Meerut: Mehrunisa, 24, comes to the Chhatri Wali peer in Meerut every Thursday with her sister. She says her sister doesn’t talk to anybody and gets seizures sometimes, and believes that some evil soul is haunting her.“Some evil soul has got into her, and I have come here to get her treated,” said Mehrunisa, as the priest at the peer prays for her sister’s wellbeing and gives her a powder to drive out evil spirits.Meanwhile, some doctors at a nearby health camp, under the banner ‘Dua se Dava Tak’, try to convince many like Mehrunisa to get their dear ones, having mental health issues, treated under a proper doctor.In a rather unique idea under the National Mental Health programme, the health department authorities have been instructed to conduct health camps at mazaars and peers to convince the masses to get treatment under proper doctor and shun going to those who treat people using black magic.“Under the National Health Mission, it has been directed that the state mental health authority conduct health clinics at mazaars, peers, and other religious spots where mental health patients go to get cured through prayers. The doctors at the clinics will convince such people to visit hospital and get them treated for mental illnesses,” reads the order issued by Sunil Pandey, joint director, UP mental health department.However, authorities have been instructed to make sure that written permissions are taken from the religious heads of these places to ensure that no communal incident takes place.“The peers and mazaars should be identified and then health clinics be set up such that the patients go from dua (prayers) to dava (medicines). They need prayers, but they need medicines too – for which counselling is required,” read Pandey’s order.

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