Mental Health Legislation: Evolution and Implementation in South Asian Countries

Mental Health legislation operating in various South Asian Region (SAR) countries has historical roots in colonial laws. The chapter goes onto outline the historical evolution of mental health legislation in the SAR countries; wherein wide disparity is demonstrated (maximal advances in legislation being in India and Pakistan on one hand contrasting with absence in Maldives, Nepal and Bhutan). Even though India and Pakistan have enacted new laws; poorly developed mental health services in these countries do not allow the full implementation of newly enacted laws. Thus mental health legislations in south Asian countries belong more to the past than present where the main objectives of those laws were segregation of mentally ill people for the safety and wellbeing of the society at large. A potential list of strategies, based on available literature and experience, for implementing legislation are further outlined, with suggestions on what mental health legislation needs to be trying to achieve in the SAR countries.