India ranks 11th in top 15 countries of Asia Pacific Region, in terms of Mental Healthcare!

With an average of 300 people committing suicide daily in the year 2016, the number of Indians suffering from mental illness exceeds the total population of South Africa, a recently released India Spend report stated. While another study conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) to evaluate various indicators of mental healthcare, India ranks 11th in a list of 15 countries of the Asia-Pacific region.

Currently, India accounts for nearly 6.5 percent of the population who is suffering from some sort of mental illness and is expected that the number will further increase to 20 percent by the end of the year 2020.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates nearly 4.5 percent (56 million Indians) of India’s population suffer from depression and around 3 percent (38 million Indians) of country’s population, suffer from anxiety disorder. While many of them suffer from both the type of mental illness.

The appalling state of India’s mental health care is a cause for great concern where nobody wants to discuss the depression and anxiety disorder. But the nation cannot afford to ignore some of the stark realities. Most of the government run hospitals lack essential infrastructure, psychiatric drugs and treatment facilities and visiting a private clinic for treatment requires more money which is an expensive proposition for most of the Indian families.

Further, the ministry of health and family welfare report states that India faces a treatment gap of 50-70 percent for mental healthcare, which means more than half of the population does not get the required treatment and medical facilities. As per the government data, there are merely 3,800 psychiatrists and 898 clinical psychologists in the nation of more than 1 billion population, of which most of them are practicing in urban areas.

In India, only 0.16 percent of the total union health care budget is allocated for mental health care, which is far less than that of Bangladesh that spends 0.44 percent of its total union health care budget for the same. While the developed nations’ account to an average of four percent.

Another survey conducted by National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro-Sciences (NIMHANS) estimates that 13.7 percent of the Indian population above the age of 18 suffers from mental morbidity, requiring immediate intervention. The survey further suggests that one in every 20 Indians suffers from depression whereas around one percent of Indians suffer from great suicidal risks. Nearly 9.8 million children in the age group of 13-17 years are suffering from mental health concerns and require an active intervention.

Recently, the World Bank has identified mental health as a Global Development Priority and recognizes the serious impact of mental health on nation’s economic development and individual’s well-being. Thus, PSM-India requests the government to increase its union healthcare budget and allocate sufficient funds for mental health care as many of these illnesses can be treated and also urges the government to implement a community-based sustainable program to support rural mental health care treatment.