80% hospitals in India don’t have psychiatrists, says Dr Bharat Vatwani

Dr Bharat Vatwani, who founded Shraddha Foundation and has united more than 7,000 mentally ill roadside destitutes with their families.s

Dr Bharat Vatwani, winner of Ramon Magsaysay award for his work in the field of uniting mentally ill destitute with their families, said around 80 per cent of government hospitals in the country still do not have psychiatrists.

Bharat Vatwani speak during the foundation day of NIBM on Monday. (Shankar Narayan/HT PHOTO)

Ratio comes down

“In 2001, the ratio of number of psychiatrists per 10,000 mentally ill patients was 0.4 per cent which in 2011 went down to 0.3 per cent. One of the reason India does not have enough psychiatrists is that many of them go abroad,” said Vatwani.

Dr Bharat Vatwani, who founded Shraddha Foundation and has united more than 7,000 mentally ill roadside destitutes with their families. He said that mental illness in curable and there is a need to create greater awareness about the problem.

Dr Vatwani, a psychiatrist himself, started a centre at Karjat in 2005 where his Shraddha Foundation treated patients with mental illness. Once cured, these patients are then reunited with their families in various parts of India.

Sharing his experience during his address on 49th foundation day at National Institute of Bank Management (NIBM), Dr Vatwani said he had to initially face struggle in treating patients in Mumbai as people living in the vicinity found in inconvenient. “People opposing our Mumbai centre went to court, which ultimately gave verdict in our favour.”