Mental Health in India: Well-being of the youth during Covid-19

According to the National Crime Records Bureau, a third of all suicides in the country in 2020 were among the young. Contributing factors include the disruption caused to their lives due to loss of face-to-face education, routine, and social opportunities that have increased stress, depression, and internalizing disorders. The pandemic has also severely affected their learning abilities, behavior and social skills.

A UNICEF report (2021) found that in India, only 60 per cent of students in schools were able to access remote learning opportunities, while 80 per cent of students learned significantly less through digital education than in physical classes. The transition to online mode has affected their learning and coping skills, increased pressure and mood disorders, affecting their sleep and concentration. This can further lead to a cycle that worsens their neurodevelopment, future performance, and emotional state. welfare. The impact may also be on their problem-solving and interpersonal skills, mainly learned and reinforced in school and college, through participation in sports and recreational activities.

Considering that the average size of a family in India is 4.9 people, family conflict caused or increased due to members being forced to spend time indoors during lockdown and mobility restrictions could contribute. to his anguish. The mental health of disadvantaged youth who do not have or have limited access to technology, parental support and who depend on their social and protective networks for their development and encouragement, is one of the most affected. Similarly, youth at the intersection of caste, gender, or disabilityThose with early life stress, such as orphans, victims of abuse or neglect, and those who have lost family to the pandemic, are also at potential risk of developing serious psychological problems.

The need to strengthen our response to the emotional needs of young people and to provide basic mental health services for them is therefore urgent (Source: Getty Images/Thinkstock)

Girls and young women are at an additional disadvantage. According to a UN Women report, more girls than boys dropped out of school during the pandemic and 65% of parents in India were reluctant to continue girls’ education to save costs. This can lead to an entire generation of girls being unable to complete education, which can lead to depression, low self-esteem and other negative repercussions on their lives. mental health. Their emotional turmoil is compounded by the trauma caused by increased domestic violence 7 and increased domestic responsibilities that give them little time to recover. An increase in unwanted pregnancies and adolescent mortality related to communicable diseases due to insufficient access to general health services, especially for sexual and reproductive health, can also lead to more anxiety.

The need to strengthen our response to the emotional needs of young people and to provide basic mental health services for them is therefore urgent. This must be done by placing young people center stage in all discussions about their mental health, using an intergenerational gender perspective to identify stressors specific to them and building support mechanisms to help them cope and thrive.

With only 41% of young Indians aged 15-24 believing in access to mental health support, countering associated misinformation and stigma is also critical. It is important that educational institutions promote mental health literacy and safe outreach. As schools reopen, the number of counselors must be increased to provide the in-person support that was previously lacking. Teachers can be supported to be key agents, able to identify people at risk and provide supportive advice and referrals when needed. Frontline community workers like how do you have You can do the same at the community level. Self-help resources including literature on mental illness,
Tools to manage it and information on help lines to contact can also be distributed.

Expanding youth-focused mental health infrastructure and provision of affordable services that can develop help-seeking behavior is also important. This would include capacity building of primary health and wellness centres, mental health components of Rashtriya Kishor Swasthya Karyakram and university health programmes. Telemedicine and digital technologies such as WhatsApp groups and chatbots can be leveraged, given the access and acceptability of these platforms by young people, to support interventions. Insights from innovative programs that focus on this demographic, such as Sangath’s Its Ok to Talk, PRIDE, Young Lives Matter, and Yuva Mann initiatives, can help
reaching youth.

Recognize the needs and rights of young people to receive mental health care it is the need of the hour. If not addressed, the economic cost to the country could be approximately Rs 78 crore until 2030 due to missed opportunities. The personal cost could be that young people resort to maladaptive coping mechanisms, such as substance abuse, impulsive risk-taking behavior and suicide. It can also affect your ability to reach your full potential, physical health, and have long-term consequences that last well into adulthood.

(Dr. Chauhan is Professor Emeritus, ICGEB and founder of ETI; Dr. Bhan is a Global Health Researcher and Lead, Sangath (Bhopal Hub)

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