Here, I will take a detour from my first culture post in which I advertised key areas within Bali's culture that I wished to investigate. This culture post concerns a phenomenon called pasung. This topic hits closer to home because it is a phenomenon with which my language partner and I would like to study this summer.
Pasung may be defined as the shackling of people with mental disorders. Fifty-seven thousand people with mental illness have experienced pasung at least once in their lives, and 18,800 people are believed to be shackled in Indonesia today. Approximately 300 people in Bali, Indonesia, are currently suffering from this practice.ii Because of the scarcity of resources that provide mental health treatment — there are 48 mental health institutions for the country’s 250 million people and only one in Bali, for instance — families with loved ones who have psychological disabilities resort to either social care institutions or their homes. Social care institutions are known for their practices of “arbitrary detention, physical and sexual violence, and involuntary treatment” while administering medication. Furthermore, the conditions in social care institutions are woeful: they are overcrowded, unsanitary, and lack basic amenities, such as bathrooms. People are chained to the floor lying in their excrement and urine with only a bucket of water to bathe themselves.
Despite the government’s long-standing positions and recent initiatives to put an end to pasung, hurdles such as 1) a lack of access to medication, 2) education, and 3) traditional belief systems about mental illness make it difficult to eradicate pasung entirely. Indeed, the government formally banned pasung in 1977 and set into motion a program called “Indonesia Free from Pasung” in 2014. Nevertheless, access to medication remains a large headwind in decreasing pasung. According to the Indonesian Ministry of Health, 90% of individuals are unable to enjoy mental health services. As it stands, Bali only has 25 psychiatrists for the island’s 4.2 million inhabitants.vi In addition, the lack of education is a roadblock: Fewer than 10% of Indonesia’s population have a university-level education, while only 43% have graduated primary school.vii In this light, a common belief that mental health disabilities are the result of supernatural phenomena such as a curse persists. Consequently, many Indonesians conclude that mental health conditions cannot be treated and stigmatization abounds.
It is a devastating topic, indeed. But one that reveals a great deal about the Balinese people's understanding of mental illness.
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