Dabholkar son’s documentary tells a tale of ‘lost’ mentally ill women

Set for a May 30 release, the 32-minute documentary tracks the tale of four women who were “lost” and wandered to other cities. While two of them were eventually reunited with their families, the other two had to be taken to a women’s care home run by an NGO Maher in Pune.

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“It is the facelessness of this entire group that has been depicted in the documentary. Our focus is to nudge the government and society into realising that these silent voices need help. The concerns of the care givers and the family members who feel isolated and stigmatised have also been captured in the film,” says Chatterjee.

The documentary has been taken up as part of the INCENSE programme funded by a Tata trust.

In the four years that it has been functioning, coordinators of INCENSE have reached out to 800 such vulnerable and homeless mentally ill people in Pune and Tezpur in Assam by offering direct counselling, medical treatment and interacting with local police and health authorities.

According to Radhika Lata Murthy, documentary filmmaker and FTII graduate who won the best director award for her film Motorbike at the Pune International Film Festival (PIFF) and has directed Lapata Zindagi’, “the homeless are the worst off, especially women who also face the risk of being physically and sexually abused”.

“Their plight is pathetic as they are incoherent and most often do not even remember what happens to them on the streets,” says the filmmaker.

What is heartwarming though is the tale of 40 year old Chhabutai Tekade from Nagpur who wandered away from her home and was found near a temple at Yerawada in Pune, she adds.

Fortunately for her, the local women helped her with food, clothing and shelter and the team from INCENSE soon got her admitted to the regional mental hospital. After being treated for nearly a year, she could give details about her family and her brother could not believe they were able to see their Chhabu once again. She is now with her family.

So is Najma, another woman who left her home in Kolkata and came to Pune.

The other two were not so lucky. They have been sent to Unnati Niwas, a community home run by NGO Maher at Wadgaonsheri.

While both Dabholkar and Chatterjee, who were assisted by Amit Nulkar and Shamika Bapat in the effort, say there were many challenges, they hope the documentary helps in expediting efforts where both the government and community chalk out  a protection programme for this vulnerable group.