CM

YK
ND-X
TALKI NG POI NT
2 THE HINDU SUNDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2014
NOIDA/DELHI
niors in contention for the post, Vilasrao
Deshmukh and Sushilkumar Shinde, had
peripheral links with Adarsh. But Prith-
viraj Chavans political lightweight rep-
utation has meant that his efforts to
cleanse Maharashtra has seen him bat-
tling both his own party men and Con-
gress ally, the Nationalist Congress
Party, with the latter breaking a 15-year-
old alliance on the issue of seat sharing
for the upcoming Maharashtra assembly
polls.
Ironically, in the recent Lok Sabha
polls, when the Congress was reduced to
just two seats in Maharashtra, it was
Ashok Chavan who not only won
Nanded, but also helped party col-
league, Rajiv Satav, secure the neigh-
bouring seat of Hingoli. If Ashok
Chavan proved his popularity even
after being sidelined so did BJPs
B.S. Yeddyurappa. In July 2011, his
party forced him to step down as Chief
Minister of Karnataka, after the Lo-
kayukta investigating cases of illegal
mining indicted him. In November
2012, he quit the BJP to formally
launch the Karnataka Janata Paksha.
But after the BJP lost power in the
State in the Assembly polls of 2013,
the party started making overtures to
Yeddyurappa. In January 2014, he
announced the merger of his party
with the BJP, ahead of the Lok Sabha
elections.
But, unlike in the case of the
Congress and the BJP, when the
leader of the party is him/herself
forced to step down, control over the
proxy chief minister takes on another
dimension. In July 1997, Lalu Prasad
Yadav was forced to step down on
charges relating to the fodder scam
after seven years as Chief Minister of
Bihar. Filling the gap was his wife
Rabri Devi, who was sworn in on July
25, 1997. Not only did she rule for the
rest of the term till February 11, 1999,
but the Rashtriya Janata Dal as it
was called by then won a third term
and she was sworn in as chief minister
for a second time, nally demitting
office on March 6, 2005.
Interestingly, while Yadavs own
political career saw more downs last
year, he was forced to resign his
membership of the Lok Sabha after he
was formally convicted Rabri Devi
owered as a politician. When she
became CM in 1997, she had never
made a political speech. On assuming
office, she took her job seriously,
attending office with more diligence
than her husband, following up on
issues, learning on the job, even asking
her husband to conduct his politics
outside the family quarters. She also
soon became a pro at making political
speeches, even as she continued to
maintain Bharatiya Nari style
that she had done it all for her
husband.
The case of AIADMK supremo J.
Jayalalithaa, who recently became the
rst chief minister to be convicted
while in office, is closer to that of
Yadav than the other examples cited
above. For one, the choice of her
successor was entirely hers as it was
with Yadav in 1997. She had to step
down at the height of her popularity,
months after her party won 37 of the
39 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu,
just as the Janata Dal/RJD stayed on
in power in Bihar for eight years after
Yadav quit as CM.
In Jayalalithaas case, this is the
second time she has had to step down
on corruption charges. The rst time
was in 2001 but, on both occasions,
she chose loyalist and former minister
O. Panneerselvam. Indeed, after her
recent imprisonment, not only did her
grief-stricken supporters hold protests,
Panneerselvam also wept during his
inauguration. In 2001, when he be-
came chief minister for the rst time,
he proved his credentials as a reliable
stand-in by stepping down to make
room for her after she was acquitted
six months later. In his brief innings
as CM, he even refused to use the
chair she had occupied.
Indira Gandhi would have approved.
The chair persons
Continued from page 1
A
nation is truly inclusive, rights and
capabilities promotive, and embed-
ded in a culture that values justice
and equity when it respects and
cares for its most vulnerable. Despite
progress in science and technology, and
strong nudges in the direction of devel-
opment and growth, the lives of one seg-
ment of society homeless persons
with mental illness remain un-
changed. This group lives on the fringes,
invisible and forgotten.
I was so unwell that I offered to sell
my child for a bowl of curd rice. If I
hadnt been rescued by the police and
introduced into a treatment system, I
would have lost my child forever.
The maggots jumping out of my un-
healed wounds they didnt grab any-
ones attention. And I was too ill to feel
them myself. My matted hair, soiled
clothes, stench and unsavoury demea-
nour, however, did. I was swept away
fromthe centre of the city where the rich
lived to a slum-like area that would tol-
erate people like me.
The voices they drove me mad.
They were angry, judging and unkind. In
hindsight, quite like the world we live
in.
These are voices of homeless persons
with mental illness; individuals who
continue to struggle in a world that
prides itself on advancements in rights
and morality. The state, science and so-
ciety have failed this group on many
counts. In this fast-paced world, the ca-
pacity to engage and to remain engaged
with persistent problems is limited, es-
pecially with those problems that open
up ambiguities and pose everyday
challenges.
Despite progressive human rights leg-
vergence as a strategy to respond to the
layered needs of this group; science be-
cause it will have to nd an evidence
base frompractice, existing models of
care, and grassroots level social innova-
tions to build strong and varied exper-
iments in different settings that are
contextually relevant and culturally nu-
anced. Society, because we have thrust
upon these persons the unitary identity
of a homeless or mentally-ill person and
used it as a central feature of oppression,
disregarding the transience and multi-
dimensionality in ones identity con-
struction. These men and women were
born in homes like you and me. They
aspired for a bright life like you and me.
Somewhere down the line, their lives
changed, as they were deprived of what
you and I continue to enjoy life, health
and personhood. And then their narra-
tive changed.
At the turn of the century, Martha
Nussbaum listed 10 central capabilities
that she thought were integral to every
individual. Homeless persons with men-
tal illness are deprived of almost every
capability on this list, be it bodily integ-
rity or bodily health, the ability to affil-
iate, play, exercise political will, own
individual space or exercise control over
ones environment. Despite the explicit
emphasis in our Constitution, to protect
all its citizens, especially those who are
fragile, boththe State and us its people
have failed to uphold this value and
vision in action and spirit. Its now time
to reverse this trend.
The writer is co-founder of
The Banyan and the Banyan Academy
of Leadership in Mental Health
(BALM).
PHOTO: THULASI KAKKAT
October 10 was World Mental
Health Day and World Homeless
Day. Its no coincidence, says
VANDANA GOPIKUMAR, looking into
the problems faced by homeless
people with mental illness.
S OC I E T Y
..........................................................
Cast off by outer and inner worlds
islation meant to preserve individuality,
the rights of this group remain largely
violated. Freedom is an essential attri-
bute of what these rights constitutes. I
would, however, argue that freedom,
when placed in the capabilities frame-
work, thrives much more. Thus, merely
addressing the right to live freely on the
streets is disregarding the more valuable
right to a full life.
It is no coincidence that both World
Mental HealthDay and World Homeless
Day occur on the same date. The rela-
tionship between mental illness and
homelessness is bi-directional and trag-
ically symbiotic, each bolstering the oth-
er. Abject poverty and social
disadvantage, untreated mental or phys-
ical illness, migration, and poor access to
healthcare are some of the causal path-
ways that render a person homeless.
Particularly vulnerable are persons with
mental illness who either lose their pri-
mary caregiver, or experience multi-di-
mensional distress on account of glaring
inequities and social decits such as
poor nutrition, unemployment and in-
appropriate housing.
Limited mechanisms are available to
respond to this crisis today. While the
Supreme Court directive that mandated
the presence of a shelter for every one
lakhpopulationhas beengradually gath-
ering momentum, its implementation
remains somewhat uncertain and am-
bivalent in the case of this constituency
that presents a complex set of problems.
Existing care pathways apart from
these shelters include mental hospi-
tals, civil society organisations, beggars
homes and, sometimes, prisons. Mental
hospitals often hesitate to admit such
persons owing to cumbersome judicial
procedures, persistent and chronic men-
tal illness that oftendoesnt remit easily,
absence of a caregiver, and human rights
related challenges. Even when they do
admit the patient, the state of mental
hospitals inour country leaves a lot to be
desired. The lacunae are not just in their
poor management. Running a large facil-
ity that caters at any point to around 500
to 1,000 individuals, all afflicted with a
range of mental disorders, in an envi-
ronment ridden with limitations and
scarcity, particularly inadequate human
resources, would be an impossible task
even for a high quality management
team. Further, mental hospitals carry
the legacy of their rather unpalatable
history of power play and social
exclusion.
For many homeless persons who have
no family or home to return to, long-
terminstitutional care remains the only
option. This results in people languish-
ing in mental hospitals for extraordina-
rily long periods of time. A spectrum of
services for homeless persons withmen-
tal disorders needs to be developed, in-
cluding care on the streets, inclusive
living options in the community, coun-
selling kiosks, social entitlements, skills
development and livelihoods facilita-
tion. The rst IndianMental Health Pol-
icy and the proposed Mental Health
Care Bill refer tothe unique needs of this
vulnerable group. While this signies
positive intent and affirmative action, its
translation into meaningful response on
the ground calls for a more concrete,
tangible and strategic action plan.
In this context, state, science and so-
ciety have key roles to play: the state
because it will have to liaise effectively
with many stakeholders and use con-
I
t was like any other day. I sat withmy
eyes moving frommy gmail inbox to
an English news channel, which
drew me, need I clarify, towards the
United Nations, with our Prime Minis-
ter emphatically making his presence
felt onthe minds of everyone inside and
outside that iconic space. Will he ad-
dress the K issue? What will be his
formof rebuttal?
But suddenly the scene shifted. It
was a pavement in Chennai. Women
and men were bawling, screaming and
cursing the judge who had the gall to
send their beloved Amma to jail. An-
chors and on-site reporters fromChen-
nai and Bangalore gave us a running
commentary on every car, cycle, auto
and van that entered or left the court
house or Chief Minister Jayalalithaas
residence.
Cut the scene here
Within minutes, we were transport-
ed back into the United Nations and its
vicinity to feel the Modi wave. Support-
ers had arrived in and around his hotel
and the excitement was palpable.
In between all this there was the
small matter of the oods in Assamand
Meghalaya. As I write, I understand
that over four lakh people have been
affected and 85 people are dead. But
this minor story was like a 30-second
ad lm placed between two mega-seri-
als.
This sequence repeated itself
through the day with the occasional
Asian Games news sandwiched in-be-
tween. All in all, that day, Jayalalithaa
was the star.
The reporter around the Modi fan-
fare was as charged as every one of the
fans in New York. The anchor in the
studiowas pumped upand Modis every
word was heard and noted. But when it
came to Jayalalithaa, the reporting on
this channel became somewhat, shall I
say, detached, impersonal.
But when the telecast turned to the
ested in the news not for what it
conveys but for how it does so the
more exciting, the more shocking, the
better. We will complainthat ananchor
is noisy, jingoistic and violent; yet night
after night at 10.00 p.m. we will watch
him hyper-ventilate from his vantage
position. Every TV station knows this
and plays to this reality; it is only in
degrees that they differ.
Are television channels responding
to our shallowness or is it the other way
around? Does that really matter; we are
all the same, arent we?
We are all consumers; news con-
sumptionis not any different frombuy-
ing a Coke to satisfy our craving for
sugar and caffeine. Just like the anchor,
we too shift gears for every story, not
knowing what we felt for the story that
just passed.
But unlike make-believe entertain-
ment, here the news channel has only
so much control over what is fed to us.
Depending on what or who would catch
our eyeballs for the longest, the time
allocation is varied, but in essence
keeping to a show of variety. We news
junkies are exactly that junkies. We
dont know why we watch news, but
delude ourselves that we are more in
touch with the world and that we do
care.
We are addicts to sensation. That is
what we are, addicts, hooked to our
daily joint news.
tmkrishnaoffice@gmail.com
oods, the anchor could be seen at-
tempting an empathetic tone.
Is it humanly possible for a person
who jumps from story one to three
within 10 minutes only to swipe back to
story two to actually feel? The truth is
that, after a point of time, the anchor is
an actor who knows how he needs to
sound and look depending on the story
being told. He is the package, curated to
perfection giving us content that after
a point is immaterial. Why do I say
immaterial? Because, on that day, peo-
ple losing their homes and lives in As-
sam were not as important as Modi or
Jayalalithaa. They could wait for anoth-
er 24 hours to receive their television
time-share.
One may say that news is like life
where deathand birth, joy and suffering
come together, one after another. In a
way, may be news channels are philo-
sophical levellers. A fascinating
thought indeed! But the issue here is
not about the varied news reports being
targeted at us. It is about a conscious
plan to sell news, where the channel
clearly places market value on the kind
of news that needs to reach us.
Even in tragedy there is saleability.
The oods in Kashmir have greater vis-
ibility than those in Assam.
But this is not just about the televi-
sion channels; it is as much about us
sitting on our couches demanding from
every thing excitement, instant grat-
ication and titillation. We are inter-
AS I S E E I T
........................................................................
Addicts to sensation
By T.M. Krishna
For consumers like
us, news becomes
entertainment
beyond a point.
Quick x. PHOTO: K. MURALI KUMAR
L
ast month, while our attention was
diverted by what our politicians
were doing on foreign shores and at
home, tragedies on a massive scale
were being played out in many parts of
the country.
Besides the devastating oods in
Kashmir last month, vast swathes of the
rest of India have also been inundated by
oodwaters. Odisha, Bihar, Assam and
Meghalaya have seen some of the worst
ooding in years. For these states, oods
are anannual phenomenon. But this year
they have been worse and in places
where the waters never advanced with
such force in earlier years.
So even as the usual tamashas and
tirades occupy our news space, spare a
thought for the women, men and chil-
dren in these states who are still strug-
gling. Even as I write this column, an
estimated four lakh people in Assamand
Meghalaya, spread over 4,446 villages in
23 districts are homeless or badly affect-
ed by the oods. Thousands of people
remain in relief camps because they can-
not go back to their villages.
In Odisha last month, rising river wa-
ters submerged thousands of villages in
23 of the 30 districts in the state. In
Bihar, too, the ooding has been relent-
less, spreading destruction, destitution
and disease.
While the reports in the media on
these states are few and far in-between
you have to make a determined effort to
mine out the news frommainstreamIn-
dian media the few reports that have
appeared make heart-rending reading.
One report that I found particularly
touching appeared in The Hindu on Au-
gust 27, 2014, under the headline, Wom-
en ght shame in ood hit Bihar
(http://www.thehindu.com/news/na-
tional/other-states/women-ght-
shame-in-ood-hit-bihar/arti-
cle6356043.ece?homepage=true). It
quoted women in Bihars Supaul district
talking about the particular challenge
that they face as women in the wake of
oods.
A woman in her thirties was quoted
saying, Poor women like us face more
problems to relieve ourselves when
oods force us to ee our villages. It is
our fate. No one can imagine this except
those like us.
Another older woman said, We have
no option but to relieve ourselves in the
open by closing our eyes and minds to
the hell-like situation.
What they are talking about is the pa-
thetic absence of any sanitation arrange-
ment for women during such disasters.
Youmight argue that inany case many of
these women would not have toilets and
are therefore used to open defecation.
But can anyone imagine what this wom-
an means when she says they close their
eyes and minds when they go out to
relieve themselves in a ooded
landscape?
Why, people would legitimately ask,
should we make such a fuss about wom-
ens problems at such times when every-
one men, women and children, as well
as the elderly are affected? I do so
because in many ways womens vulner-
abilities are enhanced at such times. If
they confront a daily challenge of san-
itation, this is compounded during oods
and other disasters. Yet, when relief
measures are put in place, the particular
needs of women are often overlooked.
Ina powerful article that Assam-based
journalist Teresa Rehman wrote after
the 2010 oods in her state (infochangein-
dia.org/environment/features/sanitation-in-
the-time-of-oods.html), she quotes a
woman called Salma BegumfromSonit-
pur district: Sometimes we have to seek
permission from the owners of a dry
patch in order to defecate. Most often we
have to do it discreetly, on other peoples
land, as it becomes difficult to control
oneself. Sometimes, during the oods,
we starve ourselves so that we do not
need to defecate.
In this instance, women like Salma
were beneciaries of the governments
Total Sanitation Programme, in partic-
ular low-cost toilets. Yet, one ood, and
everything including these toilets are
washed away. Women like her are then
left with no alternative but to revert to
the age-old practice of open defecation,
with the added complication of not nd-
ing a dry spot.
Floodwaters are indiscriminating.
They sweep away everything and every-
one that comes in their way. But for the
survivors, the story varies greatly de-
pending on class, caste and gender. And
this is where the voices of women like
Salma from Assam or the women from
Bihar must be heeded. The process of
relief and rehabilitation must necessar-
ily be gendered. The absence of toilets is
a womans problem in a very specic
way.
Sweeping our streets clean is all very
well but surely cleanliness must mean
that women do not need to live through
a hell-like situation on a daily basis.
sharma.kalpana@yahoo.com
T HE OT HE R HAL F
.....................................................................................................................
Out in the open
By Kalpana Sharma
The absence of sanitation facilities for women during disasters
enhances their vulnerability.
PHOTO: AP