The 2001 Erwadi fire incident was an accident that occurred on 6 August 2001, when 28 inmates of a

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mental asylum The lunatic asylum (or insane asylum) was an early precursor of the modern psychiatric hospital. The fall of the lunatic asylum and its eventual replacement by modern psychiatric hospitals explains the rise of organized, institutional psychiatry ...

died in the fire. All these inmates were bound by chains at the Moideen Badusha Mental Home in

Erwadi Erwadi is a village in Ramanathapuram District, Tamil Nadu, a state in South India. It belongs to Kilakarai Taluk and town panchayat. The village is the location of the grave and shrine of Qutbus Sultan Syed Ibrahim Shaheed Badusha, the previou ...

village in

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a States and union territories of India, state in southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of India ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. A large number of mental homes existed in Erwadi which was famous for the

dargah A dargah ( fa, درگاه ''dargâh'' or ''dargah'', Turkish: ''dergâh'', Hindustani: ''dargah'' दरगाह درگاہ, bn, দরগাহ ''dorgah'') is a shrine or tomb built over the grave of a revered religious figure, often ...

of Quthbus Sultan Syed Ibrahim Shaheed Valiyullah, from

Medina Medina,, ', "the radiant city"; or , ', (), "the city" officially Al Madinah Al Munawwarah (, , Turkish: Medine-i Münevvere) and also commonly simplified as Madīnah or Madinah (, ), is the Holiest sites in Islam, second-holiest city in Islam, ...

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...

who came to

to propagate

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...

. Various people believe that

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from the dargah and oil from the lamp burning there have the power to cure all illnesses, especially mental problems. The treatment also included frequent

caning Caning is a form of corporal punishment consisting of a number of hits (known as "strokes" or "cuts") with a single Stick-fighting, cane usually made of rattan, generally applied to the offender's bare or clothed buttocks (see spanking) or ha ...

, beatings supposedly to "drive away the evil". During the day, patients were tied to trees with thick ropes. At night, they were tied to their beds with iron chains. The patients awaited a

divine command Divine command theory (also known as theological voluntarism) is a meta-ethical theory which proposes that an action's status as morally good is equivalent to whether it is commanded by God. The theory asserts that what is moral is determined ...

in their dreams to go back home. For the command to come, it was expected to take anything from two months to several years. As the number of people seeking cure at dargah increased, homes were set up by individuals to reportedly take care of the patients. Most of these homes were set up by people who themselves had come to Erwadi seeking cure for their relatives. The origins of the fire are unknown, but once it spread, there was little hope of saving most of the 45 inmates, who were chained to their beds in the ramshackle shelter in which they slept, though such shackling was against Indian law. Some inmates whose shackles were not as tight escaped, and five people were hospitalized for severe burns. The bodies of the dead were not identifiable.

Aftermath

All mental homes of this type were closed on 13 August 2001, and more than 500 inmates were placed under the care of the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, c ...

. As per

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directions, a commission headed by N. Ramdas was set up to enquire into these deaths. The commission recommended that care of mentally ill people is to be improved, that anybody wishing to set up a mental home to acquire a license, and that all inmates be unchained. In 2007, the owner of the ''Moideen Badusha Mental Home for the Mentally Challenged'', his wife and two relatives were sentenced to seven years imprisonment by a magistrate Court.

References

{{Mental Health in India 2001 fires in Asia Fires in India 2000s in Tamil Nadu Disasters in Tamil Nadu 2001 disasters in India 2001 in India Crime in Tamil Nadu Ramanathapuram district August 2001 events in India