DisasterDMK-AIADMK alternation
Erwadi mental home fire
· Erwadi
Chained to their beds, 28 inmates died when fire swept through a faith-based mental asylum at Erwadi.
Erwadi, a village in Ramanathapuram district, drew many people because of a dargah widely thought to heal mental illness. Fire engulfed its Moideen Badusha Mental Home on 6 August 2001, and twenty-eight inmates, kept in chains at the shelter, were killed. On 13 August 2001 every mental home of that kind in Erwadi was shut, and over 500 inmates were transferred to government care. A commission appointed at the Supreme Court's direction called for mental homes to be licensed and for all inmates to be freed from chains. The disaster brought broader attention to how people with mental illness were treated across India.
