India, China must pay more heed to social issues
China and India together contribute nearly 25 per cent to the world’s GDP in purchasing power parity (PPP) terms, according to an International Monetary Fund report. But they also together account for more than 30 per cent of the world’s mentally ill, as per reports published in the prestigious lancet journals. last year, a report released by PricewaterhouseCoopers, predicted China and India to be the two leading global economic powers by 2050. The report ‘World in 2050', records Asia's rise to global economic pre-eminence. How is it then, that two of the world’s fastest-growing economies are unable to care enough for their mentally ill, affected by neurological and substance use disordersIJ Even more worrisome is the fact that less than 10 per cent of them receive adequate treatment. For countries like India, mental illness is more of a social stigma than a disease. Once such disorders are made public, not only the patient but also the family often faces social ostracism. This prevents many of the victims' families from reporting to the medical professionals concerned. With China and India being closed societies, compared with their Western counterparts, mental and neurotic diseases either go unreported or hardly receive proper treatment. China and India have recorded 17 per cent and 15 per cent respectively of patients with depressive and anxiety disorders.
This is an alarming rate, and it can have a regressive impact on the youth as they are the most common victims of such disorders. While moving up the development ladder, both the nations must re-look at their social sectors which demand even more attention and investment than the prized economic sector. It seems the fallout of economic globalisation is seriously affecting the health of the socio-cultural fabric of our societies. The poor and the most vulnerable sections like women, old-aged and children, suffering from mental illness, ought to be given top priority when it comes to treatment. Governments should focus on developing fresh mental health reforms and initiatives. This will help expand acute and more community-based mental healthcare systems that reach out to the neglected victims. Both the nations are witnessing a record growth of their middle class population that contributes substantially to the workforce. So, the stigma attached to the mentally ill should not be allowed to enter the workplace, as this will isolate the affected persons further and worsen their state.
Besides the social issues connected with reporting mentally ill patients (with the patients’ themselves often refusing to believe they are suffering), there is the lack of adequately qualified professionals who are easily accessible to the less privileged sections of society. The unqualified often consider, and even deride, mentally ill patients as ‘mad’. The unfortunate person thus becomes a target of jokes and is not handled with the sensitivity the case deserves.