This year on World Health Day, the UN declared their theme as “Depression: Let’s talk.” According to a WHO report, nearly 300 million people suffer from depression, and 4.5% people with depressive disorders are from India.

Founder & CEO of ePsyClinic, Shipra Dawar’s startup is India’s leading online mental health care provider. From a very young age, right from when she went to Australia to study, Shipra battled with depression.

Timely help

“One of the professors there noticed my lack of enthusiasm and he called me in to have a word,” she recounts. “He asked me 'What’s going on?'. I just thought it was my grades and he told me that I had done just fine. While he could see me struggling with my classes, he sensed that I wasn’t my normal chirpy self. He told me then that quietness is a sign of depression, which he could spot.”

He suggested that she should visit a counsellor, and for Shipra that was an alien concept. She immediately told him, “No, I am sane. Why would I need a counsellor?”

"I wouldn’t deny that I didn't have the same biases attached to mental health as the rest of the world did,” says Shipra, adding, “But eventually I was convinced. Those sessions with the student counsellor changed my life. I would sit there and vent and cry my heart out until I was done.”

Shipra went on to become a gold medallist in college and that sense of accomplishment was only the beginning.

In a country with a history of stigma attached to mental illnesses, the gap between patients and facilities does not come as a surprise.

The law

The Mental Healthcare Bill, 2016, recognises certain clauses which would allow the mentally ill persons "the right to live with dignity and without any discrimination on the basis of gender, sex, sexual orientation, religion, culture, caste, social or political beliefs, class, or disability.”

The bill also recognises the rights of an individual to "make an advance directive that dictates the person’s will regarding his/her treatment and also allows them to choose a nominated representative who will direct the authorities about his/her choice of treatment procedure during the illness phase.”

While these clauses protect the rights of mentally ill persons only so far as the right to equal treatment, it does not protect their rights in relation to discrimination from employers and institutions.

While these clauses protect the rights of mentally ill persons only so far as the right to equal treatment, it does not protect their rights in relation to discrimination from employers and institutions.

In a welcome change, the bill also overrides IPC Section 309 and states that, “Any person who attempts to commit suicide shall be presumed, unless proved otherwise, to have severe stress and shall not be tried and punished under the said Code.”

Depression and suicide

With the suicide of 24-year-old Arjun Bharadwaj in the news, another area to focus is on the number of suicides stemming from depression and mental illnesses.

According to WHO, suicide is the second leading cause of death among those aged 15-29, with someone committing suicide every 40 seconds in the world. India alone witnesses 15 suicides every 60 minutes, which is 4 suicides per minute, as per WHO's estimate.

Mental health needs attention and we can no longer side-step it.