Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna wins election setting the stage for an eruption of working-class struggles

K. Ratnayake

President Gotabhaya Rajapakse’s Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) won the national election on Wednesday and is set to form the next government with a substantial majority. The party secured 128 seats in the 225-member parliament, an increase of 53 MPs.

The opposition Samagi Jana Balavegaya (SJB), which was established early this year as a breakaway from the right-wing conservative United National Party (UNP), won 47 seats. The thoroughly discredited UNP, which was led by former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, lost 58 seats and will not have a single MP in the next parliament.

The Sinhala chauvinist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), which contested the elections as the Jathika Jana Balavegaya—a new formation established with backing from a host of academics and professionals—won two seats, four less than in the previous parliament. The Tamil National Alliance (TNA), based in the war-ravaged North and East, secured only nine seats, down from 16 MPs in the previous parliament.

Gotabhaya Rajapakse [Credit: AP Photo]

According to initial Election Commission estimates, only 71 percent of electors cast a ballot. This is a 12 percent drop in the numbers participating in the presidential election 10 months ago and 6 percent lower than the 2015 August national election.

On Wednesday, President Rajapakse issued a statement insisting that he had won 70 percent of the vote and falsely claiming it was an “expression of confidence” in the government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

The sharp fall in the number of voters, however, indicates opposition to Rajapakse’s increasingly authoritarian methods and his backing for a big business offensive against jobs, wages and unsafe working conditions. Rajapakse’s claims of lower COVID-19 infection rates in Sri Lanka are because his government has refused to carry out mass testing.

The SLPP campaigned during the election for a two-thirds parliamentary majority, so it could rewrite the constitution and scrap all current limits on the president’s executive powers. The party’s lavish election campaign is estimated to have cost around 1,202 million rupees ($US6.5 million), far more than the other capitalist parties spent on their propaganda.

President Rajapakse addressed dozens of rallies, mobilising people in violation of the official pandemic health regulations. Each of Rajapakse’s appearances, according to an election monitoring group, cost the state 27 million rupees.

After casting his vote on Wednesday, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse, the president’s brother, told the media that if the SLPP failed to win a two-thirds parliamentary majority in the election it would “make arrangements” to secure the necessary numbers. In other words, by purchasing MP votes.

The Sri Lankan president and his brother, along with the military hierarchy, want a dictatorship. Like every government around the world, President Rajapakse is determined to impose the burden of the economic crisis, accelerated by the coronavirus pandemic, on the masses. This will set the stage for the eruption of intense class struggles and revolutionary upheavals.

In the run up to the election, the SLPP stepped up its anti-Muslim and anti-Tamil chauvinism in order to divert social tensions and polarise Sinhala voters. The party used the findings of an official investigation into last year’s Easter Sunday bombings by an ISIS-backed Islamic terrorist group to unleash a wave of anti-Muslim propaganda.

At the same time, it insisted that the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was remerging. The police provided fuel for these unsubstantiated assertions by suddenly claiming that they had found weapons in several places in the North.

Over the past six months, the opposition parties, including the SJB, UNP, JVP, TNA, the Muslim parties, and the plantation-based unions have publicly supported President Rajapakse and the SLPP minority administration. These formations attended two all-party meetings called by Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse’s then SLPP minority administration and backed the president’s measures to “combat the pandemic.”

On April 27, the same organisations pledged “unconditional support” to the president if he reconvened the dissolved parliament. The SJB and UNP separately met with him twice to offer their backing, while the TNA held a private meeting with the prime minister at which they guaranteed their support.

On May 4, UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe told the Daily Mirror that his party was “willing to help the government” because it is not “a time to play adversarial politics.”

None of these parties challenged the rapid and ongoing militarisation of Sri Lanka’s government administration. All of them back the government’s unsafe “reopening of the economy” and the massive attacks on jobs, wages and social rights. Like Rajapakse, these parties all fear the eruption of protests and strikes by workers, young people and the rural masses.

The pseudo-left played a key role in preventing the working class from challenging the government. The Nava Sama Samaja Party (NSSP), the Frontline Socialist Party (FSP) and the United Socialist Party (USP) derailed workers’ struggles against the austerity measures of the former Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government. This paved the way for Gotabhaya Rajapakse to pose as the sole opposition during last year’s presidential election.

NSSP leader Wickremabahu Karunaratne even contested this month’s election on a UNP district ticket. The FSP wrote twice to the prime minister supporting the government’s response to the pandemic, despite its “differences.”

FSP union leader Duminda Nagamuva, after meeting with Sri Lankan Labour Minister Dinesh Gunawardena, said that the minister had promised to solve workers’ problems. The USP and its unions also met with Gunawardena and big business leaders, supporting their wage and job cutting plans and blocking the eruption of workers’ struggles.

Having come to power by exploiting these betrayals, President Rajapakse’s new government is now preparing for class war.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse ominously declared: “We are ready to face the economic challenges. We have already faced challenges more severe than these.”

This is a reference to the sharp decline in Sri Lankan economic growth, which is expected to be negative 1.3 percent this year. The COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted on Sri Lankan exports, foreign remittances have drastically fallen and tourism has collapsed. Colombo also has to pay $US4 billion for foreign loans over the next three years.

Rajapakse’s statement that previous governments have “faced more severe challenge than this” is a reference to Colombo’s communalist war against the LTTE, which ended in May 2009.

At that time, Mahinda Rajapakse was the president and his brother Gotabhaya Rajapakse the defence secretary. Forty thousand Tamil civilians were killed and hundreds of surrendered fighters “disappeared” in the final weeks of the war, according to United Nations estimates. During and after the war, the Rajapakse administration ruthlessly suppressed the struggles of workers and the poor.

Addressing an election rally last week, President Rajapakse denounced a protest strike by 10,000 Colombo Port workers against the sale of a port terminal to an Indian company.

“The ports have been closed down for no other reason than to leave our economy in ruins. I’m not intimidated by this,” he declared. “[E]very time a leader who cares about the country comes to power extremist groups work towards sabotaging [him].”

While Rajapakse hopes that an absolute parliamentary majority and new dictatorial measures will allow him to take on the working class, the eruption of militant struggles will assume revolutionary proportions. The rising anger of workers and youth against this corrupt political social order and its attacks on jobs, living conditions and democratic rights, including during the 30-year war, is reaching a breaking point.

The Socialist Equality Party (SEP) was the only organisation in the elections that explained the deepening crisis and the need for workers and youth to break from every faction of the bourgeoisie and make the necessary political preparations for the revolutionary challenges ahead.

It called on workers to form action committees in every workplace and in working-class neighbourhoods to confront the pandemic disaster and government attacks on wages, job and democratic rights, along with the danger of imperialist war. The SEP explained that the fight for a workers’ and peasants’ government to implement socialist measures is the only way forward for the working class.

The SEP won a total of 780 votes in the three districts that it contested—Jaffna 146, Colombo 303 and Nuwara Eliya 331. While these numbers are still small, they are class-conscious votes for socialism and an indication of growing support for the SEP.

In the coming period, the SEP will intensify its political struggle to win broad layers of workers and youth to socialist internationalism and build it as a mass party to lead the working class to power.

New US unemployment claims top 1 million for 20th straight week

Jacob Crosse

Data published by the US Labor Department on Thursday showed that for the 20th straight week more than 1 million workers filed unemployment claims for the first time. Unlike in previous weeks, the workers who filed last week will not be eligible to receive the enhanced federal unemployment benefit of $600 a week that expired last week along with a partial federal moratorium on evictions.

Thursday’s report did little to prompt movement between the Democrats and Republicans toward an agreement on a fifth coronavirus stimulus bill. This is despite over 30 million workers losing out on the enhanced benefits last week, while over 23 million are facing eviction in the next two months, according to the Aspen Institute.

Hundreds of people wait in line for bags of groceries at a food pantry at St. Mary's Church in Waltham, Mass. earlier this year. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Instead, the negotiations, with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows on one side and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer on the other, ended the same as on previous days: without an agreement, much less a date for a possible vote.

Without the possibility of an agreement before Friday, senators from both parties adjourned for a three-day weekend.

“We’re still a considerable amount apart,” Meadows told reporters after another day of dithering. Pelosi, talking out of both sides of her mouth, said she could see “light at the end of the tunnel,” but that the two sides were “very far apart—it’s most unfortunate.”

Making clear the willingness of the Democrats to agree to a cut in benefits, Schumer expressed “disappointment” over Thursday’s talks and blamed the Republicans for being “unwilling to meet in the middle.”

The 1.19 million new unemployment claims for the week ending July 25 were slightly down from the 1.43 million claims the previous week. However, the figure is still nearly double the pre-pandemic record of 695,000 claims set in 1982. Overall, roughly 55 million unemployment claims have been filed since mid-March.

Currently, there are an estimated 5.4 million job openings, while over 31 million people are collecting some form of unemployment pay. The few jobs that are available are mostly low-paying and carry a high risk of contracting the virus.

Research conducted by the California Policy Lab found that “more than half (57 percent) of recent unemployment claims” are from workers who are resubmitting or reopening their claims after they had returned to work but were then let go again.

This important statistic shows the falsity of claims by Republicans and some Democrats that the now expired federal supplement to state unemployment benefits enacted in March as part of the CARES Act corporate bailout is an “overpayment” and creates a “disincentive to work.” Workers are not as a rule refusing to return to previously held jobs, despite legitimate concerns about the risk of COVID-19 infection. Rather, the jobs are not there, as businesses continue to close while the virus spreads out of control across the country.

The research conducted by the California Policy Lab coincides with findings released Monday by Cornell University, which found that 31 percent of workers who returned to work after being laid off or furloughed at the start of the pandemic have since been laid off a second time. An additional 26 percent of workers surveyed reported that even though they had been called back to work, their supervisor or boss warned that they could be laid off again.

As with all aspects of the coronavirus crisis, the working class and poor are being made to suffer the brunt of its effects, including joblessness. Recent analysis conducted by economics professor Peter Ganong at the University of Chicago concluded that workers in the lowest income quintile, that is, the bottom 20 percent, have experienced three times as many job losses as higher-paid workers in the top quintile.

In addition to Thursday’s new unemployment claims report, the Department of Labor released data showing that over 16.1 million people are currently collecting traditional unemployment benefits from their state. The ending of the federal supplement means a reduction in weekly income for millions of workers of between 60 percent and 80 percent, depending on the state where they reside.

Oklahoma has the highest drop-off. The average Oklahoma worker will see an 85.6 percent reduction in wages without the federal enchantment. Louisiana is second, with a 75.4 percent reduction, while jobless workers in Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee, South Carolina, North Carolina and Florida will receive at least 70 percent less in benefits.

Reporters from the World Socialist Web Site spoke to Rick, an unemployed child care worker from Michigan. He said: “I was first put on a leave of absence from my job working in early childhood education in March. It was originally not intended to last very long. I remember my bosses and coworkers being very blindsided by the whole situation.

“It’s been very difficult to remain sheltered in place for this long. I am fairly certain that I will not be able to be rehired at the same job that I left in March.

“In June, I tentatively accepted an offer to return to the job on a limited basis by the end of July, with the hope that COVID cases would stay low. When they began increasing again in early July, I called and told them I was uncomfortable with returning to work at that time. My employer said she understood and that many of my coworkers had also said they wished to wait for a few more months before returning.

“I have fears now that I will be removed and will have to reapply to work there again. This will basically wipe out all the pay raises I’ve received while working there and force me to start all over again. We’re already too low-paid as it is.

“This brings up the $600 expanded benefits. With those, I at least had financial support that I needed if the pandemic continues to remain a problem. Before the pandemic, I would try to limit myself to spending about $10 a day on any items beyond gas for my car or bills.

“Working in child care, there had been weeks when my bank account would run out days before my paycheck arrived. I would bum food from the kitchen at my job. Some of my coworkers actually brought food from home and would share.

“When the first expanded payments came in, I found myself able to actually fill my cart at the grocery store. I would go early in the morning to avoid the crowds and maintain healthy social distancing. Remarkably, I could participate in society somewhat more easily during the pandemic, simply due to actually having some money to spend.

“What really gets me about them saying this benefit is a disincentive to work is that I didn’t create this pandemic. They did. They failed us and want to tell us that we’re the ones being overpaid!

“It’s not easy having to remain inside during the summer, losing contact with friends and coworkers. Not to mention the children. I can hope that I’ll be able to at least last a few more months until it’s safer to look for work. I can only hope.

“I’ve had fights with family because they refuse to take the coronavirus seriously. I don’t know if at this point I’ll even retain all my job skills when I go back because it’s been nearly six months of waiting. I certainly don’t enjoy life being put on hold. Now they want us to risk dying as well. The crisis this has created won’t go away with a return to work. Everything is changed.”

India: COVID-19 and Women’s Reproductive and Sexual Health

Akanksha Khullar


Due to a wide range of factors, Indian women have historically faced multiple barriers to accessing sexual and reproductive health (SRH) care products and services. The COVID-19 pandemic and consequent disruptions have exacerbated these barriers and their adverse effects.

Pre-Pandemic State-of-Affairs
In 1952, India became the world’s first country to launch a national family planning programme. Since then, New Delhi has become a signatory to various international covenants and conventions related to feminine health and hygiene, and has launched several relevant national programmes. However, despite these efforts, India still has a long way to go vis-à-vis ensuring women’s comprehensive access to SRH care.

For instance, there are several shortcomings in India’s maternal care landscape. On one hand, there is limited provision of antenatal and postnatal care services within the Indian public health system. On the other, there are challenges—such as socio-cultural and financial factors, lack of public awareness about the significance of maternal care, etc—that negatively impact women’s access to antenatal and postnatal care. According to the National Family Health Survey, in 2015-16, only 21 per cent of women in India received complete antenatal care during pregnancy, and about 62.4 per cent received postnatal care within two days of delivery.

Access to contraceptives and abortion services—which are also essential for women to exercise agency over their own bodies—is even more complicated. Although abortion is legal in India (albeit in certain circumstances), millions of women continue to undergo unsafe abortions, risking injury and death. While there are several risk factors contributing to India’s high maternal mortality rate—including anaemia, sepsis, hypertension, etc—unsafe abortions have become one of the most common causes of maternal mortality, with nearly 8 per cent of all maternal deaths attributed to complications from unsafe procedures.

Moreover, nearly 12.9 per cent of women in India do not have access to their preferred method of contraception, and 5.7 per cent have no access to spacing methods that could be used between pregnancies to maintain their health. Additionally, regressive social norms and limited legal reform along with various other structural factors only exacerbate the problem, impeding women’s access to comprehensive SRH care.

Access to SRH care is even more problematic for women from smaller towns or rural areas. They typically rely on traditional methods where their family planning needs, pregnancy care, and access to SRH products are often made possible by locally accredited social health activists (ASHA) and anganwadi workers. These workers form the backbone of primary healthcare in the country’s 6 lakh villages. However, they continue to face several challenges—including lack of access to essential medicines and pregnancy testings kits, hurdles to working at night time etc—to rendering essential services, which in turn deprives women in rural India of necessary SRH care.

The Impact of COVID-19
The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing physical restrictions have negatively impacted even existing access to SRH products, services, and information for many Indian women from diverse backgrounds across various socio-economic groups.

This is largely because a majority of public healthcare resources—even those reserved for SRH care—have been redirected towards mitigating the impact of the virus and treating infected patients. Thus, in addition to prevailing shortcomings in India’s SRH landscape, the availability of medical amenities, diagnostic centres, and doctors trained SRH care related services has reduced further.

Anecdotal evidence shows that some women seeking essential SRH services were turned away as medical facilities are overwhelmed by COVID-19 services and thus unable to accommodate them at that juncture.

Compounding this is the problem of disrupted pharmaceutical supply chains. The nationwide lockdown, transportation limitations, and a shrinking labour market have forced several drug manufacturing plants to close down or reduce capacity. Production has dropped, thereby affecting the availability of SRH products such as contraceptives, antibiotics to treat sexually transmitted diseases, and antiretroviral medicines for AIDS/HIV etc.

The disrupted supply chains could in turn cause price hikes, forcing women to look for alternatives. This could potentially increase health and mortality risks, placing a severe strain on their overall well-being.

Given the pre-existing challenges in women’s access to over-the-shelf contraceptives, these product shortages, coupled with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare’s decision to temporarily suspend sterilisations and insertion of intra-uterine contraceptive devices at public facilities, could also result in millions of unintended pregnancies, unsafe abortions, and even maternal deaths. An analysis by the Foundation for Reproductive Health Services in India predicts that the lockdown and subsequent lack of facilities will lead to an additional 1.94 million unintended pregnancies; 1.18 million abortions (including 681,883 unsafe abortions), and 1,425 maternal deaths.

Women in rural India are all the more vulnerable due to limitations in access to treatment, products, and information. With restrictions on movement and the threat of infection, locally assigned maternal care attendants are finding it difficult to travel to patients’ homes, which leaves several pregnancies and health unmonitored.

Conclusion
In India, women’s access to essential SRH services has been deeply compromised in the ongoing crisis. While the central government’s approach has rightly focused on containing the spread of the virus, SRH care cannot become collateral damage, should instead be an essential component of the immediate response strategy.

Time to Empower the Invisibles: India Awaits a Mental Health Revolution

Priyanka Singh & Sujeet Singh

Mental health is an inherent and the most paramount aspect of our well being, without it a qualitative life is barren to imagine. These ‘Covidnary Times’ are extremely turbulent, where ‘Normality’ will be more sidelined with ‘Abnormality.’ The side-effects of Covid-19 will keep hunting our World for ages to come. Surging mass layoffs, transcendental change in our social and community relations, deterioration of physical and financial health, lives being lost and even the right to ‘Rest In Peace’ has been violated by Coronavirus disease.

Covid-19 has made our society multiple times vulnerable and an easy prey to Mental illness like never before.

“Life is a tregedy when seen in close-up but a comedy in long shot”. There is nothing more tragic in human life than someone anguished from a chronic disabling disease and at the same time is forced by the society at the receiving end of Ignorance, mockery, exploitation, abuse (physical, Sexual) and socio-economic exclusion.

It’s quite atrocious, that in our society a person who suffers from mental illness is put on ‘Twin Jeopardy’ where the person suffers from within the body and at the same time is stigmatized, excluded and discriminated by the community in which they dwell.

In case of mental illness ‘Ignorance is a Sin’ whereas timely intervention with community and family support holds the key to bring life back on track.

Mental illnesses are treatable just like diabetes, but a long run comprehensive approach needs to be applied as pointed out by many. Medication, cognitive behavioural therapy with other social supporting factors plays a huge role in recovery. According to WHO, people suffering with Severe Mental illnesses can recover significantly by providing them through supportive Employment programs with family and community support where they are given a productive and inclusive life. Employment programs can work wonders in empowering and integrating them with the mainstream.

Two Golden principles related to Combating mental illnesses are Timely Treatment and their Inclusion. These two principles are supposed to be followed by the State as well are the Civil Society.

Simply put Mental illness acts as a detriment in the individual capacity and capabilities to work, where his ability to communicate, socialize and express gets hampered. When an individual stymies to comprehend reality. Where the individual goes through Vicious cycle of emotional booms and busts. Tiny day-to-day problems seem unmanageable. And the person gets engulfed in his or her own imagined set of World, the perception about reality does not remain real anymore.

Countering Mental illness is a challenging task and a multi-dimensional approach is required. Cynically it’s still missing in Indian society. People with Mental disorders are more at a risk of other deadly diseases like for instance the cardiovascular disease, obesity which increases the risk of premature mortality among them.

Also the diagnosis of mental illness is not a universal and uniform test, psychiatrist evaluation of mental health is only based on the behavioural symptoms of the patient or his family member interviews. The evaluation may differ plus there is no one size fit all approach for Treatment.

But our major obstacle is lack of mental health Awareness, Education and Stigma associated with Mental disorders. In our society the Psychosocial awareness is too ground zero that mental illness is often linked with some paranormal aspect rather than being provided treatment the sufferer is often taken to bogus self proclaimed faith healers, this is especially true for our rural settings. Even in our educated and informed Urban pockets people perceive and equate mental illness with depression or being sad.

What is more Heart-Breaking is that despite having all the required legislations in place, derogatory remarks are often used openly and brazenly against the mentally ill like retard, mad and crazy. What’s even more daunting is that studies suggest that even health workers were found to be misbehaving and have discriminating attitudes against the Mentally ill. The ‘Sensitisation’ and robust training of Mental health Workers, Personnel is needed on an emergent basis.

Gloomily in the present scenario most of our discussion and debate around Mental health is more centered around Depression only, other Severe mental illnesses like Schizophrenia, Bipolar disorder are not given the needed attention. According to the National Institute Of Mental Health the real burden of mental illness is particularly concentrated among those who suffer from Serious mental illness. Globally 45 million suffer from Bipolar disorder and 20 million from Schizophrenia.

Moreover the stigma attached to mental health is real and the problem is not confined to India alone. One will be surprised to find that even in a highly developed Nation like in Canada, mental illnesses are also Stigmatised. Around 43 per cent Canadian are reluctant to socialize with a friend having mental illness and 27 per cent of them are afraid to be with someone having serious mental illness.

And an individual who is mentally ill with severe mental illness are more likely to remain unemployed than others. They certainly are the most exploited and vulnerable group, multiple times prone to abuse, sexually and physically by the community and particularly within given households.

Almost all age groups, gender and socio-economic classes are at the risk of getting affected by mental illness. But evidence suggests that almost 50 percent of all the mental illness begins by the age of 14 years and almost 75 per cent by the age of 24. It’s not difficult to grasp that mental illness is nobody’s fault and it’s not a crime either, it’s an illness and anyone can fall victim to it. Hence, once for all, the community should “Stop Harassing and Stigmatising the Mentally ill.”

Various studies suggests that Mental illness is not caused by any single set of factors, numbers of interconnected factors like genetics, environment, social, economic factors play a role.

According to a recent study done by Lancet Psychiatry 2019, 1 in every 7 indian was found to be affected by mental disorder in the year 2017 and the proportion of mental disorders almost doubled since 1990. With a significant 10.5 per cent or more of the Indian population suffering from mental illness and India is among the most depressed Countryside Worldwide. Also our first National Mental Health Survey 2016, stated that the Treatment gap in India for any Mental Disorder is at a shockingly higher percentage of 83. It’s highly alarming for us at these Covidnary times to initiate focusing on Mental Well being. Otherwise, It’s now or never!

Mental health related information, reporting and surveillance systems play an extremely important role in delivering efficient and effective mental health care services. Our Mental health surveillance system remains more or less non-existent. With only an exception of Gujarat which monitors health indicators regularly and publishes reports on Mental health indicators.

Mental illnesses are not only underreported in India but are not reported at all. Still whatever data is available, it clearly depicts the dreadful stage that we have reached in terms of our Mental health. A total of 197.3 million people in India are estimated to be suffering from any mental disorder. In our case maximum load of mental illness is coming from Depression and Anxiety disorder with a striking 45.7 million and 44.9 million being prey to it respectively. Whereas 7.5 million are suffering from Bipolar and 3.5 million from Schizophrenia. And we also need to understand that people having mild depression may report and seek help more easily than someone having Severe Mental illness.

The discrimination, exploitation and underreporting is multiple times higher in Severe Mental illiness.

With such a horrific state of mental health, our counter mechanism to deal with it lacks significantly. Although the Government of India has taken a number of commendable measures, but unfortunately having Law codes and Policies on paper doesn’t really help much if the implementation at ground-level is not ensured by all the concerned actors, especially State level Government and Civil society need to work together with uniformity.

We have a dismal status in mental health care resources. With a population of more than 1.3 billion only around 9000 psychiatrists exist. A mere 0.75 Psychiatrists cater to about one lakh population in India whereas the desired number is above 3, in US and Europe there are 16 and 10 Psychiatrists to serve 100000 population respectively. US has almost 30 percent of World’s total Psychiatrists. At State level only Kerala has 1 psychiatrist per 1 lakh population.

The National Mental Health Survey, 2016 statistics revealed that in terms of Mental Health, only Gujarat and Kerala have performed well. Gujarat and Kerala are only Indian States that separately report the Budgetary allocation to Mental Health in their State Budget. But the total budgetary allocation for mental health remains below 1 per cent in all the Indian states. And whatever is allocated, mostly it is spent only in paying salaries of staff. Majority of the Budget rests unutilized. Mental Rehabilitation facilities for mentally ill are also absent with only exception of West Bengal. No Indian State other than Gujarat and Kerala were found to be having State specific policy on mental health. The social welfare schemes associated with mentally disabled such as pension schemes were almost negligible & non-existent. Limited mental disability certificates were issued due to which reservation based jobs to mentally ill are missing with only exception being Gujarat.

And we should always remember that our Indian Constitution upholds the dignity, rights and equality of every Citizen including the Mentally ill. It’s our Indian Constitution that laid the very foundation of an inclusive society. Article 41, directs the State to make effective provisions to secure right to work, education, public assistance in case of any disablement. Article 21, Right to life & liberty bestows the right to dignified life which is Fundamental Right of every person including the Mentally ill as noted by Supreme Court.

Thus exclusion of mentally ill is not only a social Evil or Sin it’s also Unconstitutional in nature.

But the Government of India in recent years has taken a number of appreciably sweeping measures, for instance the Right of Person With Disability Act 2016 has included persons with Mental illness as a disability, the section 92 of this act discuss the provisions of imprisonment along with fine in case of atrocities against Persons With Disability including mentally ill. The provision for 1 per cent reservation to Mentally ill is also dictated by this phenomenally empowering act but neither the disability certificates are issued to mental ill nor they are made aware of their legal rights. Moreover the very recent Mental Healthcare Act 2017 for the very first time has made the right to mental health care as Justiciable right. This legislation is a ray of hope amid the darkness, it gives rights to the most vulnerable group of Mentally ill, it speaks against their human rights violations and has various provisions for a dignified living. Both these acts are in consonance with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability, 2007 (UNCPWD) . According to the Art 27 of UNCPWD, recognise the right to work and participate in labour market that should be open, inclusive and accessible to persons with disability which after passing of RPWD ACT 2016 includes mentally ill as well.

Finally it can be concluded that the moment of realisation in the name of ‘Covid 19’ has knocked our door. It has exposed our vulnerability with respect to Mental Health. Time is Ripe & Right to Empower, Acknowledge and Address the Mentally ill who are certainly the most vulnerable and marginalized section of our Society.

Peace process in Afghanistan: En route to failure?

Maryam Mastoor

The ongoing peace process provided an opportunity for Afghan factions to unite and undo all the wrongs committed against them in the past 20 years. Unfortunately, the internal strife of Afghanis has again prevailed over this opportunity. Explicitly, compelled by the upcoming election promise, the US wishes to withdraw forces from Afghanistan. China and Pakistan are earnestly pushing the peace process. Pakistan appointed a special envoy Muhammad Sadiq Khan to facilitate the process. General Bajwa, Pakistan’s Army Chief visited Afghanistan and held talks with President Ashraf Ghani, the Foreign Minister of Pakistan held his first foreign visit to Afghanistan.

All this shows that peace in Afghanistan is in utmost interest of Pakistan. Recently, Pakistan has also opened transit trade facility for Afghan exports to India through the Wagah border. This initiative of resuming transit trade facility via Wagah might help strife-ridden Afghanistan to immediately boost its exports to India and support its economy.

The question arises who doesn’t want peace? According to Taliban official in Doha, Khairullah Khairkhaw, the Kabul administration doesn’t want the foreign troops to withdraw. As all the benefits they avail now shall be curtailed if the foreign forces will withdraw. Abdullah Abdullah recently reiterated his commitment to peace, but also asserted that violence must stop. On the other hand, Taliban on their website allege, that afghan intelligence is behind all the violence, even the attack on the hospital was carried by the Kabul administration to convince the foreign forces that Afghanistan will further plunge into chaos, if they’ll leave.

By closely examining, one can understand that if Taliban conducted attacks against civilians, they could have lost the support of local population. As in guerrilla warfare, support of the local population is of utmost importance. Ironically, the local population scarcely show any affiliation with the Afghan government. It can be further testified from a very slim turnout in afghan elections of 2019. The Afghan leaders, both Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani seem absorbed in their self-interest. By working together for four years in a government they could not build trust and again entered into a tug of war after the 2019 elections.

India is also closely watching the developments in Afghanistan. It has recently appointed Rudrendra Tandon as a new envoy to Afghanistan. He is considered as a specialist of Afghanistan. It would not be in interest of India, if Taliban take control of Afghanistan. On the other hand, Russia doesn’t want the US presence in Afghanistan. It is alleged that Russia had been paying bounties to Taliban to kill Americans. However, Taliban have denied the claims and attributed it as a mischievous plan of Afghan intelligence, to malign them.

A recent report by UN Sanctions Monitor has caused damage to Taliban who largely tout about severing ties with Al Qaeda. The report says that Taliban still have linkages with Al Qaeda. This report can have serious repercussions on the intra Afghan dialogue as well. In the backdrop of the report, US central command top general, Gen Kenneth F Mckenzie cautioned against the complete withdrawal of the US troops from Afghanistan until Taliban clearly demonstrate that they have no links with Al Qaeda. Interestingly, on the website controlled by Taliban, Taliban have mentioned various mistakes in the report, and termed it fictitious based on information provided by Afghan intelligence.

Amazingly, what Taliban have pointed out is true. The report says that Mawlawi Nooruddin was killed in American night raid and later mentioned his name as a current shadow governor for Samanjan. There are couple of other mistakes on similar pattern. In the peace deal, there was a provision that the UN security council must remove sanctions on Taliban by May 24th, 2020 and US sanctions by August 2020. This report shall certainly curtail this probable development. Is this report another spoiler?

With all this discussion another important question comes to the mind, does the US really wishes to withdraw troops? Dr. Maleeha Lodhi is of the view that the troops will drawdown even if the intra Afghan rapprochement is not achieved. However, Michael E. O’ Hanlon, an expert on Afghanistan at Brookings says that the US should be committed on stabilizing Afghanistan. He proposed a slogan of 5000 troops for five years. Apparently, the public opinion of the US is also not in favour of complete drawdown. According to a survey conducted by Shilbi Telhami, senior nonresident fellow at Brookings, American people do support maintaining US foot print in Afghanistan.

America has spent 3 trillion dollars in Afghanistan, it has built five bases, would it leave just like that. China might also benefit, if the US completely drawdown. China’s BRI project that includes almost 60 countries, cautiously excluded Afghanistan. However, in 2016 both counties signed a memorandum of understanding to enhance cooperation. Afghanistan is pivotal in connecting Chinese markets to the rest of Asia, Europe and East Africa. Afghanistan government with the help of China has launched projects such as the Sino-Afghan Special Railway Transportation. This will link Afghanistan to China, via Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, thereby prioritizing connectivity. Owing to the Belt and Road Initiative and CPEC, China does not want a protracted conflict near a key belt of its ambitious connectivity initiative.

But it appears, that the U.S wishes to have a ‘safe stay’ in Afghanistan. Till elections, it is trying to buy time. Once a new leader takes office, be it a republican or a democrat, the US shall perpetuate its presence in Afghanistan. Even now, it is preparing its nation towards fulfilling a ‘moral’ duty of the US to protect the freedom of people of Afghanistan.

It seems that Taliban are also buying time, they may not be conducting attacks against civilians but they are conducting attacks on the Afghan forces. In the recent interview of Khairullah Khairkhaw, a political representative of Taliban, the truce was to stop attacks on the US forces not the Afghan government forces. They know that they control seventy percent of Afghanistan. Once, the forces shall leave, the Taliban can easily take over.

Hence, all this discussion establishes that Afghan peace process is in doldrums. There can be two main scenarios afterwards. The US forces shall withdraw even if the intra Afghan dialogue fails to install a mutually agreed upon governmental setup. Or the US forces shall maintain presence. Both these scenarios entail serious implications for the region. Is the region ready for the fall out of the impending Afghan crisis?

Rising Suicidal Tendencies Among Teenagers

Abid Shafi Banday

Suicide is the third leading cause of death among young adults worldwide. Close to 800 000 people die due to suicide every year, which is one person every 40 seconds. Suicide is a global phenomenon and occurs throughout the lifespan. Studies from India consistently document the highest suicide rates in the world, and the majority of completed suicides had been within adolescents. Every hour one student commits suicide in India, with about 28 such suicides reported every day, according to data compiled by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). The NCRB data shows that 10,159 students died by suicide in 2018, an increase from 9,905 in 2017, and 9,478 in 2016. As per reports of WHO, Suicide is the third leading cause of death in 15-19-year-olds.

It is a worrying situation nowadays that everyday we hear about students in the age group of 15-25 are attempting suicides in our valley. In recent past , some 3-4 days back a young girl attempted suicide in Budgam District, on next day a case was reported from North Kashmir’s Baramulla District and yesterday reported from Kulgam. We need to think effectively regarding the rising attempts and must take appropriate steps to prevent these mishapennings. The risk of suicidal behavior associated with Anxiety Disorders among adolescents is known. Anxiety Disorder is associated with the risk for potential suicidal behaviour. Adolescent boys with Anxiety and Depressive Disorders need to be identified as the high risk group for suicide prevention in the community. There is a growing recognition that prevention strategies need to be tailored and to be implemented in a culturally-sensitive manner. We must identify the factors which are pushing our young generation to attempt suicides. Is it pressure of exam, fear of failure, social negligence or something else ?. People from conflict zones have high tendency to suicide attempts also.
While the link between suicide and mental disorders (in particular, depression and alcohol use disorders) is well established in high-income countries, many suicides happen impulsively in moments of crisis with a breakdown in the ability to deal with life stresses, such as financial problems, relationship break-up or chronic pain and illness.
In addition, experiencing conflict, disaster, violence, abuse, or loss and a sense of isolation are strongly associated with suicidal behaviour. Suicide rates are also high amongst vulnerable groups who experience discrimination, such as refugees and migrants; indigenous peoples; and prisoners. By far the strongest risk factor for suicide is a previous suicide attempt. In general, people try to kill themselves for these reasons:

They’re depressed. This is, without question, the most common reason people die by suicide.

They’re psychotic. Malevolent inner voices often command self-destruction for unintelligible reasons. Psychosis is much harder to mask than depression, and is arguably even more tragic.

They’re impulsive. Often related to drugs and alcohol, some people become maudlin and impulsively attempt to end their own lives. Once sobered and calmed, these people usually feel emphatically ashamed.

They’re crying out for help, and don’t know how else to get it. These people don’t usually want to die but do want to alert those around them that something is seriously wrong

They have a philosophical desire to die. The decision to die by suicide for some is based on a reasoned decision, often motivated by the presence of a painful terminal illness from which little to no hope of reprieve exists. These people aren’t depressed, psychotic, maudlin, or crying out for help. They’re trying to take control of their destiny and alleviate their own suffering, which usually can only be done in death.

The rising incidents among students is one of the consequence of pressure from the parent side and from the society where we live. Parents usually come to psychiatrists to push youngsters harder and make sure they get into IIT, IIM,Medical Colleges if not Harvard. Everything else that they could do well like sport, music, painting are pushed to the past. The damage this can do to a child’s self-esteem is enormous. Behind the scenes, more alarmingly, students are also experimenting with performance-enhancing drugs. One such case was of a Lucknow girl, a College student who used to take Anacardium, a homeopathic solution, to keep nerves stress-free during exam. But there are others, who take serious anti-depressants and steroids. Doping for exam is prevalent among affluent students schools and colleges. Because Failure is a word that gives students continuous nightmares. After all, parents don’t give them credit for any activity they excel in, besides studies. Ingestion of pesticide, hanging and firearms are among the most common methods of suicide globally. It is estimated that around 20% of global suicides are due to pesticide self-poisoning, most of which occur in rural agricultural areas in low- and middle-income countries. Knowledge of the most commonly used suicide methods is important to devise prevention strategies which have shown to be effective, such as restriction of access to means of suicide.

Suicide does not just occur in high-income countries, but is a global phenomenon in all regions of the world. In fact, over 79% of global suicides occurred in low- and middle-income countries in 2016. According to WHO, Suicide is a serious public health problem; however, suicides are preventable with timely, evidence-based and often low-cost interventions. For national responses to be effective, a comprehensive multi-sectoral suicide prevention strategy is needed.

Prevention and control

Suicides are preventable. There are a number of measures that can be taken at population, sub-population and individual levels to prevent suicide and suicide attempts. These include:
• Reducing access to the means of suicide (e.g. pesticides, firearms, certain medications).
• Reporting by media in a responsible way.
• School-based interventions.
• Introducing alcohol policies to reduce the harmful use of alcohol.
• Early identification, treatment and care of people with mental and substance use disorders, chronic pain and acute emotional distress.
• Training of non-specialized health workers in the assessment and management of suicidal behaviour.
• Religious leaders have a crucial role to play in order to do proper counselling.
• Follow-up care for people who attempted suicide and provision of community support.
Suicide is a complex issue and therefore suicide prevention efforts require coordination and collaboration among multiple sectors of society, including the health sector and other sectors such as education, labour, agriculture, business, justice, law, defense, politics, and the media. These efforts must be comprehensive and integrated as no single approach alone can make an impact on an issue as complex as suicide.