The Genesis of Iswar Sankalpa

It was a lazy winter afternoon in 2006 when the Late Dr K.L Narayanan and Ms. Sarbani Das Roy (Co-founder and Secretary, Iswar Sankalpa) were strolling down A.J.C Bose Road in Kolkata, India. As they passed a huge garbage vat in Beniapukur (an area in Kolkata), a man with psychosocial disabilities in tattered clothes eating from the garbage pile, rooted them to the spot. A reputed NGO had its home just opposite the garbage vat and the organization distributed food to all the hungry and poor irrespective of caste, creed and religion but this man was not availing the food. It made them wonder why?

It was then that Dr Narayanan explained that on one hand, most people will not dare to come near this young man because people are afraid of the ‘mad’ while on the other hand people with psychosocial disabilities may also refuse to accept food because of the manifestations of their condition. Sometimes, they silently pass away from this world simply due to dehydration! And all this time, there is some family somewhere, who may still be waiting for the return of their only son. A child may be passing her childhood still expecting her mother to come back and hold her – A futile wait.

This was the defining moment which made them understand that this population on the streets of Kolkata were simply being overlooked by every sector of the Government and Society. This was a population which would never ever access any of the health care facilities or Government welfare schemes because they had lost everything – even their identity to a treatable condition – psychosis. According to the 2011 Census, there are 70,000 homeless people living in the streets of Kolkata. More than 10% of them have some mental health condition. Dr. Narayanan and Ms. Sarbani Das Roy then came together with a team of dedicated social workers and mental health professionals to take a ‘Sankalpa’ – a resolution – to change the way persons with psychosocial disabilities were cared for, approached and the way they accessed mental healthcare.

Soon after Iswar Sankalpa’s inception in 2007, the organization conducted a baseline survey of homeless persons with psychosocial disabilities within the 141 wards of Kolkata. The survey, conducted over a period of 8 months, identified over 466 persons in need of immediate medical treatment and psycho-social support. This survey also reported the profile of persons with mental health problems, the vulnerability of homeless women to sexual violence and the prevalence of substance abuse. Based upon the findings of the baseline survey conducted in 2007, Iswar Sankalpa initiated Naya Daur – outreach and community based mental health care and ongoing support for the target population, concentrating its activities mainly in the wards with the highest density of homeless persons with psychosocial disabilities.

From here began the constant innovation to create just systems of accessible mental healthcare for the vulnerable and ‘forgotten’ population of Kolkata, along with rehabilitation services for persons with psychosocial disabilities.