Why Bharat Vatwani Received Magsaysay Award?

Hearty Congratulation to a Mumbai Psychiatrist Shri Bharat Vatwani for receiving this year’s Ramon Magsaysay Awards, an Asian version of the Nobel Prize. He is helping mentally ill destitutes.

Bharat Vatwani 60 years old is staying at Borivali. He and his wife Smitha had been working for last 30 years not only treating the patients but reuniting destitute with their families.

In 1989, Vatwani for this noble cause formed his foundation called Shraddha Rehabilitation Foundation. It is situated at Karjat. The aim of the foundation was to find, restore and reunite, the mentally ill destitutes back with their families.

True with their mission till date their organisation have reunited more than 2,000 people with their families. “Most of the destitutes were from UP, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Gujarat, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. Six people were reconnected with their family in Nepal,” says Vatwani in an interview to The Indian Express.

Vatwani had chanced upon a young man with unkempt long hair who was drinking dirty water from the roadside gutter. It was this sight that moved him and he decided to take care of the young man and other people like him. “After treating the boy, I was shocked to learn of his identity. He was a BSc graduate with a diploma in medical laboratory technology and his father was a superintendent in Andhra Pradesh,” recalls Vatwani. He helped the young lad who was suffering from schizophrenia to reunite with his family and since then he has reached out to innumerable such people.

Article & Image Source: IndianExpress