Mumbai: Sharaddha Rehabilitation Foundation, an organisation devoted to the mentally-ill destitutes and founded by Magsaysay-award winning psychiatrist Dr Bharat Vatwani, reunited as many as 1,442 recovered mentally ill persons with their families in 2025. This averaged to four reunions per day. Most of these persons were destitutes, including 14 with children in tow, wandering the streets. The families were in different parts of India and yet the Foundation volunteers traced them and did the reunions.
Said Dr Vatwani (68): ``The Gods have indeed recognised our work and pitched their might behind the cause of the wandering mentally ill. Awareness has been created all over India about the treatability of mental illness. Every Reunion of a recovered mentally ill, by default, gets shared with the neighbouring families, the community and very often the entire district and state. Journalists pitch in too. News of a reunion in Odisha received press coverage from all the leading newspapers of the state," he said in a statement.
``The impact o f the work goes beyond the mere physical reunion and indirectly impacts innumerable families and lives, bringing hope and cheer across a vast spectrum of society, beyond the measure of ordinary statistical tools.
``Most important in this growth trajectory, the ancillary collaborations and Centres of Shraddha have taken wings o f their own. Since its inception, 421 Reunions have happened from our ancillary Center 'Shraddhawan' in Nagpur in collaboration with the Amte's Maharogi Seva Samiti and the Psychiatric Society of Nagpur.
From from our ancillary centre in Visakhapatnam, a collaboration with the AP Govt run shelter 'AUTD' 119 reunions were done. In Tamil Nadu 181 reunions happened because of tie-up with 1 2 institutions. About 183 reunions took place from cooperation with the NGO Snehalaya Charitable Trust in Kasargod, Kerala. About 376 and 32 reunions have happened from collaborations with Apna Ghar in Jodhpur and Ashadham Ashram in Udaipur respectively and 135 Reunions from Jay Ambe Mandbudhi Mahila Samaj Seva Trust in Bayad, Gujarat.
``All in all, it has been a phenomenal pan-India approach towards the basic problem of wandering mentally ill roadside destitutes; a problem often swept under the carpet," Dr Vatwani noted.
The audited accounts of the Foundation reveals a daily expenditure of Rs 1,25,866 per day of which 41.5% is only on staff salaries.
The Foundation runs a rehab centre in Karjat. It can be contacted on 28955020, 9323952656 or 8108488774.
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