CHENNAI: Disability due to mental health complaint is no longer a matter of social welfare concern, but a human rights issue, said Madras High Court judge Anita Sumanth. Referring to United Nations Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) in which India signed in 2006, she said said post-convention, disabilities owing to mental health complaints became a human rights issue.
Speaking at the awards ceremony of Schizophrenia Research Foundation (SCARF) for mental health reporting here, she said there were about 23,000 cases under Persons with Disabilities Act before courts. She said law recognised equality and dignity at one premises and one platform. “The Union government has recently launched a national action plan for skill improvement training of 2.5 millions of PwDs,” she said adding that the government submitted a report on PwDs to United Nations eight years after it signed the convention.
She stressed that colleges and universities which teach journalism course should include subjects on mental health issues in their curriculum. Earlier, she distributed awards to seven persons for best articles on mental health issues published in newspapers and other online platforms who were chosen by SCARF. The awardees are Saravana Raja, Swetha Dandapani, Hamsini Ravi, Nidhi Adlakha, Usha Narayanan, Swetha Kannan and Anil Varthak.