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Journalism of Courage
A study conducted by the WHOs World Mental Health Survey Initiative across 18 countries 10 high-income nations including the US,Japan and Israel,and eight low-to-middle income countries including India,China,South Africa and Brazil has found that India has the highest percentage of people with a major depressive episode in their lifetime. The figure is 35.9 per cent. The study,published by the peer-reviewed journal BMC Medicine,has got an immediate and furious rebuttal from the ministry of health,which has sought to debunk them as highly inflated. Somewhere in the refutation was also an indignation over the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Delhi,which tabulated the figures,sending a very biased picture without consulting the ministry.
In surveys like these,data can always be contested,and placing countries on a depression or happiness chart is bound to be an inexact science. But the ministrys reaction appears to draw less from quibbling over numbers,than from a reflexive distaste for bad news. There is,away from the survey,no denying the inadequate attention given in Indias public health network to problems related to mental health. The problem is compounded by social prejudice and individual or familial reluctance to disclose and discuss mental health disorders,resulting often in unreported and untreated cases.
