“My husband has got married again and both my sons live with him. Will you help me go home? I long to see my sons,” pleaded Soni, a resident of Deoghar. She has been living in RINPAS for the past 18 years. Her doctors said that Soni had recovered from a ‘mild’ attack of schizophrenia soon after she was admitted in August 1989. But her parents and family never bothered to find out about her in the last 18 years.

In January 1979, Ratna Singh was brought to the mental hospital by her father and husband. Unfortunately, even after she was “cured” within six months of her coming here, none of her relatives cared to take her home. Despite repeated reminders for the past 28 years, her family has not responded.

Under the Indian Lunacy Act, amended as Mental Health Act 1981, patients admitted in a hospital can’t be discharged or relieved unless someone from the Government or bonafide and registered parents come to claim them. This works against people like Soni and Ratna.

Ashok Singh, a social activist, said:“The problem can be solved provided the Government launches a nation-wide campaign to educate people on the issue and bring about an amendment to the Act allowing the civil society to rehabilitate them.”

Now, the hospital management has decided to rehabilitate such people by imparting training to make them self-employed. “Our sole aim is to make them skilled so that they can earn a living,” said RINPAS Director N N Agrawal.

The official records of RINPAS reveal that there are 80 such patients — both male and female — who, after being “cured” of their ailment, face the trauma of being rejected by their families lead a nightmarish life inside the mental hospital. In certain cases, such “patients” end up spending more than two-three decades here.

In several cases, the RINPAS officials have found that the addresses mentioned by parents and family were false. There have been cases where parents had even refused to recognise their wards. Admitted Dr Tripathi, who was associated with RINPAS, “There’s a stigma attached to mental patients.”