The Mental Healthcare Act, 2017 and Law Enforcement: A Comparative Awareness Study across Two Districts in Himachal Pradesh

Mental Healthcare Act, 2017 is landmark legislation passed by the parliament of Indiaand received assent of President of India on 7th April 2017. The provisions of the actwas incorporated as a result of ratification of United Nation declaration of rights ofpersons with disabilities in 2007 and subsequent amendments in the old legislation i.e.Mental Healthcare Act, 1987. The present paper empirically assesses the level ofawareness among police personnel towards discharge of duties with respect to theprovisions under MHCA-2017. Further, the study tries to find out the challenges inenforcement of mental health law. A simple random sampling method is adopted tocollect data through schedule interview in police stations and thanas located inmunicipal corporation/council (MC) of two districts of Himachal Pradesh viz. Shimlaand Kangra. The total samples n=40 taken from the municipal corporation/council oftwo districts viz. MC-Shimla and MC-Kangra, the data is analyzed using Chi-Squarestatistical method in Microsoft excel as well as qualitative data analysis method isadopted. The results from the data revealed that the police personnel from MC-Shimlaare proportionately 45% more aware about provisions under MHCA-2017, as compareto the police personnel from MC-Kangra. Further, it is found that there is no co-ordination among the stakeholders viz. state mental healthcare authority, mentalhealthcare review board, mental health establishments and the police departments.