Care of the child is primarily the responsibility of parents and elders in the family. In traditional India, the child in need of care and protection was looked after in the joint family, caste group, village community and religious institutions. To be born in a happy and comfortable home is a privilege that not many children are destined to enjoy. With the spread of urbanization and industrialization, breakdown of family structure and religious sanctions, population explosion, prospects of adventure and excitement in cities, the conditions of children deteriorated. The vast majority of the children are impoverished. This has given rise to children in especially difficult circumstances who are vulnerable, marginalized, destitute, neglected and are quite frequently deprived of their basic rights to family care, protection, shelter, food, health and education.[1]
The realization and conservation of health reaches to the very essential of human survival. In its broadest sense, well-being is an overarching concern for every human being, group and society. Health is described and explained in various discourses that are socially constructed. The concepts of ‘health’, ‘mind’ and ‘body’ vary across time and place, but for all cultures and cosmologies they play a fundamental role in the experience of being human.[2]
Mental health plays an important role in both the way people behave and the way they feel. Emotionally healthy individual accept themselves as they are with all their weaknesses as well as their strengths. They remain in control with reality, and they are able to deal with stress, anxiety and frustration. The term mental health represents a variety of human aspiration, rehabilitation of the mentally disturbed, prevention of mental disorder, reduction of tension in a conflict laden world and attainment of a state of well-being in which the individual functions at a level of consistent with his mental and physical potentials. Mental health refers not to an absolute or ideal state but to best possible in so far as circumstances are alterable. Mental health is regarded as a condition of the individual, relative to his capacities and to his social environment context and here mentally hygiene also includes all measures taken to promote and to preserve mental health.[3]
The definition of mental health used in the 1981 by World Health Organization report on the social dimensions of mental health, which states that “Mental health is the capacity of the individual, the group and the environment to interact with one another in ways that promote subjective well-being, the optimal development and use of mental abilities (cognitive, affective and relational), the achievement of individual and collective goals consistent with justice and the attainment and preservation of conditions of fundamental equality”.[4]
Possessing mental health an individual can adjust properly to his environment and can make the best effort for his own, his family’s and his society’s progress and betterment. Mental health is as the adjustment of human beings to the world and each other with the maximum of effectiveness and happiness. It is the ability to maintain temper and intelligence. The greater the degree of successful adjustment, the greater will be the mental health of the individual. Lesser mental health will lead to lesser adjustment and greater conflict. The healthy individual can interpret with many more people and any new situation adapts himself to suit with the environmental condition. He maintains a healthy and benevolent attitude towards life and its own necessities. When children are small their parents are able to look after their health because they can watch over them continually. As a child gets older, although his patents are still responsible for his health they are not able to supervise him all the time so they have to trust him to look after his own health.[5]
The qualities a person imbibes as a child deepen as he grows and appear in several obvious and subtle ways in his conduct and character as an adult. Therefore, what effects the interest of the children affects the well-being of the entire group, of which the child is but one member. In most of the advanced countries, child care has been accorded the highest priority and only the best is supposed to be good enough for children. They should have opportunities for the fullest development and growth towards maturity through physical, emotional, mental and spiritual well-being. Mental health is an important area in which many people do not understand the importance of mental health. The child is bound to have problems, if there is any difficulty in adjustment. He will show evidence of disturbance. He may be rebellious, thumb sucking, bed wetting, fearful, nail biting or refuse to eat, are some of the other behaviour symptoms which must be investigated early so as to prevent mental ill-health.[6]
Children
in India require protection on all sides. On the one hand, they must be
provided with the basic necessities for their overall development, such as
physical strength, mental alertness, and academic excellence, by providing a
family environment for proper growing and grooming of the child, regardless of
gender. On the other hand, a youngster who has been labelled as a delinquent
requires prevention and treatment. On two fronts, action is essential. Firstly,
by preventing and arresting the increase in number of the juvenile delinquency,
and secondly by offering the delinquent youngster or a 'juvenile in conflict
with law' proper opportunity to rehabilitate himself and join the mainstream of
the community. That confusion has been created between
delinquency and other social, emotional and behavioural problems of children
and a related confusion is regarding the appropriate function and method of the
court, now Boards dealing with the juvenile offenders. Whatever be the
definitions provided by the various authorities and scholars on the subject the
fact remains that the children being in the centre-stage, the growth and change
of human values and to look after the well-being of the children is most
important.
[1] Asha Bajpai, Child Rights in
India: Law, Policy and Practice 277 (2010).
[2] David F. Marks, Health psychology: Theory, Research and Practice 3 (2005).
[3] Dr. Sanjay Bhattacharya, Social Work: Psycho-Social and Health
Aspects 221-222 (2008).
[4] Indrani Sen Gupta, Human
Rights of Minority and Women’s 170 (2005).
[5] Kenneth C. Hutchin, Your
Health 61-62 (1962).
[6] Dr. Sanjay Bhattacharya, Social
Work: Psycho-Social and Health Aspects 283 (2008).
About the Author: This Legal Article is prepared by Dr. Bhupinder Singh , Associate Professor of Law at Christ (Deemed to be University), Delhi NCR. He can be reached at talwandibss@gmail.com
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