WMIF: Who am I and Why Do I Exist?
If one has to believe the global statistics from World Health Organization (WHO), at any given point of time, 120 million Indians (125 million including Diaspora), suffer from one or other form of mental illnesses. This makes it one out of every ten Indians. It is instructive to note that by 2020, the incidence of mental illness is likely to grow to 20% of the total population from the perceived 10% today. Further, one out of four Indians will suffer from one or other mental illnesses, at least once in their lifetime. There are major individual, familial, social, organizational and national implications of the same.
Millions of sufferers of mental illness remain incarcerated at asylums, homes, prisons and street and their life today is an unmitigated disaster characterized by unabated shame and stigma. In reality the scourge of mental illness is spreading in its incidence, breadth and severity & still even basic human rights of the sufferers are not protected. The complex etiology of mental illnesses and the interplay of nature and nurture are not understood and the mentally ill are generally forced to subsist at the margin of the society. This is despite the fact that most of the mental illnesses can be effectively treated, controlled or managed just like any other physical ailment.Whole Mind India Foundation (WMIF)
will provide a rainbow coalition to all the users of mental illness. WMIF’ audacious goal is to become a link between sufferers and caregivers at one side and Government, organizations, non-profit institutions in the field, media and stakeholders at the other end.
Our Vision:
To make the Gestalt (whole) of India’s Mind Work by making difference to the Life and Times of users of psychiatric illness (sufferers of mental illness) through capacity building of all the stakeholders based on constructive engagement and purposeful action
The Foundation has among its objectives
Advocacy and consensus building for bringing the relevant policy and statute framework, to propagate participatory programming approach and to work as an independent oversight body !
