I am Rutika, a proud Indian citizen and a resident of Delhi-NCR. I am outraged over the eviction process initiated by the New Delhi Municipal Committee (NDMC), New Delhi against Sumaitri Crisis Intervention Centre, an NGO which has been providing much-needed and much-appreciated emotional support to people who are undergoing a crisis in their lives. People who are either anxious, distressed, depressed or suicidal, or suffering from some form of mental illness contact Sumaitri to seek help.

In these challenging times, when we are worried about our jobs, our business, our studies, our health, our basic survival, our worries, and anxieties have increased multifold. Needless to say that most of us have been affected by some anxiety or the other. I feel I am fortunate to know about a center like Sumaitri which has always been supporting and helping me to live in this world with sanity and dignity. In our loneliness, we need someone to sit with us and listen to us and also respect our feelings. Someone like a Sumaitri volunteer who does not make the other person feel that he or she is a ‘problem person or put a label. The Sumaitri volunteer listens with patience and understanding and that makes an agitating or anxious mind to relax and unwind himself or herself. Many times, this is the first time for a person in crisis to feel ‘normal’ because of the volunteer at the center.

I feel angry towards an unfairness that is being dished out to the people in the NCR who find it tough to deal with their life situations and who need emotional support. On account of this eviction by NDMC, this life-saving support in many cases may not exist. Where does a person who feels lonely, anxious, distressed, or suicidal go for help if a center like Sumaitri does not exist? What makes me angrier is the timing of this eviction. Today, when we need more centers like Sumaitri working in different parts of the city, the current one is being shut. It’s important to ensure that services like Sumaitri continue to provide help to the citizens at all times. Sumaitri volunteers are neither paid any allowances or salaries for their duties, nor the persons seeking help are charged a paisa. All services are absolutely FREE.

Mental Health crisis during Covid 19

I have a keen interest in the areas of mental health and I care for the emotional well-being of people around me. Mental health has been traditionally a neglected and underfunded field in India in general. This pandemic has been increasing the demand for mental health services and it's not difficult to gauge why. Loss of loved ones, loss of jobs, social isolation, anxiety, long Covid symptoms, and survivor’s guilt are just some of the challenges faced by people. I recall getting a call from a cousin who was trembling with anxiety because she lives close to the highway and during the deadly Covid second wave close to eight ambulances with shrieking sirens had raced past her building in a short span of 15 minutes. She was worried, tense, anxious, and fearful of catching the virus at any moment. I encouraged her to speak to Sumaitri. I was glad that my cousin was able to seek support in time from Sumaitri.

Need for crisis intervention centers like Sumaitri

Many of us may be fortunate to have the support of friends but there many, many more people who don’t have anyone to turn to when they are in crisis. Ironically at a time when the need is the greatest for providing emotional support to those feeling depressed, distressed and suicidal, the 30 years old crisis intervention center, Sumaitri is being evicted from NDMC Delhi premises.

I do not like the idea of seeing people like Sumaitri being evicted when what they do is most needed by the people of Delhi. I do not want Delhiites to suffer for lack of emotional support. I want Sumaitri volunteers to continue filling in that gap for those people when they need their support most.

Why do I vouch for the work by Sumaitri?

Sumaitri has been doing all the good work since 1988 from the NDMC complex. Its role in mental healthcare support is evident from the fact that most of the newspaper stories covering suicides in the Delhi region publish the Sumaitri suicide helpline number.

"We have been receiving 7-8 calls daily and during this pandemic, this number has jumped to 10-12. Some of them belong to the high-suicide risk category," is what I got a response from Nalini, Director of Sumaitri about the impact of the pandemic.

Despite pandemic-induced challenges, Sumaitri has been continuing to provide emotional support to people who needed it.

Struggling for space

But now, their future seems to be in the dark and they are struggling for their existence, as notices have been served to them by the New Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) to vacate the space given to Sumaitri at the Aradhana Hostel Complex on Bhagwan Das Lane in New Delhi.

Since it is a voluntary organization, Sumaitri neither pays its volunteers any money nor does it charge anyone in need. So, for the center, it’s not possible to survive and function from any commercial office complex and the NDMC has been very kind for three decades to have been supporting Sumaitri.

Why is it critical to have NGOs like Sumaitri in India and more so in the NCR region?

In 2017, the President of India, Ram Nath Kovind, speaking at the 22nd convocation of the National Institute of Mental Health asserted that India was “facing a possible mental health epidemic”. A study revealed that in the same year, 14% of India’s population suffered from mental health ailments, including 45.7 million suffering from depressive disorders and 49 million from anxiety disorders.

In India, having a mental health disorder is perceived with a sense of judgment and there is a stigma associated with those having mental health issues (The Live Love Laugh Foundation, 2018). Mental disorders are also considered as being a consequence of a lack of self-discipline and willpower. The stigma associated with mental health as well as lack of access, affordability, and awareness leads to significant gaps in treatment. The National Mental Health Survey (NMHS), 2015-16 found that nearly 80% of those suffering from mental disorders did not receive treatment for over a year.

Recently, India is ranked 139 out of 149 countries in the latest happiness index. In various reports, people around the country have reported being anxious and fearful of losing their loved ones to COVID-19. Currently, more than 65% of those aged 18-24 years in India suffer from depression.

Specifically, in the Delhi region, the number of people who died by suicide in Delhi rose by more than two-and-a-half times in 2019 compared to the previous year, although overall suicides because of various health reasons dipped significantly, according to data released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). The data does not capture the number of suicide attempts. Nearly seven people died by suicide every day on average in 2019. A study by the American Association of Suicidology showed that only one in every 25 suicide attempts in the US ended in death and although we don't have equivalent studies for India, my hunch is that this number could be much higher.

While the data for this year is not still available, there have been a number of instances when people have died by suicide either after getting infected by Covid-19 or due to the financial impact of the pandemic.

What experts say about the urgent focus for mental healthcare and emotional support during and post-pandemic?

The National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) in Bengaluru identifies “anxiety about death and dying in unnatural circumstances without access to family and friends” as one of the primary psychological issues to emerge in this pandemic.

Dr. Samir Parikh, a psychiatrist who is the director of the department of mental health and behavioral sciences at Fortis Healthcare in Delhi says, “It is the most basic form of existential anxiety, the fear for one’s life.”

The inability to make sense of loss can have long-term mental health consequences, including depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and anxiety, says Dr. Anjali Chhabria, a clinical psychiatrist in Mumbai.

The effects of isolation are visible on India’s young population too, whose dreams and aspirations Covid has put in limbo. Nikhil Taneja, co-founder, and CEO of Yuvaa, a youth media, data insights, and community engagement organization, says, “There is a lot of frustration and irritation over the fact that the opportunity to start over has been taken away from them. There’s also the fear of transferring the virus to the elderly in the family—and possibly causing their death.”

A clinical psychologist by profession and co-author of the Age of Anxiety, published in April 2021, Dr. Kamna Chhibber writes: “The uncertainty about future outcomes has increased people’s levels of stress and feelings of vulnerability. This compromises their sense of security and makes them feel out of control of the situations of their lives.”

Rajat Mitra, a clinical psychologist in Delhi, fears that suicide figures this year could be significantly higher than in previous years. “People have lost their jobs and their businesses have taken a hit, but right now they are living off their savings. Once they begin getting a sense of the loss and their savings start drying up, the situation could get worse,” said Mitra.

Reasons for my initiating this petition & what do I want?

On April 27, 2021, Dr. Harsh Vardhan, the Union minister for health and family welfare, declared that India was ready to face the second wave both “mentally and physically”. Yet, mental health has hardly been a priority. as it is evident in the actions of NDMC in asking Sumaitri to vacate and definitely their actions to seal part of the premises do not support the Union Minister’s words.

Kindness and empathy are two healing forces. Helping others is the best antidote in these times. And, this is exactly what I want from the Union Government of India, NDMC, and Delhi Government.

I want NDMC to immediately cancel the eviction process and continue to support Sumaitri to operate from NDMC premises in Aradhana Hostel, New Delhi.