Does education plays a role in meeting the human rights needs of Indian women with mental illness?

BACKGROUND: Globally women are one of the vulnerable populations and women without education and with mental illness are doubly disadvantaged. AIM: To find out the role of education in meeting the human rights needs of women with mental illness at family and community levels. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A descriptive design was carried out among randomly selected recovered women (N = 100) with mental illness at a tertiary care center. Data was collected through face-to-face interview using a structured questionnaire. RESULTS: Our findings revealed that human rights needs in physical needs dimension, i.e. access to safe drinking water (χ(2) = 7.447, P < 0.059) and serving in the same utensils (χ(2) = 10.866, P < 0.012), were rated higher in women with illiteracy. The human rights needs in emotional dimension, i.e. afraid of family members (χ(2) = 13.266, P < 0.004), not involved in making decisions regarding family matters (χ(2) = 21.133, P < 0.00) and called with filthy nicknames (χ(2) = 8.334, P < 0.040), were rated higher in literate women. The human rights needs in religious needs dimension, i.e. allowed to go to temple, church, mosque etc. (χ(2) = 9.459, P < 0.024), were not satisfied by the illiterate women. Similarly, literate women felt that they were discriminated by community members due to their illness (χ(2) = 9.823, P < 0.044). CONCLUSION: The findings of the present study suggested that women without education were more deprived of human rights needs than literate women. Thus, there is an urgent need to improve literacy of women and to strengthen the legal framework to protect the rights of the women with mental illness.