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	Calling out to hungry hearts. Everywhere through endless time. You who wander you who thirst. I offer you this heart of mine. Calling all you hungry spirits. Everywhere through endless time. Calling all you hungry hearts All the lost and left behind Gather round and share this meal Your joy and sorrow I make it mine. 'Gate of Sweet Nectar' by Zen Master Kon Ron Mon

"Setu" (meaning 'Bridge') is an attempt to create a "protected community" for wandering and homeless people with a severe psycho-social disability. The protected community vision is fuelled by the gandhian revivalist values of self-reliance, shared ownership and self sustainability.

Setu's vision

Setu is a safe, creative and productive healing community created for the homeless, destitute or wandering mentally ill persons in and around Pune city. In Setu, persons with severe psycho-social disability will be nurtured, so that they are enabled to resource their own physical and mental energies, their resilience, creativity and capacity, and their ability to live a life of choice with dignity and self-respect. Setu will create livelihood opportunities for its members by actively integrating with, contributing to and depending on local conditions.

Legal disempowerment and criminalisation of wandering people with a psycho-social disability

The wandering mentally ill have traditionally been rounded up and taken into custody by police and lodged in prisons or mental hospitals, sometimes languishing for years (under various Acts, such as, Indian Lunacy Act- ILA; the Criminal Procedure Code; Bombay Prevention of Beggary Act- BPBA; Railways Act; Corporation Act; etc.). Even today the repealed Indian Lunacy Act is still being used for arrest. While the practice of committing wandering mentally ill to jails may be reduced, they are still arrested on "petty offence" charge. Beggars' homes also transfer such persons under "crime" charge, through the BPBA. Alcoholic men have been incarcerated, because they were found wandering on the streets. "Trespassing" or "public nuisance" are the most common charges brought against such persons. Much debate has happened around the issue of the correct placement of the wandering mentally ill, i.e., what type of person should be found in which type of institution. Adjudication and human rights intervention [following the landmark case of Sheila Barse vs Government of West Bengal] has resulted in a peculiar legislative regime, which is monitoring only wrongful confinement. The class action litigation proceeded on the commonsensical fact, that the wandering mentally ill have committed no crime, and hence, they should not be found in the jails. However, legal intervention stopped with notifying transfer to the mental hospital, without any reference to the possibility of curative or rehabilitatory measures, to be instituted within the custodial institution itself.

Every city needs a community or a service program for the wandering mentally ill people, a group identified by us as the most, most marginalized.

The Need for Setu
	There are over 5000 homeless families in Pune City alone, living under bridges, on foot paths, near railway tracks, etc.
	A large percentage of them face threat to life and trauma situation on a routine basis. Atleast a quarter of this population suffer from various types of disabilities.
	There are little or no mental health facilities for the homeless and wandering mentally ill people in most of the cities of Maharashtra.
	Many people with psycho-social disabilities are rendered homeless because of lack of care and community support. 80% of people housed in beggar's homes in Maharashtra are wandering mentally ill. Some of them come from middle class or affluent families.
	Mental Hospitals do not anymore admit or treat wandering mentally ill as readily as they used to before.
	Wandering mentally ill are driven out of mental institutions or homes before a visit by any inspectorate or monitoring authority.
	70% of psychiatrists in Pune city, being in private practice, do not treat the homeless or the poor and show general apathy towards this population.
	Wandering mentally ill women living on the streets are vulnerable to physical and sexual abuse.
	Wandering mentally ill people are discriminated against and treated as criminals in Maharashtra through many oppressive acts.
	No custodial institution in Maharashtra (jails, mental hospitals or beggars home) has the necessary infrastructure or capacity to create livelihood opportunities for this population, this, being the most fundamental need.
	Wandering mentally ill face harassment and torture by the police and often succumb to the predatory nature of life on the streets.
	Few custodial institutions in Maharashtra are in a position to provide safe and holistic health care or mental health care to their clients. There is no concept of service provider and client in these institutions, because of their overwhelmingly custodial nature.
	In Pune city, no NGO is working with the public institutions in the care of this population.

Site

"Sadhana Village", a rehabilitation facility for adults with mental disability (handicap), was established ten years ago, in Paud gaon, in Paud Taluka, Maharashtra by Mr. Deshpande. It is 9 kilometers from Paud gaon (on the high way to Mulshi). They are a community-based program, with a vision of integrating their residents into the neighboring culture and in the process, developing the entire valley. Sadhana Village is considered to be a resource organization by the valley (comprising mostly of farmers and small traders). The area is water / rain rich, fertile with a rich agriculture / animal farming base. NGO, development and social activities in the region have been on strengthening the agricultural economy.

Land is available with Sadhana Village, which they have committed to Setu project, on a long lease of 99 years.

Feasibility

The site offered to us by Sadhana village is located on the hills, in a private real estate project (Girivan). Based on feedback from Sadhana Village managers, initial assessment by a waste / soil expert, and from Bapu trustees, the project site is feasible for the work envisioned.

1. Presence of Sadhana village over several years has established an environment of understanding and synergy in the locality. Two initiatives, Sadhana and Setu, working shoulder to shoulder, can only strengthen community development work in mental health.

2. Local soil and farming situation is satisfactory. Horticulture, vermiculture and other entrepreneurial projects can be set up.

3. The terrain (on the hill) is a bit rough, but not overwhelmingly so. The environment is pleasant, very scenic and very therapeutic.

4. Sadhana Village has and is trying various soil-based projects in the region. We can exchange ideas on this and work together on creating livelihoods in the region.

5. The site is approachable by public transport: Buses ply up to Paud gaon. 9 ST buses go through Sadhana village. But there is a need for a vehicle to go upto Setu site, which is 5 kilometers away from Sadhana Village.

6. Setu site is an hour away from Paud Road, Pune. Staffers can probably be drawn from Karve Institute, SNDT social work department, etc.

7. Commercial projects in the area: Girivan project itself; nearby institutions (Mahindra World College; Flying Club; other local industries dotting the region; many small weekend getaways and resorts); small trades.

Risks

1. Visitors may find it difficult to reach the site.

2. Transfer of persons to the community definitely requires a vehicle.

3. It may not be easy to organize emergency or crisis health facilities from the site, though we have not visited the local PHC / rural hospital.

4. Economy is based on rainfall.

5. Staffers with a particular interest in staying in the community, and interested in taking care of persons with a high degree of psycho-social disability, may be difficult to find.

6. The ambitiousness of the project, ideas on the long-term sustainability of the community, staff motivation problems and the issue of burn out.

What is the Setu "program"?

Description of Setu
Setu would be based on principles of independent living, livelihood, self-determination and self-sustenance. We do not want to start a "service program", as this will inevitably lead to custody and supervision type of model driven by medicines. The aim is more to develop a community, based on local architecture, resource and economy. It would be something that the community will share, develop and own. Capacity building for livelihood would be with a view to creates entrepreneurs who will be able to live in the locality or seek jobs in the nearby city. Medicine and health would be one part of the service, but most activities would be creative, healing and development of skills leading to independent living and social bonding.

Who are the community members?
We expect persons with the following background to be members of Setu:

1. Persons who are recovered from institutions, but who do not have a family to go back to and

2. Persons who have a severe psycho-social disability, who require intensive or long term care and rehabilitation. So we are referring to the truly homeless, those who feel that they have "no place in the world". We expect that many of these persons will have a severe disability. Such persons will be invited into an already developed community.

Planting a "seed" community
Persons with a severe psycho-social disability would be welcomed into a community of people (and not into a community of service providers). These people would have already established community living here and have developed a degree of social bonding and integration into the local neighbourhood and social life. This "seed community" could be psycho-socially able, but be drawn from other vulnerable groups in Pune (deserted women, women in shelters, etc.) Persons, from institutions or from community work, who are looking for a shelter, will be transferred to the facility. Before such transfer, they will be given orientation to Setu to see if they like the place and want to settle there. In Setu, they will be settled into their daily routine of housing, clothing and basic living. 10 to 12 such people would initially set up house in Setu and prepare to receive others. After an initial process of registration, and evaluation, they will be offered initiation into the community. News about the available facilities will be shared with them.

They would also be trained into being local "carers" or barefoot "counsellors". Among them, certain initial responsibilities will be discussed and shared, based on interest and initiative.

In the first year of Setu…
	we contract with various parties, transfer of land, and architecture for community living, construction, fund raising and finding patrons for the community.
	we settle 20 men and women as the "seed" community.
	we establish a society of caregivers in the community and routinise activities
	we start some soil / animal based activities
	we streamline connection with the city and especially nearby health facilities
	our staff will be in their station, ready and trained
	we network with the local authorities, the farming community
	we work on the formalities of living in the society (membership / co-operative / society; rules for daily living, support, caring and sharing, and livelihood).
	we establish co-ordination with Bapu office on monitoring, evaluation and audit aspects
	we contract various resource persons to give us assistance in different ways: volunteering, service provision, therapies, leisure and sport activities, entrepreneurship, use of IT, etc.
	we strengthen relationships with neighbouring NGOs
	we do extensive awareness programs, to raise whatever resources are possible in cash or kind (funding, donation of clothes, play things / outdoor sports items, art materials, books, movies / CDs, music tapes or CDs, furniture, curios and house warming items, curtains, cushions, music system, computer, used bicycles, spiritual items, ceiling fans, etc.)
	we have a final blue print for setu to receive and care for those for whom it was created.

Second year, and following…
In the second year, and following that, Setu will function as a full-fledged community.

Architecture
The architecture will be as close as possible to a natural community, having a village type of arrangement (no concrete brick high rise buildings), using local materials (e.g. mud brick compression).

Initiation of members
Initiation of persons with a severe psycho-social disability into the community will be through the use of massage, acupressure, healing baths and creative work (drums circle is particularly effective in bringing people back into their present). Body therapies are an innovative and culturally friendly way of healing people with a psycho-social problem. The need for medication will be based on policy, review and professionally guided health care evaluation.

Living in Setu
Spaces in Setu will be organized such that the following activities are done, in as free an environment as possible (that is, people can do what they want and have the choice to organize their own days): farming, play, meditation, creative arts, leisure / music, physical activities, learning a skill, etc. Private spaces will be created for everybody, however small it may be. Letter writing, journal keeping, and biblio-therapy will be proposed as healing activities for those who are literate. For others, totem expression, tribal painting and other regional forms of self-expression can be proposed. Programs organized will be based on expressed need. Health care check ups will be regularly organized for those in need. The vehicle will be used for emergency situations.

By the end of the second year, we hope that 20 more people would have joined the community, taking up the total to around 40.

Livelihood
By the second year, livelihood opportunities would have been thought about, planned and a blue print established. This may require separate raising of resources (e.g. investigating local work opportunities). Until develops into a self-managed society, these carers would require livelihood support. Support would also be required for their over all living and health care.

From the third year, active efforts will be made to resettle the fully able members into the neighbouring community or in the city (Pune). We expect people to leave the community, for better livelihood opportunities in the neighbourhood or in the city. For this, employment or income generating projects will be set up from the 2nd year onwards, in the neighbourhood (e.g. in the Girivan resort). Contacts would be made with possible and available sources of employment in the neighbourhood. Skill building for employment will be based on such real opportunities and based on local demand. Savings, credits, co-operatives are other possibilities.

We will do very little of "vocational trainings" such as match stick making, or candle making in the initial stages. Taking up production based projects in Setu may be possible only if we have good communication strategies for retailing products (such as website business).

Community life
Imaginative ways have to be found, for synergy with the local community. Community life is based on give and take. Setu, like Sadhana, will have to be an active resource giving community, so that there is dignity in asking for return favours / contributions or partnerships. To this end, certain activities (such as health camps / consultations) will have to be for the local community as well. We do not see any way of making a success of Setu without also at the same time, taking up local development work.

In facilitating Setu, we will strive to keep our own intervention to the minimum, to the extent of creating an enabling, safe space where people can establish themselves, their lives and relationships, their work and livelihood, and create their own community.

Self-reliance and scope for investments in the neighbourhood
We hope that the available premises will be adequate for vegetable and fruit farming, supplying Setu. Herbal gardens are also a possibility (such as wheat grass or aloe vera).

We will aim at self-sufficiency by undertaking agriculture and other commercially viable projects in the neighbouring areas. Ideas, which have come up, are: setting up a retreat for NGOs, for Bapu training programs, and as a retreat for other training NGOs. The location is perfect for this activity. This is a very viable idea, and we will explore this further. A third idea is worm culturing and starting a nursery, to supply the local institutions. There is rich potential in developing neighbouring areas to serve these projects. Such projects would also help in absorbing the Setu residents in gainful employment.

Ethical issues
Those coming into the community would be mainly drawn from the institutions / community programs, which Bapu is already running (beggars' homes; mental hospital; other community programs). In working among the homeless disabled, there is a large and controversial issue of informed consent. Setu will work out the ethics and the process of transfer. It will not force anyone into the community, nor will it stop anyone from leaving the community. It will not be run on a supervisory or custodial model. The health care part of the program will work on different principles (evidence base, professionalism, managed care) than the social care part of the program. Imagination will be used in trying to integrate informed consent procedure through the active intervention phase. Active intervention process at Setu will work on protocol basis only, with considered policy on health care provision, hospitalisation and use of psychotropic drugs. In the social care part, there will not be a regimentation of routines, and force on participating in activities. Setu will be mindful of the interphase with the law, the judiciary and the police and will be advised by Bapu, on ethical and advocacy issues in the initial stages. Once the community is well established, the community will develop its own ethics, with facilitation by Bapu throughout the project period. There will be parts of the Setu community and social life where Bapu will play little or no role and the neighbourhood community will play a larger role. There would also be the ethics of planting too many members with a psycho-social disability among the seed community, as the seed community would burn out. Perhaps a limit will be set (such as not more than 50%) to balance those psycho-socially abled against the disabled. Forced labour, child labour, poor wage contracting, abuse of workers, etc. will be monitored if persons from Setu go out to work in the neighbourhood. Advocacy will be kept up for social security for Setu members. Appropriate registrations and individual memberships with local authorities (the Disability office) will be sought so that the stake of the community in the disability discourse is not lost.

Offers received so far
1. An international aid agency is working with us to finalise the program part and to consider financing us for a 5 to 7 year period.

2. Private donations assured of up to Rs. 10 lacs.

3. Persons with good background on soil based entrepreneurship, vermiculture, organic farming and art therapists have offered their time and services to Setu at a nominal cost.

4. A private sponsor is preparing promotional cards for creating publicity and awareness.

5. Beggars' home authorities have offered to consider our proposal for transfer of persons from their home to Setu, and are able to pay Rs.35/= per person per day, to cover rehabilitation cost.

6. Mental hospital authorities and beggars home authorities have offered to make some space available within their premises for us to initiate rehabilitation within the institution.

7. We are talking to the local authorities to make available to us some space for community work among the wandering homeless.

What you can do for us
	If you are a mental health professional or a practitioner of integrated medicine, looking for a challenge, this is it! We need professionals with a view to provide integrated care to persons who may have been institutionalized for a long time.
	We need someone to think imaginatively and make a community housing plan suited to the locale and with an eye on low cost.
	We need financial and technical assistance in construction of the community housing, once the plan is finalised.
	If you are looking for making a donation, giving technology or building a partnership to develop a commercially viable but value driven project in and around Setu, do contact us. Project possibilities are - organic farming, vermiculture, a retreat for training programs, herbal medicine, bee keeping, etc.
	We need financial assistance in infrastructure development of the community, including donation or purchase of any asset such as vehicle, equipment, etc.
	You could sponsor the life of one resident until his or her rehabilitation happens, at the cost of Rs. 3000/= per month for a period of 12 months.
	You could sponsor any of our development programs or activities in the local areas.

These are technical or financial commitments. Outside of these, you can share news about Setu with others, volunteer time to the project, etc.

Thank you.

"It is our firm belief that, for good mental health, people need nourishing food, satisfying employment, unpolluted air, healthy environment, leisure, physical fitness, a caring supportive community and creative opportunities for realizing one's potential and dreams. Setu aims to be such an endeavour. We appeal to everyone with high emotional and spiritual quotients to seek us out and contribute in whatever way you wish. The deeper roles we intend to play in people's lives, in an increasingly complex and lonely world, actually may lessen the number of wandering 'mentally ill' in society."

Bhargavi Davar,
In-charge- Setu project,
using the vital energies and inspirations
from a wide collective of like minded persons
who together birthed 'Setu'

Contact us:

Setu
A program initiative of Bapu Trust
Kapil Villa, Plot no. 9
Survey No. 50/4, Kondhwa Khurd
Pune-411048
Tel: 020-26837644/47
Email: wamhc@dataone.in; info@camhindia.org