Being a forensic psychiatrist in India: Responsibilities, difficulties, and criticalities

Abstract

Forensic psychiatry is in its infancy in India. There is a clear module or a well-structured training in the country except for recently opened few courses. Lack of trainer in the field might lead to compromised state when one has to take decision between the well-being of a person versus society. Starting from social contexts, such as marriage and mental illness, to the interpretation of criminal mind, there is a multitude of situations where forensic psychiatrist has a handful of jobs which suffer due to lack of infrastructure. In this article, we delineate the importance of a forensic psychiatrist in different civil as well as legal scenarios and difficulties often faced while handling it.

Keywords

• Forensic psychiatry
• law
• mental illness
• offender