*2 August 2011* *Bangalore* : Over 100 people were rescued during a raid on Monday from an alcohol and drug rehabilitation centre which operated from a poultry farm in Avalahalli village off National Highway 4, near Hoskote.
The raid was conducted by a team led by S.R. Nayak of the Karnataka State Human Rights Commission (KSHRC), on Sumana Social Service Centre. Over 100 people, including women and children, were housed in three sheds of the farm and several reported being beaten, stripped and humiliated. *Crammed together* “The living conditions were horrible,” said Prakash Kariappa, project coordinator of the human rights NGO, South India Cell for Human Rights Education and Monitoring (SICHREM). He said that only one “unhygienic” toilet served the inmates of the centre. “Around 60 people slept in a small 20' x 40' area. Even animals could not have been kept like this,” he said. Some inmates had been locked up in the centre for more than three years, he said, and there were no doctors or psychologists or even trained counsellors to treat them. Though the centre had valid licences to run a rehabilitation programme, the human rights activists pointed out that it was run like a commercial establishment. “They have taken money for their rehabilitation and were treating them like animals,” Mr. Kariappa said. *Rules broken* The centre virtually broke every norm of the Mental Health Act, said Mr. Kariappa, saying it housed mentally challenged patients, which is not permitted under the law. One of the tactics was to bring in addicts people from Chennai, where rehabilitation centres are banned. The Kadugodi police are recording the statements of those rescued, and interrogating four people who ran the centre, including Lakshman Narayana, the owner. http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Bangalore/article2315617.ece -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Mental Health Advocacy (News 'N Views) India" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/MhaNewsViewsIndia?hl=en ------------- Affiliated Groups : MENTAL HEALTH ADVOCACY INDIA [email protected] Discussions on mental health law / policy / plan monitoring / human rights etc [email protected] India-specific news and views related to mental health [email protected] Information and support to carers of people with mental health issues [email protected] Mutual support and sharing of experiential knowledge, skills and social learning amongst peers
