Mental health refers to the cognitive, behavioral, and emotional well-being of people. It is responsible for overt behavior. It determines our actions, how we talk, think, feel, handle situations, and make choices. While one may feel fine with how their mind has been working, a few need aids to resort to good mental health. There are many taboos and stigmas attached to mental health, which are a few of the reasons we, as people, hesitate to talk about it publicly.
In India, some of the laws about mental health include The Mental Health Act, 1987; The Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993; Persons with Disability Act, 1995; The National Trust Act, 1999; Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005; Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012, and related legislation. Prominent statutory legislation regulating narcotics is the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act 1985.
Tracking down the history of Mental Health in the past legislations, a crucial feature to notice is that the rights of the mentally ill were never given any recognition. Whether we look at the Mental Health Act, 1987, or the Indian Lunacy Act, 1912, the protection of the mentally ill or emphasis was that even the mentally ill have the right to dignity is nowhere mentioned.
The Mental Healthcare Act 2017 came into force on 7th July 2018 by revoking the Mental Health Act, 1987. It has clearly defined “mental illness” as a substantial disorder of thinking, mood, perception, orientation, or memory that grossly impairs judgment, and behavior capacity to recognize reality or ability to meet the ordinary demands of life. One of the features of this act is that it recognizes Mental stress and has decriminalized the attempt to suicide, which is an essential feature of this Act. After this, no person who has attempted suicide would be punished or tried under the law of the land, thus overturning the IPC provision that criminalized attempt to suicide.
This Act has opened doors for a breakthrough in tackling Mental health and thrashing the age-old stigmas that revolved around it. A lot of time will take for everyone to accept these illnesses, but at least this Act has initiated the move.
The Legal ambit of Mental Health is not so vast at this point in India. However, with amends and more progressive policies, it can be assumed that mental health will evolve for the better.
Aishwarya Says:
I have always been against Glorifying Over Work and therefore, in the year 2021, I have decided to launch this campaign “Balancing Life”and talk about this wrong practice, that we have been following since last few years. I will be talking to and interviewing around 1 lakh people in the coming 2021 and publish their interview regarding their opinion on glamourising Over Work.
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