The mentally challenged are one of the most vulnerable minority groups in any community and nation. Around 1.5 to 2.5 percent of all the humanity belongs to this category of people. As Ladonna Bogardus observes, “[i]t is estimated that, more than three percent of the total population may be retarded. In other words, in each one hundred thousand population there are more than three thousand retarded persons.” The society at large is not truly paying attention to misfortunes they face. Even Christian churches are also part of the discrimination shown to them. The churches keeps barriers of exclusion, inaccessibility (both structural and sacramental), and indifference to the rights of the disabled. The Church should take the prophetic role of justice and advocacy to mainstream the causes of the mentally challenged. This paper is an attempt to highlight the pains of the mentally challenged in the State of Kerala and the role played by voluntary organizations to empower them and their families. India Center for Social Change (ICSC) is taken as a case study in this pursuit. As such no attempt is made here to investigate the works of other similar agencies and the medico-ethical aspects of the issue.
