‘Let mentally ill use Indira Holiday Home, at least for now’

Chandigarh, March 16

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A day after the UT Administration indicated that a new site will be selected for the construction of a facility for mentally challenged persons, clamour for converting Indira Holiday Home for such people has once again grown.

Being run by the Holiday Home Society, a charitable laboratory is operational on the premises. The society, headed by the UT Administrator, runs a preparatory school, a sewing school and a beauty parlour course for poor women on the campus. Except the laboratory, the schools and the course were closed after the spread of Covid-19.

However, parents of children with mental disability have proposed to set up a serenity therapeutic village at Indira Holiday Home. On the other hand, the UT Administration has decided to explore other viable options for setting up a group home for people with mental disability in the city where all facilities can be provided as per the requirements of such people.

UT Adviser Dharam Pal said they were exploring options to set up a group home exclusively for people with mental disability where all their needs could be met. They would like to create infrastructure in such a way so that all their requirements could be taken care of under one roof, he added.

Meanwhile, the parents stated that till the time an exclusive facility for special people was set up, the Administration should make short-term arrangements for mentally challenged people at Indira Holiday Home.

Neelu Sarin, area director, Special Olympics Bharat, Chandigarh chapter, and also president, Citizens for Inclusive Living, an association of persons working for the dignity and welfare of people with mental disabilities in the UT, said a serenity therapeutic village at Indira Holiday Home would be an inclusive space for senior citizens and persons with mental disabilities who do not need acute institutional care.

“The four acre campus can house separate sections for 50 persons with mental disabilities and 50 senior citizens, who can reside without disturbing each other, but supporting each other wherever possible,” she said.

Meanwhile, a 65-year-old mother of an only adult son with a mental disability, stated that she had devoted the past 25 years to her son to make him a little functional despite his disability. “My husband and I are getting old now and remain worried about who will look after our son when we are no more. It literally makes me cry when I am alone,” she said.

“Many parents have died in the past two years and everybody is worried about the future of their wards when they are no more. Our sons/daughters would be on the road if a good residential facility is not created in Chandigarh,” she said.

Being run by society

Being run by the Holiday Home Society, a charitable laboratory is operational on the premises. The society, headed by the UT Administrator, runs a preparatory school, a sewing school and a beauty parlour course for poor women on the campus. Except the laboratory, the schools and the course were closed after the spread of Covid-19.