Dabholkar’s son to inaugurate clinic for scientific treatment of ‘black magic’ victims

Dr Hamid said access to trained psychiatrists who are mature enough to understand the condition of such patients and treat them is rare.

“The doctor also needs to know the cultural aspect of the treatment. Coming under what we call as cultural psychiatry, the doctor needs to be have discerning views about the subject,” he said, adding very few mental health professionals get the time or resources to be trained for the same.

The doctor, Dr Hamid said, has to establish a comfort level with the patient before the treatment starts. “Before the medications are prescribed, the doctor has to ensure the patient has enough confidence.

For want of enough cultural exposure, the doctor might not be able to establish the same rapport with the patient at the first go and that could be a stumbling block on the road to recovery,” he said.

“The clinic at Parbhani would have a trained psychiatrist, Dr Jagdish Naik, who, thanks to his association with MANS. has enough exposure about the cultural aspect of this situation,” Dr Hamid said.

On why Parbhani in Marathwada district was chosen for the clinic, Dr Hamid said that in the last 30 years, MANS had conducted special drives twice across Marathwada to raise awareness about the mental illness aspect of black magic.

“Dr Dabholkar had visited Marathwada numerous time and the last book he had penned before his murder was about this subject,” he said, adding the need of a trained psychiatrist was felt acutely in the region. “It was in our mind to have such a clinic but a trained psychiatrist was not available. Now that Dr Naik has agreed, the clinic would be opened at last,” he said.

The clinic would be operational every fourth Saturday of the month. Ground level volunteers of MANS, Dr Hamid said, have been entrusted to raise awareness about the mental illness aspect of the issue. “We hope more such clinics are made operational in days to come,” he said.

An author, social activist, and anti-superstition reformist, Dr Narendra Dabholkar was murdered by two gunmen in Pune in 2013.