news (Non IPS)
October 16, 2009
Observation of Mental Health Week at Jagjivan Ram Hospital, W. Rly, Mumbai
Jagjivan Ram Western Railway Tertiary Care Hospital of 330 beds, is situated behind Maratha Mandir in Mumbai. Psychiatry department organised various mental health activities on the occasion of mental health week and WMHD 09 to enhance mental health literacy amongst professionals and public. We have attached the files of the programmes conductd.
Dr J P Rawat
Sr DMO
Psychiatrist, JR Hospital, Mumbai
August 15, 2009
He gave up a 5-star job to feed the mentally ill
'I don't feed beggars. They can look after themselves. The mentally ill won't ask anyone for food or money,' says N Krishnan who has been feeding them thrice a day for the past seven years.
N Krishnan feeds 400 mentally ill people on the streets of Madurai three times a day, every day, all 365 days of the year.
The 28 year old has been doing this for seven years via a charity called the Akshaya Trust.
A look into the kitchen reveals a spotlessly clean room. Sparkling vessels stacked neatly, groceries and provisions all lined up in rows -- rice, dal, vegetables, spices -- all of the best quality. One would think this was the kitchen of a five star hotel.
Maybe Krishnan achieves that effect because he was once a chef at a five star hotel in Bengaluru.
"Today's lunch is curd rice, with home made pickle, please taste it," he says, serving me on a plate made of dried leaves. The food is excellent.
"I change the menu for different days of the week. They will get bored if I serve the same food every day," he says with an enthusiastic and infectious smile
Krishnan cooks breakfast, lunch and dinner with the help of two cooks. He takes it himself to his wards on the street each day.
"I don't feed beggars. They can look after themselves. The mentally ill won't ask anyone for food or money. They don't move around much too. I find them in the same place every day."
That morning he put the food in a large vessel, the pickle in a smaller one and loaded it into a Maruti van donated by a Madurai philanthropist.
Ten minutes later we stopped near a man lying on the ground by a high wall. Krishnan put the food next to him. The man refused to even look at it, but grabbed the water bottle and drank eagerly. "He will eat the food later, looks like he was very thirsty," said Krishnan.
At the next stop, he laid the dry leaf-plate and served the food. He then scooped some food and started feeding the mentally ill man himself. After two morsels, the man started eating on his own.
We then crossed a crowded traffic signal and stopped the vehicle. On seeing Krishnan, four individuals moved slowly towards the Maruti van. They stood out in the crowd with their dirty, tattered clothes and unshaven beards.
They knew this Maruti van meant food. But they did not hurry, knowing that Krishnan would wait for them.
Krishnan served them under a tree and carried water for them. "They are not aware enough to get their own water," he explained.
And thus we went around the city till the Akshaya patra was empty. Of course, it would be full again for dinner later in the day.
As we returned, a startling fact hit me. Not a single mentally challenged person had thanked Krishnan. They did not even smile or acknowledge him. Still Krishnan carried on in a world where most of us get offended if someone doesn't say thank you, sometimes even for doing our jobs.
The food costs Rs 8,000 a day, but that doesn't worry him. "I have donors for 22 days. The remaining days, I manage myself. I am sure I will get donors for that too, people who can afford it are generally generous, particularly when they know that their hard earned money is actually going to the poor. That is why I maintain my accounts correctly and scrupulously. "
He then pulled out a bill from the cabinet and showed it to me. It was a bill for groceries he had bought seven years ago. "This bill has sentimental value. It is the first one after I started Akshaya."
The economic slowdown has resulted in a drop in the number of donors. Earlier, they sustained meals for 25 days.
Software giants Infosys and TCS were so impressed with his work that they donated three acres of land to him in Madurai. Krishnan hopes to build a home for his wards there. He has built the basement for a woman's block which will house 80 inmates, but work has currently halted due to a lack of funds.
This, however, is not the sum of his good deeds. Krishnan also performs the funerals of unclaimed bodies in Madurai. He collects the body, bathes it and gives it a decent burial or cremation as the need may be.
He gets calls, both from the municipal corporation and general hospital for the funerals.
He recalls with a little prompting how one day he saw a mentally ill man eating his excreta. He rushed to the nearest restaurant and bought the man five idlis. The man ate voraciously, and then smiled at him. The smile made Krishnan want to do it again and again.
Krishnan has not married and wonders if anyone would want to marry a man who spends his days cooking food for others. He is firm that his life partner has to agree to this kind of life.
His parents were initially shocked, but are now very supportive of their son. They advise him about the cuisine and also about how he can streamline the process.
One wonders why he left his job in a five star hotel to bury the dead and feed the mentally ill. To this he just smiles and says, "I like doing it."
For more information on N Krishnan's trust, log on to: http://www.akshayatrust.org/
July 26, 2009
Child right violation: Child wins against School
SD, a kid in the 9th grade, was failed by G D Somani High school [ICSE 2009] as he failed by a couple of marks in maths and another subject [not English]. The school affliated to the ICSE Board refused to listen to any reason and yet detained the kid. Take a leaving certificate or sit in the 9th, said the management.
When they approached me I asked them to again petition the school and also wrote a letter to the Principal. Yet the management felt there was nothing wrong. As there was no response, I asked them to file a petition against G D Somani School and ultimately the High Court asked the school to promote him immediately to the tenth grade a couple of days ago.
This was possible due to the affidavit of the ICSE board by MR Gerry Arathoon... excerpts from which are as follows...
"Pass certificates will be awarded to candidates who at one and the same examination have entered and sat for seven subjects as detailed in Chapter 11 B [1] above and have attained the pass standard in at least 5 subjects which must include the subject english. Provided that no condition except as otherwise exempted by the council, should be awarded a pass certificate unless in addition to fulfilling the conditions above he/she has attained a pass grade in Socially useful productive work and community service as examined /assessed internally by the school. I crave leave to refer to and rely upon the examination regulations."
"That the promotion criteria to be followed by schools are prescribed in the Affliation Guidelines of the council. For promotion of students from Class 9 to 10, same parameters are required to be attained for being declared Pass in Class 9 as required in ICSE Class 10 Examinations. Therefore promotion criteria is the same for Class 9 & 10 in the ICSE schools is the same. In accordance with the same a student in order to pass the examination is required to secure minimum 35% marks in atleast 5 subjects which must include English. I crave leave to refer to and rely upon the guidelines for Affliation."
That was the excerpt which clinched the issue in favor of the child. And surprisingly the school argued that till 9th it is guided by the SSC board. G D Somani and many other schools affliated to the ICSE board flout the rules since many years and hurt the self esteem of the children. The ICSE board failed to react to the petition of the child when it was sent before filing the writ. An earlier response would have saved the agony for the kid. The board has no grievance cell nor an Ombudsmen and heavily favors the schools till it is woken up by the Courts.
Many ICSE schools have sent circulars of 40-50% passing and many conservative managements who believe in ruining the mental health of kids have escaped their crimes for long. Many schools have COMPULSORY MATHS. Do not know why and also do not have optional subjects as spelt out by the board.
The board is very flexible and creative yet it does not percolate down to many schools and there is no regulatory effective body to supervise the same.
In my experience I have met a majority of great ICSE principals who have walked many miles for children but the number on the other side is as much.
At this moment SD has already taken his LS and is dead scared to go to school after experiencing a severe rejection.
Harish Shetty
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