SOCIETY

Mentally challenged man caged for eight years by parents

     Mahil (Jharkhand): In a shocking case of human rights abuse, an impoverished family kept their mentally-ill son in an animal cage for the past eight years, saying they can no longer afford treatment and he attacks villagers if let loose. Praveen Kumar Manshi, a 35-year-old from remote Mahil village in Jharkhand, has been confined to the cage in the courtyard of his home by his parents who say that he has lost his mental balance due to cocaine addiction. Manshi's father Shaheo says they have spent their life savings on treatment adding that even the local mental asylum has been of little help as they have refused to keep him beyond a few months. Both Shaheo and Panchami Devi work as contract labourers and say they cannot afford to show Manshi to a reputed mental hospital. And despite repeated requests to the state government, nothing has been done to improve Manshi's condition. "We got tired of getting him treatment at various hospitals. We tried it for eight years and it was after he started getting violent at home then we had no choice but to cage him. I have put him in an asylum twice but once he escaped and the second time the mental hospital discharged him on their own," he said. Hemanti Devi, a social worker who has been fighting to get Praveen some basic human treatment, says all he need is love. "He only needs some love, I think. If we give him some love then he will relax and not be so violent but then he is always tied and people are always cruel to him, constantly call him a madman," Devi said. Devi has been trying hard to counsel the parents and also sought the help of local authorities but at the end there is no positive result.
-April 25, 2005

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