India: Covid taking a toll on people’s mental health
Web report/New Delhi
AFP photo used for illustrative purpose
Experts have been handling about 40 calls a day over the past year
These are indeed the worst of times, with the Covid pandemic sweeping across, hundreds of thousands of people losing their jobs, experiencing personal tragedies with the death of near ones, and at the same time, being restricted to their homes because of the lockouts. Not surprisingly, these are having a huge impact on people’s mental health.
“There has been a rise in people inflicted with helplessness, acute anxiety, panic, grief and guilt, and post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD) as they struggle to come to terms with the disaster,” Abdul Mabood, founder of the Delhi-based SNEHI foundation, which launched a Covid specific mental health helpline last April, told a newspaper.
“The value of the emergency cash transfer worked out to less than $5 per month, which was grossly inadequate,” Satendra Singh, disability activist, told
IndiaSpend. “It should have been $1.9 per day, as per the International Labour Organization recommendation, or Rs 5,000 per month. Further, [the eligibility meant] only 8% of working-age adults with disabilities [were covered].”
In its Covid-19 response, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific
urged countries to cover the “missing middle” – a group whose income often disqualifies its members from poverty-targeted schemes in which they do not have to contribute.
At the same time, many do not participate in contributory schemes (such as the
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