VOCATIONAL TRAINING: A resident of The Banyan engaged in block-printing in Chennai. — Photo: K. Pichumani

CHENNAI: As the loudspeakers, set on a bullock cart, crackle to life, a crowd gathers around the rare ensemble in front of Bajanai Koil at Kovalam, a village 35 km off Chennai. It is not very far from where a new building is coming up: the village's first health centre that is connected essentially to the tableau that is unfolding.

The actors are telling their audience how mental illness must be diagnosed and treated. Any signs of mental illness, they chant, and take the person to the hospital first. "It is for the first time that we will have a doctor at Kovalam, or in the 50 villages along the coast," says Narayanan, a local leader. Villagers have to travel to Chengalppattu for treatment.

And from this yawning gap stemmed the Banyan's to-be launched community-based referral and rehabilitation programme. The NGO, with over a decade's experience in rehabilitating women with mental illness, found that a number of persons in the village and its surrounding areas required psychiatric care, and in the absence of it, they were seeking remedies in witchcraft, said Vandana Gopikumar, founder of The Banyan. The community health centre will provide general medical and psychiatric care.

This is in addition to the group support programmes being run for the disabled and periodic health camps. The Banyan team hopes to mobilise the leaders of all 50 villages and build a strong network of women self-help group members and youth to spread the message about mental health.

On the other side of East Coast Road at Tiruvidanthai, workers are giving the finishing touches to a protected community shelter for The Banyan's residents who have no place to go or have not recovered completely. "Our idea is not only to provide basic needs such as food, clothing and shelter — this is taken care of by our home and working women's hostel. We believe that it is also important to ensure access to true human rights: freedom, dreams and work," says Ms. Gopikumar. Built as a close cluster, linked together at the centre, the establishment will initially house over 50 residents now lodged in Adaikalam, a shelter at Nolumbur.

The institution also provides vocational training to its women residents in a number of trades. Block printing units, bag making, tailoring, embroidering and making bakery products are part of the various skills taught. The Banyan Cafe, again a fledgling project, is run by the former residents at Kilpauk and will bring together people from diverse social fields tempting them with good food, merchandise made by the women, some culture and an understanding of the core values of The Banyan.

Another project at hand is the Banyan Academy of Leadership and Mental Health, which will come up in the sylvan settings of Kovalam. A strong need for a management input to handling mental health issues gave rise to this programme, which will provide a regular MBA degree in association with the Institute for Financial Management and Research in Chennai.

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