Frustrated people need treatment, not lock-up: Doctors

People belonging to the lower strata in Mumbai have a lot of pent-up frustration due to their daily struggle to survive and the incident of a beggar throwing her four-year-old daughter from the Grant Road skywalk was an outcome of this, say psychiatrists.

Dr Shubhangi Parker, psychiatrist and deputy dean of academics at KEM Hospital says, “These people are poor and are struggle for their day-to-day survival. Their frustration grows by the day because of their social status.”

Dr Parker adds that such people are vulnerable, volatile and can be easily provoked to take extreme steps. The 35-year-old beggar, Reshma Niranjan Waghmare, threw her daughter in a fit of anger because her children were crying while she was fighting with another woman who lived on the skywalk.

Doctors say these people need sympathy and counselling more than any stringent punishment. Her daughter is presently recovering in a hospital and the police plan to hand her over to her relatives.

Senior psychiatrist of LH Hiranandani Hospital, Dr Harish Shetty, say people like Reshma need a hospital, not a police lock up. “She needs to be admitted and treated for depression. No mother in her right frame of mind will ever throw away her child,” he says.

Dr Parker agrees, adding that with a negative emotion as strong as anger clouding his/her mind, a person does not think about the outcome of his/her actions.

The doctors appreciate that passersby stopped Waghmare from throwing her one-year-old son, too.