Topic started by Vishvesh Obla (@ 63.65.68.246) on Tue Aug 7 11:08:19 .
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.

The fire accident in a mental asylum at Ervadi, Ramnad, Tamilnadu, is one of the most horrible accidents in the recent years. To know that 25 mentally ill patients were burned alive with their legs chained is such a shock that your mind gets numb and paralysed. Dinamalar has published some pictures and I couldn’t do anything for an hour after seeing them. I have worked in most places in Ramnad district as a pharmaceutical marketing person and I know the backwardness of that entire district. This place Erwadi was famous for its locally run mental asylums, most of which were no way related with medical practices. Even allopathic medical practice there is run very shamefully. Lots of reasons are figured out now for the accident and lots of criticism aired after this tragic incident. It is so painful to see that we need such an accident to realize how sub standard life in such backward areas have become and it is much more painful to see that the hubbub created is only ephemeral and things go back to their earlier state sooner or later.

Responses:

• From: vibhu (@ 194.209.7.228) on: Wed Aug 8 04:54:33
  
  Vishvesh
  As you told, it is painful to too see that we need such an accident to realize the dangerously backward nature of some areas in our country. But it is more painful to see that, it will require a few more such incidents to go on reminding us till we take some positive and concrete action. We are gifted with very good ability of forgetting things. It takes only a couple of weeks for this Ramnad incident to become a forgotten story.
  Still, as citizens who do not read news paper only for the detailed scoreboard of cricket match and the latest cine-masalas , let us express deep concern over this issue. Let us wait for another incident to push this out of our memory.
  Vibhu
  
  
• From: shard (@ lan-202-144-125-38.maa.sify.net) on: Thu Aug 9 00:45:37
  
  Long back when we were young, we used to make jokes about Erwadi...using it as a euphemism for madness. But the images on TV were devastating. The unfortunate thing is that the mentally unstable are made so helpless. It's not just in those quack asylums but also in the major government mental asylums. The funny thing is that the media out to cover the more sensational stuff never brought Erwadi to light. Maybe it is true what Foucault said...society prefers to hide/supress the madness that festers as its byproduct.
  
  
• From: laure singaravelou (@ ) on: Fri Sep 14 05:00:08
  
  how do you interprete the existence of such private detention places, illegal, so long in India? Why from your point of view the government did not take any action till the tragedy, in spite of everybody knows it is against human rights to deprive somebody of his freedom forcefully. What kimd in fact of therapeutical or sacred authority could prove that all the inmates in Ervadi Mental Asylums were truly mental patients. What is the sociological and political meaning of such institutions during these last fifteen years?
  
  

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