The Indian Practitioner

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Mental Health Day: The Road that India Still has to Travel


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1 Retired Professor and Practising Psychiatrist, Gorakhpur, India
     

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We have just gone through the yearly ritual of enunciating the special needs of the mentally ill on World Mental Health Day. Years of campaigning by human rights advocates have prompted the United Nations to recognize the human rights of the mentally ill through a resolution by the United Nations Human Rights Council. However, the sad fact remains that most coun-tries in the world have not even seen fit to ratify this resolution, let alone treat it with the degree of urgency it clearly merits. The plight of the mentally ill is a matter of collective shame for the entire humankind. But the platitudes have not translated into visible benefits that have percolated down to the ones who need them. Problems also persists because of faulty plan-ning and overall apathy. These have to be addressed head-on if we truly mean to improve the lot of the most disadvantaged among us.

Keywords

Human Rights, Mentally Ill, Ombudsman, UNHRC, World Mental Health Day.
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  • United Nations General Assembly. Mental Health and Human Rights. [Cited 2021 October 17]. Available from: https://undocs.org/A/HRC/36/L.25

  • COVID-19 Mental Disorders Collaborators. Global prevalence and burden of depressive and anxiety disorders in 204 countries and territories in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Lancet. 2021 Oct; 8:S0140-6736(21)02143-7.

  • Prasad AJ. Need to brace ourselves for major mental health issues post COVID-19 pandemic. The Indian Practitioner. 2020 April; 73(4):53-58.

  • Prasad AJ. Need for a mental health Ombudsman in India. The Indian Practitioner. 2019 September; 72(9):38-39.


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  • Mental Health Day: The Road that India Still has to Travel

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Authors

Ashoka Jahnavi Prasad
Retired Professor and Practising Psychiatrist, Gorakhpur, India

Abstract


We have just gone through the yearly ritual of enunciating the special needs of the mentally ill on World Mental Health Day. Years of campaigning by human rights advocates have prompted the United Nations to recognize the human rights of the mentally ill through a resolution by the United Nations Human Rights Council. However, the sad fact remains that most coun-tries in the world have not even seen fit to ratify this resolution, let alone treat it with the degree of urgency it clearly merits. The plight of the mentally ill is a matter of collective shame for the entire humankind. But the platitudes have not translated into visible benefits that have percolated down to the ones who need them. Problems also persists because of faulty plan-ning and overall apathy. These have to be addressed head-on if we truly mean to improve the lot of the most disadvantaged among us.

Keywords


Human Rights, Mentally Ill, Ombudsman, UNHRC, World Mental Health Day.

References