The Psychological Impact of Displacements

Sanjeev Jain did his graduate studies at the University of Delhi (Maulana Azad Medical College) and postgraduate studies at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore. He was a Commonwealth Fellow at the Cambridge University, UK, where in addition to learning research methods in genetics, he developed an interest in the history of psychiatry. He is a clinician and a teacher, researches the genetic correlates of psychiatric and neurological disease, and heads the molecular genetics laboratory at NIMHANS. He is also an adjunct faculty at the National Centre for Biological Sciences (part of Tata Institute of Fundamental Research), Bangalore. He has been involved in volunteer work with both governmental organisations and NGOs, and was a member of the committee for drafting the Mental Health Policy document for India. He has been researching the history of mental health services in India, from the colonial period to the contemporary times. This work has helped understand the interface between science and medicine, and social responses to mental illness in India.

Alok Sarin did his graduate and postgraduate studies at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, specialised in psychiatry and has been in active clinical practice for the last 25 years. He has been an active member of the Indian Psychiatric Society and has written and published widely; he too was a member of the committee that developed the Mental Health Policy for India. Apart from clinical practice, he has been particularly interested in areas of psycho-social rehabilitation and in involving the larger community in public discourses on mental health and disease. He is the Chairperson of the National Board of The Richmond Fellowship Society, a voluntary organisation working with chronic psychiatric illness, and has also been organising the acclaimed lecture series The Canvas Askew. He has been a Senior Fellow at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, Teen Murti House, and was awarded the fellowship for research on the mental health aspects of communal conflict. He is an adjunct faculty at the Banyan Academy of Leadership in Mental Health. He has also been actively involved in researching the history of psychiatry in India, with a special interest in the history of the mental hospitals.

Chiranjiv Singh is a former Ambassador of India to UNESCO in Paris. An Indian Administrative Service officer of the 1969 batch, he retired in 2005 as the Development Commissioner of Karnataka and Additional Chief Secretary to the Government of Karnataka. After his retirement he has been associated with numerous non-governmental organisations working in the fields of rural development, environment and culture. He was awarded the Rajyothsava Award in 2005 by the Government of Karnataka for his achievements.

Dr Pratima Murthy is Professor of Psychiatry and presently heads the Department of Psychiatry at the Centre for Addiction Medicine, National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore, India. She is an alumnus of the Bangalore Medical College and completed her Diploma and MD in Psychological Medicine from NIMHANS. She is a Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists Glasgow. Her work in addiction spans over two decades. Concurrently, she has been working in the area of history of psychiatry and is a co-investigator on the Wellcome UK sponsored project, Turning the Pages. She has been involved in setting up a heritage museum at NIMHANS which showcases the history of this institution. She presently also heads the forensic services at NIMHANS. She has worked in the area of human rights in mental health care and been involved in several National Human Rights Commission initiatives in this area.