Patna HC says mental health of people 'least priority' to Bihar govt
Patna, Feb 13: The Patna High Court has said it appears that mental health of people and their treatment are the "least priority" of the Bihar government, and directed the chief secretary to take all steps to ensure establishment of State Mental Health Authority.
A division bench, comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Karol and Justice S Kumar, expressed shock over the absence of such an authority in the state.
"It appears that mental health of a person and treatment of those who are in need, more so during the time of Covid-19, is the least priority of the state government," the bench said.
It heard a public interest litigation, filed by Akanksha Maviya, which sought direction from the court to the state government to establish a legitimate and functional mental health authority with adherence to the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017 and start a helpline and counselling facilities.
The government had earlier submitted an affidavit on the issue as sought by the bench.
The Act deals with establishment and composition of the state authority for people with mental illness. The purpose of the law is to provide healthcare services to them and to protect, promote and fulfil their rights.
The bench noticed that a "step for establishing the authority commenced only in 2020, that too, with the publication of an advertisement in the newspaper and since then nothing has been done to expedite the process".
It also observed that even the affidavit did not disclose the time limit within which the process of setting up the mental health authority would be completed.
"Shockingly, as is now evident from the affidavit filed by the state, the said authority has yet not been constituted.... we are constrained to direct the Chief Secretary, Government of Bihar, to forthwith take all steps ensuring establishment of the authority as stipulated under Section-45 of the Act," the bench said in its order on February 10.
It also directed the chief secretary to file an affidavit of compliance, indicating the latest status before February 25, the next date of hearing.
"We also expect the Chief Secretary, Government of Bihar to indicate the steps taken for complying with the other provisions of the Statute, the deficiencies pointed out by the petitioner in the writ petition, and the suggestion given for proper and effective implementation," the bench added.
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Global Hunger Index 2024 ranks India under ‘serious’ category
London, Oct 12: The Global Hunger Index (GHI), a tool used by international humanitarian agencies to measure and track hunger levels with GHI scores based on under-nourishment and child mortality indicators across 127 countries, has ranked India 105th, which places it under the “serious” category of the analysis.
The 2024 report, now in its 19th edition, is published this week by Irish humanitarian organisation Concern Worldwide and German aid agency Welthungerhilfe to highlight that hunger levels will remain high in many of the world’s poorest countries for several decades in the absence of more progress in measures to tackle the issue.
India is among 42 countries that fall within the "serious" category, alongside Pakistan and Afghanistan, with other South Asian neighbours such as Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka showing better GHI scores to be listed under the “moderate” category.
“With a score of 27.3 in the 2024 Global Hunger Index, India has a level of hunger that is serious,” reads the index entry.
India's GHI Score is based on the values of four component indicators: 13.7 per cent of the population is undernourished, 35.5 per cent of children under five are stunted with 18.7 per cent of them being wasted, and 2.9 per cent of children die before their fifth birthday, the report notes.
For the purpose of the index, undernourishment is defined as the share of the population with insufficient caloric intake, stunted as the share of children under age five who have low height for their age to reflect “chronic” undernutrition, wasting as the share of children under five who have low weight for their height due to “acute” undernutrition, and mortality refers to the fatal mix of inadequate nutrition and unhealthy environments.
Based on the values of these four indicators, a GHI score is calculated for each country on a 100-point scale reflecting the severity of hunger, where 0 is the best possible score (no hunger) and 100 is the worst.
Based on its analysis, the report concludes the chances of achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal of Zero Hunger by 2030 are looking very unlikely.
“Despite the international community’s repeated emphasis on the importance of the right to adequate food, there remains a troubling disparity between the standards established and the reality that in many parts of the world the right to food is being blatantly disregarded,” the report concludes.
Globally, around 733 million people face hunger each day due to a lack of access to a sufficient amount of food, while about 2.8 billion people cannot afford a healthy diet.
Some of the African nations are on the extreme ends of the GHI spectrum under the "alarming" category, with wars in Gaza and Sudan being highlighted as having led to exceptional food crises.
Conflict and civil strife are also generating food crises elsewhere, including the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Mali and Syria, it added.
