Govt wakes up to victims needs
Srinagar: After mental health experts suggested that the authorities should reach out the victims of braid chopping and provide them with possible medical assistance and counselling, Srinagar administration on Tuesday convened a meeting, presided over by Deputy Commissioner Srinagar, where in it was decided that tehsil-level teams would be constituted to provide medical assistance and counselling to the victims of braid cutting
“Deputy Commissioner Srinagar, Syed Abid Rasheed Shah Tuesday convened a meeting to discuss braid chopping incidents and ways to address the menace and provide assistance to victims,” an official statement said.
“It was decided that tehsil-level teams would be constituted to provide medical assistance and counselling to the victims of braid cutting, besides report to the higher authorities with the detailed facts about each incident in their respective jurisdictions,” the meeting was informed.
Earlier mental health experts had said that the authorities, instead of waiting for the victims to come out and ask for any sort of treatment, should start a campaign aimed at reaching out to victims of braid chopping.
“These victims would already be in a state of trauma and in such situations expecting them to come out for counselling is beyond comprehension, with others are of opinion that such a campaign should have been started in the beginning, knowing the ramifications of such incidents,” experts had said.
The meeting also decided that the District Social Welfare Officer Srinagar will provide services of all CDPOs, Tehsils, Social Welfare Officers and Anganwadi Workers with these teams.
Kashmir Vision on October 15 had carried a story titled ‘Mental health experts suggest reaching out to victims,’ in which experts had suggested “a team comprising of experts including members from Psychiatry should have been formed at the earliest, in order to counsel all such victims and to spread an assuring message, which would have prevented such incidents from transforming into ‘hysteria’,” to which finally the administration seems to have woken up.
KV Correspondent
