Online dashboard on mental health facilities to come up in a month: Centre to SC

The bench headed by the Chief Justice of India, DY Chandrachud, and comprising Justice Hima Kohli and Justice JB Pardiwala was hearing a petition filed by Advocate Gaurav Kumar Bansal who had sought rehabilitation and vaccination of mentally ill people lodged in various hospitals and healthcare institutions.

New Delhi:The central government on Tuesday informed the Supreme Court that it has invited tenders to provide a mechanism so that real time information on mental health facilities is displayed online on the portal.

The bench headed by the Chief Justice of India, DY Chandrachud, and comprising Justice Hima Kohli and Justice JB Pardiwala was hearing a petition filed by Advocate Gaurav Kumar Bansal who had sought rehabilitation and vaccination of mentally ill people lodged in various hospitals and healthcare institutions.

Additional Solicitor General Madhvi Divan informed the court that a dashboard is being prepared that they will put up online and it will have real-time information about the mental health facilities. She further informed that all the states have been called for demonstration within 15 days and the portal will be functional within a month. The matter will be heard again by the end of January next year.

The top court had on September 1, 2021 passed a slew of directions including the one asking the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment to set up a dashboard for seamless information with regard to various facilities available in states and union territories (UTs) for mentally challenged people.

“We direct that the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment must set up an online dashboard in which complete details in regard to: (i) availability of institutions; (ii) facilities provided; (iii) capacity; (iv) occupancy; and (v) region-wise distribution of the Half-way Homes is made available state-wise and for the UTs.

“The availability of Half-way Homes must also be reflected in the online dashboard. The data of each State and Union Territory must be uploaded on the dashboard on a real-time basis,” the bench had ordered.

Earlier, the top court had deprecated the practice by states of re-designating old-age homes and other custodial institutions as halfway homes for people who have been cured of mental illnesses, saying it will not serve the purpose of rehabilitation. It had said the setting up of halfway homes and rehabilitation of the cured people must take place proactively across the country by the states/UTs and mere re-designating the existing facilities will not serve the purpose.