Ever wondered how you would feel if you were locked up in a cage one and half metres high and two metres long around your bed and let out for only a few minutes everyday?
Well, that is exactly how some mentally challenged citizens spend their whole lives - locked up in cages and abandoned by their loved ones and humanity. And what is really shocking is the fact that this caged existence exists in some of Europe’s most ‘progressive’ cuntries like Czech Republic and that too in the 21st century!
In a world where, groups are fighting for the rights of animals who are locked up in zoos and circuses, the revelations move even the most insentive among us.
Michel Celetka,a former patient says:
It is like a cage in a zoo. Like a small prison.
These are said to institutions who are supposed to treat their patients, but their ‘treatment’ has only worsened the conditions of patients who could have otherwise, progressed. The institutions defend their medieval cruelty by arguing that the cages are a must as the patients display aggressive traits. I think even those with no mental handicap would behave in the same manner if locked up in a cage. Similar and worse stories emerge from the neighboring countries,Slovakia and Hungary.
What is even more shocking is the lack of empathy and initiative by the governments despite the repeated lobbying by activists.Recommendations to replace the homes by those modelled on institutions in Britain, which help the residents to lead semi-independent lives in the community have been shelved by the government.
The European Union and the UN could help in pressurizing these countries to push for reforms in its institutions to improve the quality of life of their residents. Laws banning the use of ‘Cage beds’ have been passed , but are rarely implemented. The problem doesn’t seem to be the individual abuse, but abuse by a system that is stuck in the dark ages.It does seem to be a long way before the inhumane chains are broken away...
