KOZHIKODE: A black and white photograph of a bullock cart parked on the campus of Kuthiravattom Mental Health Centre evokes curiosity. It was one of the photographs displayed at the centre as part of its 150th-anniversary exhibition.
The centre began its operations in 1872, during the height of British rule in India. It was then called the Lunatic Asylum of Calicut. The bullock cart in the photograph was then used to transport patients to the asylum, especially British soldiers who were suffering from mental illnesses.
The same exhibition also featured a photograph of an ambulance parked on the centre’s campus, depicting how times have changed. The name too has undergone significant changes - from the Lunatic Asylum of Calicut to Mental Hospital and, later, to Mental Health Centre. The change of name signifies the revolution that the institution has undergone to ease the stigma associated with mental illnesses in society.
“Government Mental Health Centre, Kuthiravattom, was established in 1872 by the erstwhile Madras Presidency. It was then known as the Lunatic Asylum of Calicut. The asylum initially admitted the insane from the army. Later, civilians and non-English patients were also admitted. It was under the Jail Department in pre-independent India and was referred to as lunatic jail by the people. It continued to be under the Jail Department for two more years even after independence, and Jail IG was in charge of the hospital. It was in 1950 that the hospital was transferred under the Health Department,” said P C Aravindakshan, the centre’s superintendent-in-charge.
As per the annual reports preserved in the hospital’s archives department, doctors and nursing staff continued to be English until 1912. There were separate facilities for native and British patients. The term lunatic asylum was changed to hospital worldwide from the 1920s onwards. “Even in the colonial period, patients were actively engaged in several rehabilitation programmes. Weaving and stitching were practised in 1941, and clothes for the 500 patients were manufactured within the hospital,” he added.
At present, the centre has more than 480 inmates, including 170 women. It has been urging the state government to give it a facelift for the betterment of inmates, including improving the staff strength. The state government intends to raise the centre to international standards.