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Written By: Editorial Team | Updated : December 3, 2014 2:32 PM IST
December 3 is International Day of People with Disability
New Delhi, Dec.3: A new report released by Human Rights Watch (HRW) revealed that women living with disabilities in India are treated worse than animals. According to the report, women and girls are forced into mental hospitals and institutions, where they have to face several problems including unsanitary conditions, risk physical and sexual violence. (Read: International Day of People with Disability: PM Modi salutes the spirit of differently abled individuals)
The The 106-page report titled, 'Treated Worse than Animals': Abuses against Women and Girls with Psychosocial or Intellectual Disabilities in Institutions in India,' is based on the analysis of the situation of women and girls with disabilities in six cities across India. Research was conducted from December 2012 through November 2014 in New Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, and Mysore, and is based on more than 200 interviews with women and girls with psychosocial or intellectual disabilities, their families, caretakers, mental health professionals, service providers, government officials, and the police.
The report revealed that women are forcibly dumped into government institutions and mental hospitals by their family members, partly due to the lack of government support. Once they're locked up, they are abused and their lives are often rife with isolation, fear, and abuse, with no hope of escape,' saya Kriti Sharma, researcher at Human Rights Watch.
The reports calls for immediate action to shift from forced institutional care to voluntary community-based services and support for people with disabilities. Here's are some suggestions to improve care for disabled in India mentioned in the report:
Human Rights Watch visited 24 mental hospitals or general hospitals with psychiatric beds, rehabilitation centers, and residential care facilities. There are no clear official government records or estimates of the prevalence of psychosocial or intellectual disabilities in India. The 2011 census estimates that only 2.21 percent of the Indian population has a disability - including 1.5 million people (0.1 percent of the population) with intellectual disabilities and a mere 722,826 people (0.05 percent of the population) with psychosocial disabilities (such as schizophrenia or bipolar condition).
These figures are strikingly lower than international estimates by the United Nations and World Health Organization which estimate that 15 percent of the world's population lives with a disability. The Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare claims much higher percentage of the Indian population is affected by psychosocial disabilities with 6-7 percent (74.2 - 86.5 million) affected by 'mental disorders' and 1-2 percent (12.4 - 24.7 million) by 'serious mental disorders.' India's government launched the National Mental Health Programme in 1982 to provide community-based services, but its reach is limited, said the HRW report. (Read: One in three women around the world are physically or sexually abused )
Source: ANI
Photo source: Getty images
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