The complexities of mental health in rural India

Many parents also impose their interests and passions onto their children, causing them to neglect their own passions.1 Between 2017 and 2023, 23 students died by suicide at Kota, a popular education hub for examination preparation and pre-entrance examinations in Rajasthan, India, due to low examination grades.2 Poor mental health and suicide elsewhere in the world have been detailed in the literature.3 In 2017, 197·3 million people globally were reported as having mental health disorders, including 45·7 million people with depressive disorders and 44·9 million people with anxiety disorders.4 People living in metropolitan cities in India have better access to appropriate mental health care through psychologists and psychiatrists compared with those in rural India. A psychiatrist who is the son of a rationalist movement leader in Maharashtra, Hamid Narendra Dabholkar is actively involved in holding medical camps, providing free medical care to people with mental health disorders, creating awareness around mental health, and leading a movement to remove blind faith from society.8 A strong community movement aligned with religious leaders is urgently required to address the burden of mental health disorders and the associated stigmas in rural India. [...]we appeal for a yearly psychiatric conference to be held at the tomb and for regular publications on mental health and the work being done at this site to be featured in periodicals and newspapers.