As we approach our 70th Independence Day, two Bills, just passed first by the Rajya Sabha, and on their way to the Lok Sabha for debate and ratification; are notable for their sensitivity and progressiveness. One decriminalises suicide attempts, holding in abeyance Section 309 of the Indian Penal Code, that can put a suicide-attempt survivor, despite the immense trauma already suffered, in jail for a year.
The 16th Lok Sabha has passed 109 bills, and the two Houses together have seen 97 into the law books so far. Compare the record to UPA II’s 116 legislative and 63 finance and appropriation Bills seen into law between 2009-2014. However, the continuity of governance and consensus, witnessed by the passage of these far-sighted bills, indicates perhaps a new maturity, surfacing in the upper house, after a period of partisan turmoil.
This was a statute unreformed from Victorian times, with a tendency to ignore the immense problem, or even stigmatise it with moral overtones. The bill not only treats attempted suicide as a mental health issue, it brings mental health into the mainstream medical discourse. It also mandates the provision of medical insurance for the mentally ill also, for the very first time.
Of course, the infrastructure required to provide mental health treatment and options, as specified in the bill, down to the district and block levels, throughout the country, is not only woefully inadequate, but has a lot of missing links as of now. Another Bill, also just passed by the Rajya Sabha, guarantees maternity leave of 26 weeks, or six-and-a-half months on full pay, up from the earlier 12 weeks, or three months.
This will be a great boon for working women, themselves recovering from child-birth, and also giving them the opportunity to take proper care of their infants, in increasingly unitary urban families. It will also go some way towards promoting greater participation of women in the work force, and as a measure of gender equality, even in establishments that have just 10 employees. Creches too are now being made mandatory, for businesses and offices, both in the public and private sectors, that employ 50 or more persons, and not just women.
Both of these Bills have been passed in a House, where the Government is in a minority, and despite the fractious din of a vibrant democracy. They behove the aspirations of a civilised country in the 21st century, readying itself to take its place in the front rank of nations.
The Mental Health Care Bill 2013, will, after its passage by the Lok Sabha, replace the Mental Health Act of 1987. It is the product of considerable work done in a Parliamentary Standing Committee, that generated as many as 124 amendments to the original Bill, just passed by the Rajya Sabha, after several hours of debate. In 2007, India ratified the provisos of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and this law, has come about as a logical progression of that initiative. It is decisively taking issues of mental health out of the closet, where, shame-faced, they have tended to reside from British times. Accurate statistics on mental health are however, and as yet, hard to come by, in India.
Still, an estimated six to seven per cent of the population suffers from mental health issues, with perhaps one to two per cent with severe, but thoroughly treatable conditions, using advanced psychiatric medicines and professional help. These include spectrum conditions, such as mild to severe schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder. At least another five per cent of the people suffer from potentially self-harming clinical depression and anxiety disorders.
The World Health Organisation (WHO), opines that 25 per cent of the world’s population has had at least one mental illness episode in a lifetime! While the issue of rights and guardianship of people with mental disabilities has not been reformed by this 2013 Bill, there is quite a lot on ‘guardianship’ in the existing 1987 Act. This will soon be subsumed by the Rights of Persons With Disabilities bill 2014, pending in parliament.
The Maternity Benefit Amendment Bill of 2016, specifies not only 26 weeks leave for mothers for their first two children, and 12 weeks for further children, but also mandates 12 weeks leave for those who adopt a child. The last provision has come about for the very first time to recognise the needs of adopting mothers as well.
This new Bill too will supersede the Maternity Benefit Act of 1961, and go some way to increase the long term participation of women in the work force. So what was only on offer in the ‘best HRD practices’ companies, will now be implemented across the board.
Recently, the Modi Government pointed out that, despite all the tumult, adjournments and obstruction in Parliament, it has got passed 97 Bills (70 legislative and 27 finance and appropriation Bills), already, in its 25 odd months in office. The situation has improved substantially since the Budget Session and now the Monsoon Session, that has seen the historic GST constitutional amendment bill finally pass muster too.
The 16th Lok Sabha has passed 109 bills, and the two Houses together have seen 97 into the law books so far. Compare the record to UPA II’s 116 legislative and 63 finance and appropriation Bills seen into law between 2009-2014. However, the continuity of governance and consensus, witnessed by the passage of these far-sighted bills, indicates perhaps a new maturity, surfacing in the upper house, after a period of partisan turmoil.
That laws aimed at the common weal, greater modernity, and social justice, are backed by all parliamentarians is a welcome sign of times changing for the better.
(The writer is a senior columnist)