Mental health in India

• Top left: The Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan inspecting equipment used in treatment of mentally ill patients at National JALMA Institute in 2014.
• Top right: President Mukherjee awarding Chief Nursing Officer, NIMHANS. India has only 0.8 mental health nurses per 100000 people.
• Bottom left: President Kalam inaugurating a national seminar on the theme "Mentally Ill Women – is Destitution the only Answer?" in 2007.
• Bottom right: Indian Clinical Psychologist H. Narayan Murthy; former head of the department of Clinical psychology, NIMHANS

Mental healthcare in India is a right secured to every person in the country by law.^[1] Indian mental health legislation, as per a 2017 study, meets 68% (119/175) of the World Health Organization (WHO) standards laid down in the WHO Checklist of Mental Health Legislation.^[2] However, human resources and expertise in the field of mental health in India is significantly low when compared to the population of the country.^[3] The allocation of the national healthcare budget to mental health is also low, standing at 0.16%.^[3][4] India's mental health policy was released in 2014.^[5]

The first Western-style mental healthcare institutions date back to the factories of the East India Company in the 17th century. Mental healthcare in colonial India and the years post-independence was custodial and segregationist. It slowly moved towards a more curative and therapeutic nature by the end of the 20th century. Public interest litigations and judicial intervention, followed by reviews and monitoring of the National Human Rights Commission and National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, coupled with an expansion of facilities for developing human resources in the field of mental healthcare, among other changes, has all positively contributed to the state of mental health and healthcare in the country.