In the past decade, India has made strides in addressing mental health issues in many sections of its populace, except one — school children. The Hindu takes a look at the neglected sector of school mental health programmes.
One of the major drawbacks of India’s mental healthcare sector is the inadequate manpower. As per the World Mental Health Atlas (2017), India had 0.29 psychiatrists per lakh population (plp) and zero child plp.
Among other professionals, there were 0.8 mental health nurses plp and 0.07 psychologists plp. In total, there were only 25,312 mental health professionals in India, with only 49 child psychiatrists, as of 2017.
Read the full story: How does India tackle mental health issues among school children?
Reporting: Suchitra Karthikeyan
Voiceover & Production: K. Rajashree Das
