The State Of The World’s Children 2021:
Shri Mansukh Mandaviya, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare released UNICEF’s global flagship publication – “The State of the World’s Children 2021; On My Mind: promoting, protecting and caring for children’s mental health”.
- The report details the significant impact of COVID-19 pandemic on children’s mental health.
- The report has found that around 14 percent of 15 to 24-year-olds in India, or 1 in 7, reported often feeling depressed or having little interest in doing things. Across 21 countries, the median was one in five young people.
- In the UNICEF survey across 21 countries, only 41 per cent of young people in India were willing to seek support for mental health problems, compared to an average of 83 per cent for 21 countries.
- As per the report, India was the only one of 21 countries where only a minority of young people felt that people experiencing mental health issues should reach out to others. In every other country, a majority of young people (ranging from 56 to 95 per cent) felt that reaching out was the best way to deal with mental health issues.
- Over 286 million children up to grade 6 were out of school in India between 2020-2021. UNICEF’s rapid assessment in 2021 found that only 60 per cent could access digital classrooms. Many would not be able to continue their education.
- Meanwhile, wide gaps persist between mental health needs and mental health funding. India has spent only 0.05 per cent of its health budget annually on mental health, according to Indian Journal of Psychiatry 2017.
- As the trend of nuclear family instead of joint family has increased in our society, mental health problems have become frequent in children.
