WUNRN
INDIA – ABUSES AGAINST WOMEN & GIRLS WITH
PSYCHOSOCIAL OR INTELLECTUAL DISABILLITIES IN INSTITUTIONS IN INDIA
Human Rights Watch
http://www.hrw.org/reports/2014/12/03/treated-worse-animals-0
Direct Link to Full 96-Page Report:
http://features.hrw.org/features/Interview_2014/Locked_Up_in_Institutions_With_No_Way_Out/index.html
“Locked Up in Institutions with
No Way Out”
December 3,
2014 - This report documents involuntary admission and arbitrary detention in
mental hospitals and residential care institutions across India, where women
and girls with psychosocial or intellectual disabilities experience
overcrowding, lack of hygiene, inadequate access to healthcare, forced
treatment – including electroconvulsive therapy – as well as physical, verbal,
and sexual violence.
These women and girls are locked up in institutions against
their will. Some of the institutions for those women, who have disabilities
ranging from Down Syndrome and cerebral palsy to schizophrenia and depression,
are filthy and overcrowded.
Residents
lie on the floor practically on top of each other for lack of space.
Opportunities to bathe are minimal, access to medical care is limited, and
forced treatment – including electroshock therapy – is often the norm. Verbal
or physical abuse by staff members is common. It’s not a pretty picture, but
this is the reality for those living in institutions. Many don’t even know
their diagnosis. Admitting female relatives to institutions is painfully easy,
but it’s nearly impossible for these women to leave without their family’s
permission.
Human
Rights Watch’s Kriti Sharma spoke with Amy Braunschweiger about
the 24 institutions she and other researchers visited across four Indian states
– including government mental hospitals and government and private residential
care facilities – for the new report, "Treated Worse than Animals."