The Government of India should increase the expenditure on mental health to at least Rupees ten thousand crores in the Union Budget 2022-23. While the Government has brought multiple progressive laws, including the Mental Healthcare Act 2017, the abysmally low public investment in mental health has led to an acute shortage of mental health professionals and an enormous treatment gap of over 90%. The mental health expenditure by the Union Government is less than 1% of its total health budget, which itself is marginally above 1% of India’s Gross Domestic Product.

The Global Burden of Disease Study estimated that about twenty crore Indians suffer from mental disorders, i.e., one in every seven persons. A budget of Rupees ten thousand crores would amount to Rs 500 for every person living with mental illness, or at the population level, it would be Rs 71 for every Indian. Not a huge amount, but it would be a significant improvement from the current budget of about Rs 7 per Indian.

Improving psychological wellness is also an objective of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDG Target 3.4 seeks to “reduce by one-third premature mortality from non-communicable diseases through prevention and treatment and promote mental health and well-being” by 2030. Target 3.5 aims to “strengthen the prevention and treatment of substance abuse, including narcotic drug abuse and harmful use of alcohol.”

The meagre government spending on mental health in India has led to a shortage of services for people with psychological disorders. There is an immediate necessity of significant public investment for improving mental health services at the level of primary health centres, construction of infrastructure, adequate training of mental health professionals including increasing the number of seats, hiring mental health professionals at every level, enhancing funding for research, creating awareness about mental illnesses, and implementation of the Mental Healthcare Act 2017 and the National Commission for Allied and Healthcare Professions Act 2021. Therefore, the government outlay on mental health must grow multi-fold. Moreover, for better effectiveness and to make the sector a priority of the Government, a Minister of State in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare should be made in charge of the mental health matters.

In her 2021-22 Budget address, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman spoke about nutrition, water supply, Swachh Bharat, clean air, and even vehicle scrapping policy under ‘health and wellbeing’ but did not mention mental health at all. Let us hope that in 2022, our mental health will become as important as old vehicles.