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Kirandeep Kaur

Abstract

The Mental Healthcare Act, 2017 aims to provide for mental health care and services for persons with mental illness in India and to protect, promote and fulfill the rights of such persons during delivery of mental health care and services. Chapter V of the Act enumerates the rights of persons with mental illness, including the right to equality, right to confidentiality, the right to protection from cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment in any mental health establishment (which includes the right to proper clothing so as to protect such person from exposure of his/her body to maintain his/her dignity, and the right to be protected from all forms of physical, verbal, emotional and sexual abuse), right to community living, etc. This paper analyses the provisions of the Act from the perspective of rights of women with mental illness in need of mental health care, and draws a comparison with the relevant provisions of the United Nation Convention of Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Comparison is also made with the existent reality reported in legal literature, the media and the field work undertaken by the author in India.

Author Biography

Kirandeep Kaur is an Assistant Professor of Law at the Army Institute of Law, Mohali, India. She is presently pursuing her Ph.D. from the National Law School of India University, Bangalore, India. Her areas of interest include: Health Laws, Women and the Law, Land Laws and Labour Laws.

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