India, Jan. 18 -- 'As per rules, chief of the hospital must be a qualified psychiatrist'.

New Delhi: For the last seven years, a mental hospital in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh-the biggest mental hospital in the entire central region of India-is being headed by a gynaecologist, raising questions and concerns among stakeholders about how serious policymakers were about the well-being of mental patients in India.

Gwalior Mansik Arogyashala (GMA), a 250-bed hospital established in 1935, has not had a "qualified" director for the last many years. The incumbent director Jyoti Bindal, who is an MD in gynaecology, is working as the director of this institution since December 2012.

Last September, after she was appointed as the dean of the Gandhi ...