The Indian women abandoned because of mental illness.

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▼ Mental illness is often neglected in India because of stigma and poor care. But women are the worst affected and are mostly abandoned by their families, writes Raksha Kumar.
Ramaa (whose name was changed upon request) turned 45 on 20 August 2018. Her birthday is one of the few details she remembers from what she calls "her past life" - when she lived with her husband and two sons in the western city of Mumbai.
"When people say they love their families and cannot live away from them, I just don't understand it," she says. Her marriage, she explains, was tumultuous and her sons were not very affectionate towards her.
A few days before she turned 30, Ramaa's husband brought her to the Regional Mental Hospital in Thane, a suburb of Mumbai. She was diagnosed with bipolar affective disorder, a condition that causes extreme mood swings.
"He said he would return with medicines for me. He never did," Ramaa recounts in a flat voice.
According to mental health professionals in India, it's common for women to be  abandonedif diagnosed with a mental illness.
Nearly 14% of Indians are mentally illand at least 10% of those need immediate intervention, according to a study published in 2016 by the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuroscience (Nimhans). And in 2017, the WHO  estimated that 20% of Indians may suffer  from depressionat some point in their lives.
But few reach out for professional help or care because of widespread social stigma and poor access to mental healthcare.
"If the patient is a man, a mother, a wife or a sister is usually there to care for him," says Reni Thomas, a researcher who has studied women's mental health in India. "Many mentally ill women are (seen as being) not of any use to the household. On the contrary, they become a burden on their families."
While some women are abandoned because they are mentally ill, others develop symptoms of mental illness because they are abandoned and forced to live on the streets.
"Families are not necessarily always villains in this story," says Dr KV Kishore Kumar, who heads a non-profit which works with abandoned women diagnosed with mental illness.
"The state has failed the family and, therefore, the families have failed their women," he adds. Family support, according to Dr Kumar, will only increase if there is better housing, employment opportunities and readily accessible mental health facilities.
Ramaa, for instance, lived in a slum in Mumbai and worked as a domestic help in nearby homes. Every time she made a trip to the hospital, she had to forego half a day's salary. The cost of the commute came from her meagre savings.
According to a 2016 report by the National Commission for Women, families that  wilfully abandon mentally ill women do so  mainly because of social stigma. (▪ ▪ ▪)

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