What is NIBS?

Accent

Sunday 14 July 2002

Out of 370 people diagnosed, 47 percent are neurotic, 15 percent psyvhotics, 15 percent mentally retarded, 6 percent are suffering from epilepsy, and the rest from physical disability, dementia and cerebral palsy.

National Institute of Behaviroual Sciences, a premier non profit organization engaged in mental healthcare and research, has unearthed this disturbing data in the course of rural health camps in Rangabelia. That Rangabelia is a pint-sized mouza within the Gosaba block in the heart of Sunderbans, the much hyped World Heritage site and a bio-diversity hotspot, makes it all the more shocking.

NIBS is not speaking thorough its hat - the NGO run entirely by Doctors, deployed a team of three psychiatrists, two psychologists, one mental retardation specialist and two paramedics headed by Srilekha Biswas, ex-head of RG Kar Medical College, to carry out exhaustive tests on the patients and double check the results, once the disturbing trends began to surface during first camp of NIBS in January this year.

While NIBS has been trying hard by conducting the camps every month at Sunderbans traveling far from Kolkata, Dr. Banerjee who is an Ashoka International Fellow in the prevention of mental health problems, says that "It is time the government wakes up to counter the menace before it goes completely out of hand"……..