This is the website owned and supported by Bapu Trust for Research on Mind & Discourse, Pune.

Origins of the Trust

Bapu Trust was established as a formal institution in the year 1999. Our project office (CAMH) was started in August, 2000.

"Bapu" is the personal name of a Tamil woman, who was born of a culturally and materially elite family in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. She heard voices, saw visions, wrote religious verses in Tamil and Sanskrit, and believed herself to be in deep connection with god. She was labeled with "schizophrenia" and ended up wandering on the streets. She was deserted by her family, and struggled for daily survival, even though she came from a very wealthy background and had a huge property and a large family in Chennai. She lived many years of her adult life, wandering and alone, in some healing temples of Kerala. She wrote poetry, sang bhajans, wore the dress of a monk and shaved her head. She drew and painted her visions, sometimes with great flourish and bursts of colour. She was "caught" by the police many times and forcibly brought back to a hostile family environment. She was subjected to many invasive treatments and psychiatric abuse, including lock up, solitary confinement, insulin coma, several dozens of shock treatment, repeated and forced institutionalizations, and many disabling anti-psychotic medications, on a trial and error basis. She suffered severe and debilitating side effects of the treatments, including severe tardive dyskinesia, Parkinson's disease and muscular dysfunction. Various traditional methods were also tried out on her, such as dhara, exorcism, etc. She passed on in the autumn of the year 1996, struck by stroke and coma. One of "Bapu's" two children, Bhargavi Davar, founded the trust in her memory and with her legacy.

Some saw "Bapu" as "mad" and "bad", others saw her as spiritual, creative, intuitive and gifted. Bapu Trust for Research on Mind & Discourse, like "Bapu", journeys the grey areas between madness and creativity, insanity and spirituality.

Bapu Trust does not have any affiliations or connections to political parties of any sort.

Vision [New vision being developed]

In Bapu, we want to see a world, where emotional well-being is experienced in a holistic manner, as an experience of "total wellness". Wellness is not just being symptom free, but being deeply connected with one's inner source of creativity, joy and freedom. Bapu dreams of therapeutic environments in the world, where every person can reach into and use their own capacity to make choices, heal themselves, recover and move on. Such environments will also be rich in love, warmth and nurturance, and will enable people's higher aspirations for growth, pleasure, joy and creativity, using compassionate, non-violent, non-hazardous and playful means. Bapu sees and partakes of a world of healing environments, based on a philosophy of care, freedom and fairness.

Mission [Being developed]

We will create, pilot and monitor programs and interventions that enable self-reliance and a life of dignity, among persons with psycho-social and psychiatric disabilities. Such programs will connect with people's aspirations and potential, and promote their positive mental health. We will work towards enhancing and promoting the emotional well being of persons in vulnerable positions (women, poor, children) and other communities in need. We will create innovative preventive programs in the community, so that the burden of psychological ill health in the community is reduced. We will strive to change the structural, social, legal and policy environment, so that they remain just and fair to people with a psycho-social disability. We will work with people with psycho-social and psychiatric disabilities, so that they can get good quality mental health care and can live in an unbiased society, with knowledge, understanding, dignity, self-determination and self-respect. We will fight unfair, forced or abusive mental health interventions. We will strive to keep our own work environments, program areas and working team spaces caring and mental health enhancing.

Scope of our work

Bapu Trust is a group of academics, researchers, advocates and healers, working towards creating alternative visions and streams of practice, in mental health care in India, which is presently dominated by biomedicine.

The Trust is the only national level organization totally devoted, in its programs and activities, to critically questioning the bio-medical model widely practiced in India. We are committed to an empirical approach to consumer empowerment and we conduct mental health advocacy research. We research on service development, gender studies, policy studies, legal research and human rights based action research in mental health. Bapu brings a humanistic, developmental and rights based approach to mental health work. Bapu is an innovative program developer in community mental health. At present, we have developed Seher, a psychotherapy program and are in the process of developing Setu, a program for the homeless mentally ill based on therapeutic community model. Bapu is a capacity building resource organization, working closely and co-operatively with grass roots organizations and NGOs on the one hand, and with civil society institutions, mental health professionals, and the government on the other, in implementing its vision.

Trustees

Bapu was founded by Dr. Bhargavi V Davar. It was co-founded by Dr. Amita Dhanda, a professor of law at NALSAR, a Central University of Law, sited in Hyderabad. Dr. Dhanda has been a teacher - researcher - activist, with various publications to her credit on the interphase between poverty, law, mental health and disability. She has been on various consultations and progressive forums, aiming to make structural changes in the mental health and the disability sector. Other co-founders were Mr. Pramod Kumar Davar, Ms. Sujata Venkatraman and Mr S D Verma, who have since left the Trust, due to other commitments. At present, other trustees of Bapu are:

Dr. Raghu Rama Raju, Reader (Philosophy), Central University, Hyderabad;

Ms Lakshmi Rao Buchamma, educationist and teacher, Hyderabad;

Dr. Sadhana Natu, activist and teacher, Dept. of Psychology, Modern College, Pune.

All the trustees have a background of several years of sound research, high intellectual outputs as well as a history of participation in diverse and progressive forums for social change.

Bapu staff, working at CAMH, are social science researchers (background in sociology, archaeology, political science, psychology, women's studies), social workers, psychotherapists and counselors.

Bapu Trust has a representation of persons with users and ex-users of mental health services among its Board members as well as staff, though not equal representation at this moment.

Strengths

Bapu occupies a niche area in mental health and has a visible and influential presence, in public spaces where mental health policies and agendas are discussed. We present a consumer perspective in mental health. Bapu is involved in policy influencing and advocacy activities in the mental health area. We are a part of local, national and international groups struggling for a more humane system in mental health care. We are competent in advocacy and bringing public visibility to gaps in the mental health law, laws related to psycho-social disability and also the national policy. We use progressive forums to voice our suggestions and feedback on mental health systems reform. Being academics, we are in an eminent position to bring our work before an academic community also. We are networked with the media to some extent, and regularly find avenues to disseminate our work through our own newsletter (aaina), as well as other topical journals and magazines. We are widely networked with women's organizations, other civil society organizations and legal redress forums, and are able to resource these for our rerferral and advocacy work. At the local level, we have developed networks with the local government agencies, human rights and legal aid authorities.

Principles of governance

The values upheld by the Trust are: compassion, creativity, diversity, freedom, and fairness. The organization is based on principles of professionalism, empiricism, leadership, accountability and teamwork. The Trust has policies and practices on maintaining a gender approach, appreciating diversity, including disability, enabling leadership, applying relevant management / HR techniques, and promoting self growth and professional development at all levels of the organisation.

Management

The Trust and the executive (embodied in the Center for Advocacy in Mental Health) are two different entities. The Trust gives the vision and the value, while the executive (CAMH) runs projects. Functional hierarchy exists in the organization, starting with Director-Project Co-ordinators - Research / Program Staff - Research/Program Assistants - Data operators / Field Workers. Regular, monthly reviews of projects and team meetings are done to match project objectives with given capacity and performance. Financial audits are matched with technical audits periodically with the project staff. Co-ordinators play a role in decentralizing decision making, as well as fund management, with respect to projects. They also have the responsibility, along with the project head, of mentoring teams (in terms of capacity building and team work.)

Mindfulness about funding

The Trust maintains a balance between domestic versus foreign funding, private donations versus project grants. The Trust receives funds from social science grants, or human rights grants. The Trust is open to support from corporate companies, which have a view or policy about Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). The Trust occasionally receives private donations. The fiscal relationship of the Managing Trustee (loans, donations, etc.) with the Trust is bound by resolutions passed by the Board of Trustees. The Trust does not obtain funds from pharmaceutical companies or from psychiatric foundations. The Trust is not at present dependent on funding from the government for any of its programs and is not looking for certification / licensing as a grant in aid institution. The Trust is open to government funding on a need basis and within a limited framework. The Trust will not receive funds from the World Bank directly or indirectly and has reservations about receiving funds from the World Health Organisation, given its present politics and uncaring attitude in MH sector development in the "Third World".

Efficient fund management

In order to minimize administrative baggage, and to bring more efficiency and professionalism in our work, our financial systems are outsourced to highly competent finance consultants. We follow a two-tier system of service. In this system, the service provider, with internal checks and balances, provides financial consultations, as well as accountancy. A nominated co-ordinator from Bapu, along with the Director / Project Head, work closely with the service provider to act as a lively interphase. Certain good practices have been worked out over a period of time about book-keeping, which are monitored meticuously. Decision-making about budgets is de-centralised, but actual spending is not, as all spending is based on an approval system sanctioned by the Director.

Audit compliance

Our tax return is filed until and inclusive of the year 2003-2004. We have no backlog with respect to any statutory formalities or any kind of tax liabilities (including TDS, professional tax, etc.). Form FC3 has been duly filed with the Home Ministry for the years since inception including 2003-2004.

Limitations

	We are not able to provide purely psychiatric service. We do not believe much in this system of healing.
	We are at present working on better "people relationships" in the office, and are reviewing our HR policies and systems, while installing an objective appraisal system for the staff.
	We are yet to develop a corpus fund and so we are not able to cover any unexpected costs.
	We do not yet have a policy for staff welfare.
	We are still dependent on project funds for covering institutional costs (rent and general administration).
	We are not able to do as much as we think we can!!

How you can assist us

Creating a safe, caring and just world for persons with mental illness is everyone's responsibility. You can help us by:

	Using our unique library and documentation service
	Utilising our publications in your community work
	Partnering with us on research projects, service and policy development, legal aid and advocacy
	Making a career with us and through volunteering
	Contributing an article for Aaina, our newsletter
	By sharing your story of resilience and copying through our archive activity
	Making individual donations, grants, book donations or giving your time for supporting any of our present activities

Formalities of the Trust

Registration: BPTA, E-2970 (Pune)
Exempt under 80G
FCRA No.: 083930421 [26-3-2004]

Registered Office:
A4-38, Ujwal Park Housing Society,
Kondhwa Khurd,
Pune 411048, Maharashtra
India

Contact address:
The Managing Trustee
BAPU TRUST FOR RESEARCH ON MIND & DISCOURSE
Kapil Villa, Plot no. 9
Survey No. 50/4, Kondhwa Khurd
Pune-411048
Tel: 020-26837644/47
Email: wamhc@dataone.in; info@camhindia.org