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Rights group calls for end to shackling
Locking up people with mental health conditions in solitary confinement remains a widespread practice, despite a 1977 government ban.
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According to government data from November 2019, roughly 57,000 people with mental health conditions have been shackled at least once in their lives in Indonesia, with approximately 15,000 still in chains. (Shutterstock/SAPhotog)
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ometime in 1999, Stefanus Jehuman rushed to a hospital in Ruteng, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), upon hearing that his brother had been involved in a traffic accident.
Stefanus arrived at the hospital and took care of his brother. Everything went well, until Stefanus suddenly started screaming, giving a shock to everyone in the hospital, said his wife, Theresia Wiwa.
The family immediately brought Stefanus back to his village, but he has not been himself from that day on. He often roamed the village and behaved aggressively and violently toward others, and for that reason, his family kept him locked up and shackled for 21 years.
The family, Theresia said, has recently released him, after finding that his legs were shrinking because they had not been used for two decades, while parts of the legs were swollen.
Stefanus now uses a cane to help him stand. Walking normally is still hard for him, according to Theresia.
"When he was shackled, his family once visited a shaman to treat Stefanus, but he never recovered," Theresia told The Jakarta Post recently.
What happened to Stefanus was also experienced by many others with serious mental health problems in Indonesia.
