SRINAGAR: When art therapist Arshad Hussain gave a patient at occupied Kashmir’s lone psychiatric hospital a canvas, the painting she produced was graphic and disturbing. Twenty-four-year-old Hanifa Akhter, who saw her brother shot dead before her, “rubbed her fingers with red paint, pressed them on the canvas and said, ‘Khoon kay panjay’ (hands of blood),” Hussain recalled.

Her painting was among artworks by 60 patients at the Psychiatric Diseases Hospital displayed this month at a show in Srinagar, the main city in Indian Kashmir where thousands of people have died in a 16-year revolt.

Art is being used as a key therapy to try to help traumatised Kashmiris recover from the torment of living in the midst of one of the world’s deadliest conflicts, where eight to 10 people die daily in guerilla-related violence.

“Art therapy serves two purposes. It helps patients relax and work through their trauma. Secondly, through their art, we can follow the progress of their recovery,” said Hussain, who works for Geneva-based Medecins Sans Frontieres or Doctors Without Borders.

An early drawing by another patient, Zohra, who was also 24 when she was admitted to hospital after seeing a close relative gunned down in front of her, is a tortured scrawl of swirling lines in a single colour — green.

But in a later abstract daub, she uses a palette of cheery colours — red, yellow, green and blue — showing her despair is lifting, he told AFP.

“We can clearly see Zohra is recovering,” says Hussain, pointing to one of her works at the show. Zohra’s family name was not disclosed.

Both patients have since been released from hospital following treatment.

While they were helped, doctors say too many like them receive no assistance.

Doctors say the number of psychiatric illnesses has exploded since the freedom movement’s start in 1989 that has killed over 44,000 people, according to official figures and left many more left maimed, orphaned or widowed. Guerillas say the death toll is at least double.

Hamid Ullah, a doctor at the the Psychiatric Diseases Hospital, said the facility treated 20 to 30 patients daily for mental problems before the uprising against New Delhi’s rule began.

“Now the number is between 150 and 200,” said Shah.

Patients come to the hospital suffering from anxiety, depression, hysteria, post-traumatic stress disorder and schizophrenia.

And the figure only represents the tip of the iceberg, doctors say.

Health workers say most patients do not seek treatment at the hospital due to the stigma in Kashmir surrounding mental illness.

Leading Kashmiri psychiatrist Mushtaq Margoob estimated in a recent study around one-tenth of Kashmir’s 10 million population suffered from depression. He said they were often sad, did not sleep well and took no relish in life.

Margoob estimated around 100,000 were suicidal. Hospitals report two to three suicide attempts daily and one suicide every second day.

Health practitioners say they see little hope of improvement in the mental health of people living in Indian Kashmir as long as the conflict continues.—AFP