Shunned by families, women get ‘home’

Until two years ago, Aurangabad resident Rekha Jain (32) had many relationships to call her own. Today, she is just an inmate of the newly opened women’s home ‘Unnati’ at Wadgaonsheri where women who have recovered from mental illnesses would be housed and trained in life skills.

Jain recalls that her struggle began 12 years ago when she saw her brother commit suicide. “The incident left a deep mark on my psyche and I lost my mental balance. My husband abandoned me though I was carrying his child. My brothers took care of me for some time when I lived in my mother’s house but even they asked me to go away,” she recalled.

Sister Lucy Kurien, executive director, NGO Maher that runs a centre for treatment of destitute mentally challenged women, found Jain wandering on the streets and brought her to the centre where they treat mentally-ill women in 2010. Recovered from the illness, Jain now wants to work and return to her family who refuses to accept her. “I like to work in hospitals and want to work as a maid taking care of patients,” she said.

At Unnati, women like Jain who have recovered from mental illnesses, will be given a chance to lead a new life. About 10-12 women can be housed at the centre and they will be referred from Maaher after recovery, added Vaibhav Pawar, NGO spokesperson.

“Often, the stigma attached to mental illnesses comes in the way of the rehabilitation of patients even after they are cured. It becomes almost impossible because in most cases, even their families do not accept them. Patients are isolated and jobless. Hence, this NGO started a home where women can live, train in vocational skills of their choice, take up jobs and learn how to be independent,” added Kurien.

Another inmate of Unnati, Madhu Mandhave is barely 25, and hopes to do a beauty parlour course and even get married.

Found on the streets four years ago in Mumbai, she was sent to Pune by a women’s home where she was initially referred by a good samaritan.

“I dropped out of SSC after the problem started. I was at home for four years but one day I decided to leave my house. I hopped onto a train and landed in Mumbai,” said the resident of Madhya Pradesh.

For many years, she didn’t speak of her past and in last few months, Kurien discovered she had a family. Her father, brother and sister-in-law call her though returning home isn’t an option for Mandhave.

Now, Unnati is her home and she hopes that she can prove it one day that she can do as well as anyone else, if given an opportunity.