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India is facing a mental health crisis. The WHO reported that more than 15%of the adult population suffers from one or more mental illnesses, needing active medical intervention, and every one in 20 Indians suffers from severe depression. Over a billion people are living within a fragile and critical healthcare ecosystem. India has the global highest rate of suicides, with a loss of 700 lives each day due to complex socioeconomic factors as well as mental illnesses. There are only 43 government-run mental hospitals for a population of more than 1.3 billion people. Suicide helplines and call centres are not regulated and are mostly run by NGOs with minimal supervision in most cases. The stigma around the mental health crisis in our country continues to be a major problem, and this often leads to a vicious cycle of shame, suffering, and ostracization of patients.

The seriousness of this issue is yet to be understood by each individual for there to be a systemic change. The toll of people passing is only going to increase with time if the soundness of the mind is not considered an honest problem.

Let’s talk Policy is a panel discussion series initiated by the Kautilya School of Public Policy that brings forth a select group of panelists, sharing differing views on key national and global relevance and building the dialogue into a conversation for the student community. The series aims to unravel major themes around democracy, politics, and human rights and explore implementing practices’ challenges and rewards. We aim to create a cohesive platform and call on thematic experts to foster a healthy dialogue around the most pressing themes.