Abstract
Socio-political inclusivity rests upon access to resources that allow a person to assert their legal identity and voice. In the case of persons with psychiatric disability who are in long-stay mental health facilities, access to welfare benefits, financial services, and executing democratic rights becomes challenging in the absence of streamlined procedures that foster inclusivity. This commentary aims to highlight the need and importance of identity documents in paving the path toward civil and political participation for the said population group. It also focusses attention on mechanisms of action that have been taken up by various agencies to negate the issue and puts forth recommendations to expedite these processes.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Gonzalez Lopez, L., Sejersen, T.B., Oakeshott, N., Fajth, G., Khilji, T., and Pantaand, N. (2014). Civil registration, human rights and social protection in Asia and the Pacific. Asia-Pacific Population Journal, (29)1, 75-97.
Josephine, S. (2021, August 30). Employed residents of mental health institute receive their Aadhaar cards. The Hindu. Retrieved January 23, 2024 https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/employed-residents-of-mental-health-institute-receive-their-aadhaar-cards/article36193689.ece
Ministry of Finance. (2023). Economic Survey, 2023. Govt. of India. https://www.indiabudget.gov.in/economicsurvey/
Ministry of Law and Justice. (2016). The Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016. Govt. of India. https://uidai.gov.in/images/the_aadhaar_act_2016.pdf
Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment. Unique Disability ID. Government of India. Retrieved February 1, 2024, from https://www.swavlambancard.gov.in/
Narasimhan, L., Mehta, SM., Ram, K., Gangadhar, BN., Thirthalli, J., Thanapal, S., Desai, N., Gajendragad, J., Yannawar, P., Goswami, M., Sharma, C., Ray, R., Talapatra, S., Chauhan, A., Bhatt, D., Neuville, E., Kumar, KVK., Parasuraman, S., Gopikumar, V. and NILMH Collaborators Group. (2019). National Strategy for Inclusive and Community Based Living for Persons with Mental Health Issues. The Hans Foundation: New Delhi.
Rao, U. (2019). Biometric IDs and the remaking of the Indian (welfare) state. Economic Sociology_the European Electronic Newsletter, 21(1), 13–21.
Raveendran, A. (2017, October 12). Aadhaar helps trace kin of unidentified mental patients. The Hindu. Retrieved January 24, 2024, from https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/kerala/aadhaar-helps-trace-kin-of-unidentified-mental-patients/article19839965.ece
Sivakumar, T., & James, J. W. (2019). Facilitating Aadhaar and voting for long-stay patients: Experience from a tertiary care center. Indian Journal of Psychological Medicine, 41(5), 472-475.
Special Aadhar camp held for Thane Mental Hospital patients. (2022, December 26). Hindustan Times. Retrieved January 24, 2024 https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/mumbai-news/special-aadhar-camp-held-for-thane-mental-hospital-patients-101671995741284.html
The World Health Organization. (2017). Mental health atlas 2017. Retrieved December 30, 2023 https://apps.who.int/iris/rest/bitstreams/1138576/retrieve
United Nations. (2006). Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. https://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/convention-on-the-rights-of-persons-with-disabilities/convention-on-the-rights-of-persons-with-disabilities-2.html
United Nations. (2015). Transforming our world: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. https://sdgs.un.org/2030agenda
Vallath, S., Easwaran, K., Thomas, S., Mary,S., Narasimhan,S., Kumar K.V.K., Jayakumar, V., and Gopikumar, V. (2015). Home Again – A housing with supportive services intervention for homeless persons with mental health issues experiencing long term care needs. The Banyan: Chennai.
Waas, L. (2015, May 1). The right to a legal identity or the right to a legal ID?. European Network on Statelessness. https://www.statelessness.eu/updates/blog/right-legal-identity-or-right-legal-id
Funding
The authors declare that no funds, grants, or other support were received during the preparation of this manuscript.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
Both the authors made significant contribution to this paper and read and revised the manuscript for final submission.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no competing interests to disclose.
Ethics Approval
Not applicable.
Consent to Participate
Not applicable.
Consent to Publish
There are no names or identifiable information to justify a consent to publish procedure.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Parashar, K., Bhola, P. Legal Identity and Socio-Political Inclusion for Persons in Long-Stay Mental Health Facilities. J. Psychosoc. Rehabil. Ment. Health (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40737-024-00405-3
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40737-024-00405-3