An Open Letter to Indian Mental Healthcare Community

Like all services, mental healthcare in India is severely limited to those with privileges. While over the last decade Queer Affirmation has taken over the corporate-mental-healthcare landscape, why is there complete silence on Anti-Caste therapy practices? (Read here: Is therapy in India inherently casteist?)

Image Courtesy: The Quint

As an organization working to address caste based oppression, we wish to understand what are the affirmative and preparatory actions taken by therapists to serve members of oppressed castes. What are the attempts made, if any, in the mental healthcare community, towards Anti-Caste Therapy practices?

As I'm interviewing therapists to support our community members, I openly ask how they cater to members of oppressed castes and what sort of personal and professional affirmative steps they have taken to be qualified to do the work. Unfortunately, the answers are given uncomfortably, to say the least, with the crux being "I know that they have a hard time, I'm passionate to help them", which is less than satisfactory to hear. The othering, the discomfort and unpreparedness takes away all my confidence that this therapist will be a "safe space" for our community members.

How can a Savarna therapist address their client’s caste-based oppression and trauma without having any lived, academic or even professional understanding of the same? Or is therapy only for those who are like the therapists themselves?

Coming back to Queer Affirmation, why did the mental healthcare community jump on that bandwagon? Is it because of the corporate cash? Because it’s dictated by western liberals, so it feels cool to do so? If you need to understand the oppression of Queer people, how are you approaching to understand other forms of oppressions, namely caste-based? What are the courses or institutions that are providing such training and resources? What is the plan? Does the mental healthcare community think about who gets to come to therapy? Who has one hour of free time and money to invest in self care? What happens when you still somehow manage to reach the room but your therapist firmly believes that "caste is not real, just a mental limitation"? That caste based oppression can be overcome with grit, patience and merit? That ignoring caste will make it go away? Most therapists don't even know how to use the word caste, how to talk about it, how to address it or even to give the proper non- verbal cues as response to the topic. If you're a therapist reading this, have you ever tried to understand how your Dalit Bahujan Adivasi clients (if you had/have any) perceive your support? Have you tried to check and gauge if there's any harm done? What are you doing to upskill yourself? Why is Anti-Caste not a badge you wear with pride next to the Ally badge?

Mental healthcare is equally important to physical health and basic human right for all. But over the  years I am disillusioned that like all rights, mental healthcare belongs to just a few. That is heartbreaking and cruel, as the entire school of philosophy behind mental healthcare is the same as doctors, serving everybody and doing no harm.

The ultimate question is, does the Indian Mental Healthcare Community want Anti-Caste Therapy to be a reality? If yes, how? If not, why not? Most of us, including therapists, don't know the extent and power of our own Savarna guilt, confusion and defenses. The only way to undo that is through learned and lived knowledge and experience. I invite all mental healthcare professionals to engage in this conversation in the comments box. And here’s a lead to begin your journey. 

Written by June- founder-director of Garima Trust