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MENTAL HEALTH AS A TABOO IN TODAY'S INDIAN SOCIETY.

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• Natasha Raphael

In a so called 'modern' world and a society that has progressed so much, we still have managed to take a hundred steps backwards when it comes to mental health and illness. 

In spite of an escalating number of mental health patients, the subject of mental health illness, is still by and large a taboo topic for several Indians. 

WHO studies report that 6.5% of the Indian population suffers from some form of mental disorders. Mental illnesses are amongst the most common ailments, and yet are the least understood in today's society. This is a large contributor to the misconceptions, misunderstandings, ignorance and insensitive attitudes towards mental disorders and Health.

Psychological disorders are often considered as the result of personal weaknesses or a personality flaw, when the actual cause that is the imbalance of neurotransmitters in the brain is pushed aside and not even looked upon. In our societies today, myths view mental illnesses as a state of permanency and little importance is given to the fact that they are completely treatable.

Society also associates the causes of mental health issues with bad parenting and social hierarchies while numerous researches shows that mental disorders are caused due to multiple interactions of biological, psychological and genetic factors. The roots of psychological disorders most often stem from the childhood stage and remain untreated until adulthood, because most parents refuse to accept that their children suffer from mentally illnesses out of fear of embarrassment or social stigma. For example, attempting suicide is perceived as an act of cowardice and while the average suicide rate in India is 10.9% for every one lakh of the population, a large portion of this sample remains undiagnosed. The myth is that suicide is an impulsive action when in truth there are numerous signals that people contemplating suicide give, that indicate their feelings of helplessness and desperation. 

The failure of developing an environment where the subject of mental health can be discussed freely and openly is a large contribution to the factors making mental health and disorders a taboo in Indian societies. There are 113 laws in the Indian constitution that take away the rights of individuals with mental ailments. This serves as reflection of the shambles of our society's sophistication and acceptance when it comes to mental illness and health. It remains to be a taboo due to society's failure to recognize the importance of mental health and it's treatment as well as the mythical beliefs surrounding it.

COUNTERVIEW

• Shania Nunes

Mental Health in India was a very big taboo, but slowly thanks to education and social media awareness programs, we Indians are opening up and becoming more aware, sensitive and supportive of mental health and such issues.

India’s health minister unveiled the country’s first-ever mental health policy, The National Mental Health Program, calling for an increase in funds to provide those with mental illness accessible and affordable care. The policy calls for a higher number of mental health professionals to be trained, from community-based counselors to specialized psychiatrists. In a country where mental health has long been ignored, the policy is extraordinarily progressive and sensitive to the social impact of mental illness, like stigma and poverty. The emphasis of the new policy is on the rights of the mentally ill including the suggestion that attempted suicide should be decriminalized. The policy also draws attention to the largely neglected need to support caregivers, who are almost always family members in India.

“Mental illness invokes terror and revulsion because people don’t know how to react to it,” said Mr. Desiraju, a famed psychiatrist. Adding that the policy portrays mental illness as a disease instead of a personal defect, which is how many in India see it. The move demonstrates the government’s commitment to overhauling a largely non-existent mental healthcare system. According to India’s 12th five-year economic plan, the total budget for the National Mental Health Program is almost 5.4 billion rupees ($88.4 million).

Bollywood too, has opened up to mental health; normalizing the subject and not making it seem like such a taboo. Stars like Shahrukh Khan, Ileana D'Cruz, Randeep Hooda, Varun Dhawan, Anushka Sharma and many more have openly spoken about their battles with mental health conditions. Deepika Padukone, not only opened up about herself suffering from depression in a TV interview but also took a step ahead to establish a centre for mental health to help people going through the same phase.

All this goes to show how the Indian Mindset is slowly opening up and changing to be more open and supportive with regards to mental illnesses. All urban schools have councilors. Therapy and counselling are no longer looked upon as an embarrassment.  On social media one can clearly see the outpouring support for awareness programs, for example Project Semicolon, a movement dedicated to presenting hope and love to those who are struggling with depression, suicide, addiction, and self-injury. Progress might be slow, but change is happening.

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                     IS ADVERTISING NECESSARY ?

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- Allen Brun

                      

We are living in the age of advertisement, we can see all around the traders and the business management display their products through advertisement. Everybody wants to be number one in the race of competition in selling their products in advertising creatively and attractively. Advertisement has become necessary in every walk of life.

Some years ago we used to see these advertisement in the newspapers, cinema halls,on the walls of the public places and in the magazines but nowadays TV leads in advertising. Advertisement is the main source of income for the newspapers, magazines and television.

It is a big advantage for the producers and consumers. Models too earn a lot of money by acting in advertisements. All the businessmen spending money on the advertisement lavishly. We see big posters and signboards on the crossings of the roads, at railway station and on the walls of the cities.So many a times good first class quality of goods lose their value without advertisement  Whereas medium quality of products have more sales because of advertisement. It proves a polished way of cheating innocent public.

Nowadays business man spend more money on the advertisement rather than improving the quality of their products. Government should take a step in checking these advertisement so that the businessmen may not cheat the consumers for their own selfish motives.

Finally I conclude in saying that according to me advertisement is a method used to attract people's attention to sell the products easily. It gives the general public information about new goods and services, which in turn increases efficiency of the nation's economy.

                                   Counter view

                          -  Merlin

Advertisement may create misunderstanding of the product. They also show a very rosy picture of their product to the customer to increase their number of sales. If the advertisement is already been advertised on the television and want to convey the message to the people but is wrongly understood then it is difficult to change or remove quickly.

If a business wants to advertise a special offer or a new product or service a new spot must be produced and time slots need to be purchased which could be time consuming and costly. Small firms cannot properly advertise their product due to limited resources.

Most of the time distorted version of reality is also shown. People also believe in those advertisements and also buy the product after the usage then they feel cheated by the advertisement.

Advertising leads to unnecessary raise in prices. Advertising costs are passed on to the consumer in the form of high prices. Advertisement creates the desire and the taste for the new product which are not actually necessary of life and income on the consumer. Children cannot make the informed choice or cannot differentiate between the real life and in the fake like in the world or ad. It reduce the people or the customer into classes based on inference that are made from people.

Advertisement restricts the computation among the products. Big industrialists and manufactures may increase the individuals control with the help of advertisement technique which is always against the interest of the public. Some advertisement show immoral values and features in the television.

      

        

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IS SPORTS BECOMING A BUSINESS

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    - By Ronak M.B

The role of sports to make life exotic; healthy and wealthy is terrific.

Presently, it has been extremely debatable whether involvement of corporate world in the field of sports invites more pros than cons or not. Sports is becoming a business because the competitive spirit among teams and individuals across all sports has been decreasing over a period of time. When a sport becomes a business, the focus shifts from talent to profit.

Although big prize monies and sponsorship deals can attract fresh talent into the game, sometimes the same can lead to problems like match fixing. It is not uncommon for international cricket and football players to get involved in match fixing controversies.

The pressure to perform can also compel many players to consume performance-enhancing drugs. What’s more, the events that attract corporate involvement are already popular on their own. For example, in India cricket is hugely popular so companies are eager to sponsor cricketers. Players of other less popular events don’t have any sponsors.

According to me the players no more play for the thrill and love of the game but have been lured and entangled into the vicious web of match fixing. They have become commodities to be traded and sold for extravagant sums of money and even clubs are being sold to the highest bidders. This has hampered and defamed the spirit of the game.

The spirit of loyalty due to expensive rewards to allure players, which may lead criminal activities such as doping; fixing and violence behaviour. Therefore, the chance of illegal ways to win incredible awards is gaining ground due to surplus money in sports.  

Lastly, exposure to eke out surplus money in sports might discourage youngsters to become professionals like doctors, lawyers etc. which do not yield as high a income to people as some sports do.

COUNTERVIEW
 - Arko Hazra

According to me sports is not a good choice of business the logic of competition and success is completely different. What makes football or basketball so exhilarating is that only one team wins at the end of a season. In the case of the world cup, there is one world champion, and all the other teams with crushed dreams and dispirited fans. For one team to win, every other team must lose.

The logic of business competition is nothing like this. The most successful companies, those that win big and create the most economic value, worry less about crushing the competition than about delighting and amazing their customers. The very idea of zero-sum competition (for me to win, you must lose) feels like a relic from a long-ago era of business.

Virtually every industry has room for plenty of different winners, each of which is great at serving a distinct piece of the market or a certain set of customers. The creation of economic value is completely different. Even the most ardent sports fans are quick to agree with the idea that a sport is a business. And the business of sports, it turns out, may offer even fewer lessons for business leaders than what happens on the field.

Unlike most billion-dollar businesses, which are owned by shareholders and governed by a board of directors, nearly every football team is owned by a single individual, and they are accountable to virtually no one besides the other billionaire owners. There are very few teams that are owned by non-profit organizations.

However in India, the scope for many sports is not as much as compared to other countries. Take football for example, the chances of a very successful football player in India is comparatively lesser compared to the other sports. This itself reduces the chances of business through football.

However, India excels in other sports such as cricket, hockey and badminton. But in any case, lack of business competition and business logic prevents it from being a

business.

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VIEWS ON USING FACEBOOK

VIEW: TARUN SUJIT KUMAR

On the positive side of using facebook it connects people to other people who they have lost contact with after a long time.  It allows people to share information with their friends, who then will share it with their friends and so on. It also connects people who live in other countries and to people of many different cultures and religions. In my opinion the use of Facebook allows kids these days who are shy to speak to people in the real world to come out of this safe zone of theirs and communicate with others. In this present world everything is being socialised and digitized and this is an advantage to the new generation of kids who can use this as a learning opportunity to expand their horizons. Facebook allows their users to participate in ongoing voting and debates and various quizzes. Nowadays, it is seen that the younger generation who uses Facebook has a broader mind and more knowledge about the political, social and various other causes that are currently occuring in the world.

Facebook is a place where people can share their thoughts, causes, ideas and can then ask people who they are friends with to comment on whatever they have posted and let them give their insight to the person who posted it in the first place. According to me Facebook enhances the social skills of everybody, at any age. When this social media website is used in the right way it increases the self-esteem of that person and also allows them to be less isolated. Facebook is also one of the easiest social media websites to use in the whole world.

When new users start using it for the first time, the site gives them a tutorial on how it works and on what all features it contains. When people are bored and do not have anything to do Facebook is the number 1 thing that they check on their smartphones or laptops or tablets etc. Another good point of using Facebook is that the users and identify  people before accepting a friend request from a person and Facebook double checks whether or not the user knows the person before accepting or sending a friend request. When you become a Facebook user you have complete control over your account and can report to the customer service if needed.  This is my view on the use of Facebook in the current world.      

COUNTER VIEW: RICKY MERVIN STEPHENS

Facebook is one of the first few apps created to bring people closer to each other. Although a huge success, Facebook does have its downside. Most people might disagree, but students who are on Facebook tend to have lower grades when compared to those who aren’t on it. This fact is disagreed upon as in this modern age almost everybody is a user of Facebook.

Although Facebook provides a proper amount of security to its users, many users delete and create new accounts as their previous one had been hacked. Once a user’s account has been hacked, the hacker has the freedom of reading that account holders chats, is able to contact that users friends and also has the ability of using that holders pictures to create fake profiles.

Fake profiles is another drawback of Facebook as these fake profile users, use pictures and names of other people in order to scam people into giving them a sum of money, or create a fantasy with a user making them think that they are in a healthy relationship with them. In this modern day, fake profiles are used to get into relationships with different people and this is termed as ‘catfish’.

Facebook is also used in determining how well-known a person is or how good one’s social life is, depending on the amount of reaction reactions, likes and comments on one’s post, the greater is that person in real life. If a user has a healthy amount of likes, etc. on Facebook, he/she may not have a healthy social life in reality. 

The app is also said to be one of the main causes of depression among teenagers and young adults users, as posts put up by one’s friends on Facebook tends to create jealousy between friends and also sends people into depression as they think that they are leading a boring and unsuccessful lifestyle.

Facebook may have many drawbacks, but if used in the proper manner and if one’s life is determined by how well-known they are on social media, Facebook is still one of the most useful apps that helps connecting people, either living on the same street or living halfway across the world.

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SOCAL DISCREDITING

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Social discrediting or “stigma”, a word often used in sociology and plays a secretive but crucial role in India’s cultural background and functioning. As negativity binds this concept of “stigmatization” as it should in many various cases this essay will consume the positive side of stigmatization in India with historical and psychological references.

With the ancient Indian civilization with no recorded prevalence of both bulimia and depression have sudden spurts of both with the bold break of negative schemas associated with these mental illnesses. To put it into simpler terms this is a break of the social discrediting. India’s previous blind eye to these illnesses had pushed it into an abyss of denial and somatic pains to cover its hidden trail.

Depression has been and is still one of the most prevalent mental disorders stigmatized in India. Hagen et al in the year 2005 considered depression to have an evolutionary theory which stated that depression is the body’s way to elicit help.  Research from Marsella et al whose research in the field of psychology regarding urbanization and modernization argued that modernization contributed to an increase prevalence of depression. Due to India’s collectivistic culture Indians rely on physical aspects of pain rather than mental ones. The same occurs in China and other collectivistic cultures. However, this stigmatization has aided supress the prevalence of depression in India. People have resorted to physical aspects of pain such as somatic issues.

In a culture where the 2 disorders never existed, collectivistic cultures have helped stigmatize these types of mental illnesses from prevailing within the community. Every side has its negatives and positives, while looking at it from a psychological and historical background the causes to our present issues have been revealed as such.

- Himani Shaker

COUNTERVIEW

Stigmatization or social discrediting is nothing but, extreme disapproval of a person or group on socially characteristic grounds that have distinguished them from other members of a society. Stigmatization may then be affixed to such a person, by the greater society, who differs from their cultural norms. In a place like India, where culture and belief play a major role, it becomes customary to face such a hassle in day-to-day life. It can be seen in diverse forms like in gender roles, choices, social freedom, depression, LGBT, mental disorders and so on.

Indeed, India is incredible but it also fails to give justice to the ones who fought for our freedom back in the time. People are not conscious that being different or creating a diversion in this monotonous existence is not going against the norms, but only making a better place for them to live in. There will always be a black sheep in the family and how is it that it is such an awful thing?  Many people, who have been stigmatized, feel as though they are transforming from a whole person to a tainted one. They feel secluded and devalued.  

This stereotype nation we exist in, has permitted the people to judge an individual on the basis of feelings, emotions, gender, disorders and what not. Associates of stigmatized social groups often face prejudice that causes depression.  Stigmatization can take place anywhere, at work, in school, in the criminal justice system and even in our own families. It’s brutal, and people have adverse effects to such pressure cause by the society. Culture and beliefs are appreciated but not at the cost of someone’s self-esteem. Accepting people and not branding them, is what the public ought to believe in.  It must be prohibited, while the stigmatized give the voices inside them a microphone from time to time, to set free from the judgments. 

- Akshara Durand

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THE SOCIAL LIVES OF NETWORKED TEENS

VIEW:  ZAIMAH AHMED

Social Networks are a new way to communicate with each other. Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram being the more popular ones than the rest. Everyone is sharing pictures, day to day activities, thoughts about issues and current scenarios, personal problems, etc. on social networking platforms in addition to communicating with each other via social media. It has become an easy way to communicate .Few people are even exploiting each other through social networking sites. So one should take care of what he/she is sharing on social media. 

Humans are social animals by nature and social networks are just another outlet for humans to interact. We should not look at social networking sites as threats but rather as opportunities for us to interact with people globally. I myself am an active user of social network and have many friends and contacts online. It's easy to socialise with one another through social media. It makes it more comfortable. Nowadays through What's App and Facebook it has been easier to talk about work or any other work related to college or school. Social media has just made it easier for each and every existing human in the world. Everyone has the same level of opportunity. 
For the past three-four years, social networking has been the buzzword that won’t go away.

Social networks like ‘facebook’ and ‘twitter’ have millions of users worldwide. In India, it all probably began with ‘hi5’, and then came ‘orkut’, and now we have well-known sites such as ‘facebook’, ‘MySpace’, ‘twitter’, ‘Linkdeln’.

No doubt that social networking is an important tool when it comes to having the right ‘connections’ in this web-driven world, and has helped scores of budding entrepreneurs to kick off with little capital and global exposure. But then, it is still something new, and one must not get over-enthusiastic over the business part. Henry David Thoreau once remarked, “Men have become tool of their tools”. From new teens to young adults to office-going-nearing-40, everyone who has access to  the internet seems to be on one social networking site or the other.

COUNTER VIEW: DIPTI DH

Kid these days spend a lot of time on Social networking sites as it's an easier way to socialise behind a screen than socialise face to face. 

Social media also reducing the self esteem of many youngsters since they get to stalk other people's social networks and complete themselves to others, and often feel inferior.

Social media is also an addiction to many youngsters as it is an easier way to socialise with other people through social networking websites.

How people make their lives look on social networking websites maybe very different from how their life really is so they are basically lying about how their lives are on social media. And if they seek attention and they like it, they can go to any extension to gain it. Teenagers especially can sometimes lose control and can be guided in wrong directions.

There is also a lot of exposure to the wrong things on social media which can effect teenagers in a very bad way.  Teenagers can also get obsessed with getting attention on social media that they might forget about focusing on what is actually important for them like focusing on studies and spending time with their friends and family. 

Social media can be addictive and can make them sit behind the screen for hours. Sitting behind the screen for hours is very harmful for the body too. This can lead to health issues. 

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SHOULD CBSE BOARD CONTINUE WITH ITS MODERATION POLICY?

Moderation has been acting as a prominent role in provision of marks during the last couple of years due to which the grades of students were seen soaring high up. The idea took a new turn in the present year when the policy was scrapped and was re- introduced creating a lot of confusion about the same. The policy created a flurry all over social media and among students who were anxiously awaiting their board exam result.

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 - By Keerthi PS

Moderating marks during exams has its own advantage and disadvantage. Moderation at an individual level is considered essential so that all students pass the exam and are entitled to take up further studies. It ensures that no one is under a disadvantage of scoring bad marks or failing which can risk their future. Everyone is ensured an opportunity.

Also with the cut -offs of universities soaring up high every year, in order to make it to a decent college, it is essential that students score above the cut- offs.

But with difficult question papers focussing more on application based content than pure theory , students often find it tough to meet up to the level of expectation . Therefore, such activities can boost the confidence of students and can motivate them.

Moderation policy also calms you down during examinations avoiding unnecessary worries causing excess stress and breakdown, thinking about your future and at the same time it does not make things seem very casual as well and places importance of scoring well by studying hard.

Therefore, I would like to conclude by saying that scoring well in an examination depends completely on your hard work whereas moderation just acts as an additional incentive to boost up the results.

COUNTERVIEW:

    - By Navya R

Quality education is one of the biggest challenges and if we don’t attend to it now, we will have to deal with the damage in future.

While the idea was to maintain parity in the pass percentage across years, the practice has been misused to artificially inflate board marks. If the policy is not scrapped, the CBSE results could witness an increase in student performance.

The number of students scoring 90-95 percent is expected to increase. If CBSE decides to follow the moderation policy, then students from the state boards will suffer in undergraduate admissions as they will not meet the cut offs.

The policy is unjust to the truly distinguished students but it can hurt more average students as well, by giving them false sense of academic worth. The students daydreams of college admission or performance are shattered that can be traumatic.  Artificially spiked marks can also make students opt for courses for which they have no aptitude.

Meanwhile the deluge of 90-plus scores makes it difficult to judge students, and hurts the truly deserving ones.

Grade inflation, like regular inflation is, when the same marks are worth less because more people are given. It is problematic because the maximum marks you can achieve is capped at 100.

Thus I would conclude by saying that the CBSE Moderation Policy will have a negative impact on the students.

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SINGLE PARENTS AND ADOPTION

VIEW:  RICHITA KUDLAMATH

Love, affection, care, understanding, discipline are all attributes that describe a parent, apart from the fact that they can ground you. Well… parents will be parents. The question here is should single parents be allowed to adopt. I think that they should be allowed to adopt. They all are very capable of giving love and showing love to children. I think a parent should just be of a mature age. They should have the willingness to show the kids the right way in life.

The concerns that stop us from making single’s a parent, is usually the fact that they won’t be able to give the fathers love or a mother’s love and maybe their single income won’t be able to suffice the needs of a child and the adult.  But that’s a completely wrong notion, an example of a single parent adopting a child, In India is one of Aditya who adopted Binny and named him Avnish.  

Avnish was a child who was affected by Down syndrome and had a hole in his heart and his vision was also affected because of this. In India, the legal age to adopt a child is 30 years and the person had to be married as well, but Aditya was only 27 and he was not married. He was in fact the youngest male to adopt a child in India. The story of Aditya and Avnish is such a soul touching heart wrenching story, it’s a pure story of love and determination. He’s an example of how money or other material things don’t determine the love and affection that single parents can give. Although he was just a middle-class software engineer, he still managed to pay for Avnish’s medical treatments,that is what a parent is, a person who goes beyond expectations and beyond ever circumstance to provide for their son or daughter. Also, now, because of this the new adoption guidelines were being discussed in Parliament to be implemented in the Juvenile Justice Act. Aditya wrote a letter to the honourable Speaker of Lok Sabha, Mrs. Sumitra Mahajan, requesting her to pass the Bill, which had a clause in which the age limit of the Prospective Adoptive Parent (PAP) was lowered to 25. The bill was passed in the Lok Sabha on 9th may, 2015, but was pending in the Rajya Sabha. It was eventually passed on the 1st of august. Apart from him, Sushmita Sen, who is an actor in the Bollywood industry is another example of a single parent.

These examples only show that single parents who adopt children run with the same enthusiasm and determination as the other parents. So why should they be judged for wanting to care for someone?

COUNTER VIEW: TRESA ALEX

   I believe that to adopt a child and take the responsibility of an individual who may or may not have gone through trauma, must have the love and support of parents, both the mother and father.  

     A single parent may or may not be able to give her/his all and this would affect the wellbeing of the child as an adopted child needs the extra bit of love and affection which may lack from a single parent. A single parent also needs to be emotionally stable and see to that the child does not feel left out.

     Every child needs a mother and father, as they pick up traits and characteristics from both which help with an overall development of personality and character. It’s also hard for a single parent to commit to a child as he/she may lack the emotional or physical support which one usually requires from their spouse in order to raise a child. It’s the little things that matter and if they lack in these, it can cause a huge problem in the outcome.   

    In conclusion, it is best for a couple to adopt rather than a single individual as this benefits both the parent, and the distressed child.