Thomas was the quintessential ‘good Samaritan’ and he and his colleagues ate and slept with the inmates, now numbering nearly 300. Police, the district administration, politicians, local MLAs, panchayat members and lay people in unison supported their work. They gave food, clothing and shelter to the needy mental ill, entirely through public donations. No more was the sight of wandering mentally ill anywhere in Kottayam district! If anyone saw any mentally ill in distress, the police were informed and they would bring them to the Navajeevan.  The Department of Psychiatry at Government Medical College, Kottayamtook up the entire responsibility of the psychiatric treatment. This was the prime model of Govt.-NGO Collaboration. When the Dept. celebrated its Ruby Jubilee in 2008, only one public man was honoured and it was PU Thomas of Navajeevan.

The candle which Navajeevan lit soon spread across entire Kerala. Now nearly 15,000 people with mental illness are being cared for in more than 100 such NGO run rehabilitation centres. Near my home at Palai, we have another centre ‘Mariasadan’ with whom too, I am intimately associated with. At almost every rehabilitation centre run by NGOs, the psychiatry unit nearby or the psychiatrist resident in the vicinity provides service, mostly free. This is a new revolution in Kerala, India and you do not see wandering mentally ill on the streets here anymore! This is a model worth emulating in other parts of India and across the world as well.

—The author is Secretary General, World Psychiatric Association