SRINAGAR: Help! They arc after me Don’t let them come near me shrieks young Salma her arms flailing wildly as attendants i the Government Hospital for Psychiatric Diseases at Srinagar’s Kathi Darwaza try to pacify her.
The patient is too incoherent to clarify who they she refers to repeatedly are. But as a state government official points out they could either be militants or security force personnel the devil and the deep sea between which the people of Kashmir are wrapped in We get 100-120 new patients everyday these days 10 times more than the daily average three years Ayo says a doctor at the psychiatric hospital who pleads anonymity. It is a pathetic sight to sense robust and healthy people succumb to neurosis and psychosis
Incredible us it may sound tranquilizers and sleeping tablets are sold off the shelf without « physicians prescription on the streets of Srinagar. Why should we know that a tension-hidden person is dying for a good night’s sleep? Asks a chemist in the down town area is not the Kashmir Valley alone that is showing signs of acute psychological stress Jammu 100 has recorded a manifold rise in the number of psychiatric paticats in the last couple of years Endogenous depression is wide in the migrant camps on the skins of Jammu town that Dr-B.L. Handoo a physician attached to the Purkh camp ulcers are on the rise and more and more people are withdrawing into shells he notes.
Whether it is in downtown Srinagar or in the migrant camps of Jammu the mentally disturbed are haunted by the ghosts of their own deep-rooted fears. The ghosts can either resemble mililants or security force personnel depending on the personal experiences of the patient.
The phobia of ghosts is a major problem on our hands says the doctor at the Srinagar psychiatric hospital. This phobia has not only claimed lives but has also impaired the mental functioning of persons I have a patient who cannot sleep because he imagines being chased by security personnel all the time. Sometime ago he was picked up by the BSF simply because he sported a beard. Though he was released subsequently the third degree treatment he was subjected to have left him shattered the doctor says The psychiatrists thesis finds an echo in the words of Rashid an auto-rickshaw driver who says he lives only from moment to moment. When I leave home in the morning | am not sure if | will return. Though heaven can the fact that i have never touched a weapon in my life I was tortured by the security forces for three months he laments.
At the other end of the spectrum are the migrants in Jammu who live under a perpetual shadow of fear brought about by their ghastly memories of militant violence. ~My son was dragged out of our house in Anantnag district by the ruthless militants and killed in front of my eyes recounts Rupawal) her fragile fame trembling with trepidation. The body of their neighbor Marla was sawed into two because she resisted the advances of the militants
Stress among the migrants is not just a visitation of horrible memones the poor living conditions in the camps and a bleak future both in terms of job and educational opportunities are also telling on them. I have lived all my life in the high-altitude Pulwama district but today I have to survive in the summer temperatures of over 40 degrees C in the plains says Motilal Bhat a migrant. Sunstroke in fact is a major killer in the camps particularly in the canvas tents.
The security forces arc not free from psychological tension either. BSP officers in Srinagar admit that sometimes excesses are Committed because of frayed nerves of the jawans who are constantly on their toes it is a vicious circle one attack by the militants leads to an onslaught on the local populace by the jawans which in turn Wigglers another violent reaction from the militants
There are no statistics to show the exact number of psychiatry patients in Jammu and Kashmir but that the problem is reaching endemic proportions is evident from the sociological changes the state’s population appears to be going through. There was a time when marriage functions in Kashmir continued till the early hours of the morning but today no function social or otherwise is held after 4 pm. A social call or a dinner out is unthinkable Introversion is the order of the day
Article extracted from this publication >> May 27, 1994
