Dr. Justice A.S.Anand, Chairperson, NHRC accompanied by the Commission's Special Rapporteur Shri Chaman Lal, visited the Institute of Mental Health and Hospital, Agra (IMHH) on 30th Jan. 2006. Dr. Sudhir Kumar, Director, IMHH briefed the Chairperson about the progress made by the institute after the Supreme Court granted it an autonomous status and placed it under the watch of the NHRC. The Chairperson appreciated the State-of-art diagnostic and therapeutic facilities developed during this period and took special interest in the application of modified ECT from Human Rights angle. He was pleased to see a modest beginning made by the Institute in developing occupational therapy facilities, which are an essential pre-requisite to the rehabilitation of persons suffering from mental illness.
While praising the efforts of the Institute to reach out to community by holding mobile and satellite clinics, the Chairperson pointed out the need to establish a Half Way Home. Calling the existing Half-Way-Home as not even a 'Quarter-Way-Home', the Chairperson urged the District Administration to mobilize and motivate NGO support for this venture.
The Chairperson took special interest in familiarizing himself with the problems of the long-stay patients and spoke to a number of them. He appreciated the efforts of the volunteers of Action Aid India in tracing families of a number of long stay patients and restoring some of them to their homes after years of separation.
Since the Institute is facing severe financial constraints because of reluctance of the State Government to revise the 1997 scale of budget allocation, he asked the Divisional Commissioner, Agra, Dr. Ashok Kumar, to unhesitatingly exercise the autonomous powers of the Head of the Management Committee granted by the Supreme Court and decide issues, which are within the administrative and financial competence of the Managing Committee as per the Supreme Court directions. The Chairperson felt that the IMHH, Agra has the infrastructure and staffing pattern to become a centre of excellence for education in mental health, as directed by the apex Court. However, this important objective remains unrealized for want of financial resources.
An important highlight of the visit was a music and dance programme presented by the staff with participation of a number of patients. The Chairperson gave away prizes to the winners of the sports and other competitions conducted on the Republic Day. He commended on the efforts of the Staff of the IMHH in respecting the dignity and self-esteem of the mentally ill persons.