Anil Deshmukh: Mental Health Programs Should be Introduced in Jail

While talking about mental health is considered to be a big taboo in the country but the hard truth is that 1 in 4 people in India deals with some form of mental illness during their lifetime. In a recent event, Maharashtra Home Minister Shri Anil Deshmukh said that various training and mental health programs should be conducted in jails for the wellbeing of the prisoners. He delivered this message at a conference titled ‘Silence Todo Insurance Jodo’ organized by Poddar Foundation. It was an open forum to discuss the importance of insurance for Mental Health and to create a collective of stakeholders and advisors to aid the development of insurance policies. to

As a country, it is unfortunate that we have mainly focused on Life Insurance, failing to understand the importance of health coverage, especially that of mental health. Research suggests that 86 percent of the rural population and 82 percent of the urban populace is not covered by health insurance in India. Notably, most health insurers up till now did not even cover mental illnesses in their health plans. However, with the MHCA, the IRDAI has issued a mandate asking insurance providers to include mental illness in their bouquet of services.

Mental health experts say rising life expectancy and changing lifestyles have in recent years led to increasing incidences of depression, anxiety disorders and dementia among others. Unfortunately, this aggravating problem receives little attention, particularly due to low-income levels besides other social challenges.

 Rahul Bose, who is also the founder of an NGO, said even stress and anxiety requires therapy, which unfortunately many people in the country cannot afford. He added that there is a need to have an insurance policy that covers mental health. “We do not wish to lose more people to such ailments and therefore, if mental health insurance comes out it would benefit the lives of many,” added Bose.

 “150 Million Indians are suffering from mental health with little or of no capability and affordability, to access care. The financial burden is extremely high and people with illnesses are often not capable of employment, hence it is extremely important to have mental health insurance products in the Indian market. We hope the collective of advisors will truly work towards creating products, devising avenues for implementation and campaigns to promote ease of adoption,” said Dr. Prakriti.

Nanik Rupani and Ronnie Screwvala, who were also present at this conference said that they believe mental health is our greatest challenge in the 21^st century and they will support this initiative.

We do hope that conferences like these help bring a positive change in society and whoever needs help can get that in a timely fashion