Highlights:
- Congress asks government to form a policy to deal with the rising mental health concerns
- Congress claimed that 1 in 7 Indian is suffering from a mental health issue
- Congress said the mental health problem has seen significant growth after COVID-19
On Tuesday, the Congress party asked the central government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to come out with an active policy and allocate resources to address the problem of a rise in the mental health issues which have surged amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
Raising the issue of mental health and surge in its issues a senior Congress leader Anand Sharma said in Rajya Sabha, today, that there are reports which indicate that 1 in 7 people in India is suffering from depression.
Congress leader Anand Sharma said, “The number of persons affected by mental health issues has exponentially increased after the COVID-19 crisis especially students and children who are committing suicide across the country,”.
Sharma added that the reason behind this is that many children are not able to access online study courses and is aided by the non-availability of the midday meals and fear of getting infected by the novel Coronavirus.
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The senior Congress leader also said that efforts are needed to make sure people are educated and sanitised about the mental diseases. Sharma demanded that the mental illness must be mandatorily put under the ambit of life insurances.
He added that by doing so people will see mental illness through the same lens as that of any other physical disease.
The 67 year old Congress leader also said that both Central and State Governments need to evolve innovative modes to deepen the penetration of services and even set up helplines and counselling centres all across the country.
He added, it is disturbing that India witnesses 1 suicide every 3 minutes and 30 seconds. Additionally, Indian accounts for 15% of the total number of suicides all across the globe. He added that out of 8 lakh suicides happening in the world, 1.39 lakh suicides happen in India.
Samajwadi Party also expressed concerns over the mental health issue which are being faced by both organised and unorganised workforce due to the unemployment caused by the global pandemic. The party demanded that the government should provide a monthly allowance of Rs 15,000 to those who lost their jobs.
Ram Gopal Yadav, leader of the Samajwadi Party, said that many people in the country are jobless because of the pandemic and the lockdown which was implemented to contain its spread and these people are going through tremendous stress. In the past 3 to 4 months in Noida alone, 44 people have committed suicide and 175 people have died, he said.
