
her up. The patient got reunited with her brother and her
own
son
at
Rourkela today morning. The only tragic note to the whole
story
was
that
the female had wandered out of her house with a young kid
in
her
arms,
which she lost in her disturbed mental state somewhere
along
the
way.
While tears of happiness abounded, some grief remained. (Photos attached)
Like last year, we have continued with the distribution
of
food
grains
ration kits to 2000 families of the widows, tribals,
handicapped
in
our
Karjat Taluka, due thanks to a very spontaneous generous
donation
of
30000 odd dollars from Parag Karia of Arpan Foundation in
the
USA
and
a
donation of 5 lacs from the octogenarian Ramesh Kacholia
of
Caring
Friends. Both of them are great souls and staunch
well-wishers
of
Shraddha. Goodness gets a different ethereal dimension
when
one
interacts with such nobility of thought and deed. Though I
did
mention
very candidly in an email to Parag Karia that the donation
of
his
and
the distribution of food grain ration kits would uplift my
spirits
more
than the spirits of the downtrodden, so woe-begone and low
I
had
been
feeling after looking at the impact of the second wave of
the
Covid.
People were dying like flies all around and we were all
helpless
in
its
wake. Grim steam-rollered times, these.
(Photos attached)
Attempting to rise to the emergency situation, we did
distribute
36
ration kits to the nearby villagers whose homes had been
ravaged
and
literally blown away in the recent floods.
We were donated an Ambulance with multiple donors
contributing
different amounts, notable amongst them IDS (India
Development
Service)
from the US and Poddar Tyres and lastly a donor who wished
to
remain
anonymous. With multiple blessings riding on it, the first
reunion
of
a
recovered destitute done vide the new Ambulance had
literally
the
whole
village turning out to welcome its lost inhabitant. Like
we
mentioned
earlier, the emotional outpourings at these reunions are
just
phenomenal.(Photos attached)
While our recent collaboration Sneh-Shraddha with
Snehalaya
at
Ahmednagar got transformed into an exclusive Sneh
Psychiatric
Rehabilitation Center under the sole aegis of the NGO
Snehalaya,
Shraddha continued to provide external experience inputs
and
the
mutual
ground-zero collaboration continued. In fact, out of the
217
reunions
in
the past 6 months, 12 of them were concluded vide the
Ahmednagar
Sneh
Project. All in all, multiple synergies of goodness
continued
to
come
the fore
Parker Hannifin India Pvt. Ltd., a reputed MNC, came
forward
with
a
donation of 25 lacs towards the construction of an
Incinerator
Room,
with the balance being used for actually incurred patient
treatment &
reunion costs and further infrastructural construction.
The
Incinerator,
incidentally, was donated in memory of Sushil Vasantlal
Mehta
by
his
family members.
100 of our in-house patients in the Shraddha Karjat
Center
finally
got
vaccinated with the Covid vaccine. Given that they did not
have
Aadhar
Cards or any identification, it was indeed a herculean
task to
overcome
bureaucratic obstacles and get the requisite precautionary
jab
taken.
On a philosophical note, one wonders whether the Gods are
angry
with
humans as a lot, given the unleashing of the Covid
pandemic
and
the
multiple unpredictable weather fluctuations which are
rampaging
our
dear
Mother Earth for the past few months. Be that as it may,
never
before
have we at Shraddha felt so hopeless and so futile in our
efforts
to
reach out to the under-privileged in society, as we have
been
feeling
in
the past few months. Mother Teresa’s epic quote ‘We
ourselves
feel
that
what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the
ocean
would
be
less because of that missing drop’ offers little solace,
because
we
know
that our contribution has been lesser than a drop.
In the hope that better times shall prevail and wishing
each
and
every
one of you, longevity with a healthy safe life.
While not truly connected with our activities over the
last 6
months,
I
was asked to give a talk to some teachers recently, on any
topic
of my
choice. I opted to speak on the inspirations and
contributions
which
culminate in the genesis of decent social work. The talk
has
been
appreciated, and so encouraged, I thought I would share it
with
all of
you. Forwarding herewith the link.
DR
BHARAT
VATWANI
- TALK TO TEACHERS ON FREEDOM FIGHTERS, SOCIAL WORK &
BEYOND
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