Release from chains at Erwadi dargah thanks to ‘Dawa-Duwa’

Chaining of patients comes down after the launch of a fusion programme

An asylum indeed:Psychiatrist Periyar Lenin examining a patient at Erwadi Dargah in Ramanathapuram district on Friday.— Photo: L. BALACHANDAR

Chaining of patients at Erwadi Dargah, an asylum for mentally ill people, has drastically come down after the launch of ‘Dawa-Dua,’ an innovative programme of fusion of prayer and medicine in November 2012.

After the health department launched the innovative system under the District Mental Health Programme (DMHP), there had been drastic changes in treating mentally ill people who thronged the dargah, seeking spiritual healing, Programme Coordinator J. Periyar Lenin said.

Talking to

The Hindu here on Friday, the psychiatrist who visits the centre thrice in a week on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, said that after the new health care system was launched on the lines of ‘Dawa-Dua’ practised in Gujarat, the spiritual healers realised the importance of medical intervention to cure mentally ill patients.

Though the dargah authorities discouraged the practice of chaining the inmates after the 2001-fire in which 28 chained mentally ill people were charred to death, chaining of inmates continued to immobilise patients who behaved violently, sources said.

However, after the launch of ‘Dawa-Dua,’ chaining of patients had drastically come down, Dr. Lenin said. The medical intervention helped the violently behaving patients to calm down and sleep, he said.

“After the patients calmed down, there is no need for chaining,” he said.

The innovative health care system was a big success, thanks to the support offered by the Dargah Haqdhar Management Committee. Under ‘Dawa-Dua,’ the doctors chose to complement efforts taken by spiritual healers in the dargah and never tried to compete with them, he said.

After offering prayers at the dargah, the patients visited the clinic and after seeing the improvement in their condition, others followed suit, he said.

“We never force medication on anyone and never intervene in their belief of spiritual healing,” Dr. Lenin said.

Incidents of mentally ill patients pelting stones at shops and breaking windscreens of vehicles had become things of the past. The local police station had given a certificate that there had been no medico-legal cases in the past one year, he said.