The Government of India has launched a comprehensive, multi-pronged strategy to prevent, mitigate, and manage stress among women across various sectors. The approach combines rights-based mental healthcare, tele-mental-health services, trauma-informed psychosocial support, workplace protections, gender-sensitive law enforcement, and socio-economic empowerment programmes.
Mental health services have been strengthened under the National Mental Health Programme (NMHP) and the District Mental Health Programme (DMHP), operating in 767 districts and providing outpatient care, counselling, continuing care, medicines, outreach, and ambulance support. Over 1.81 lakh Sub Health Centres (SHCs) and Primary Health Centres (PHCs) have been upgraded to integrate mental health services into comprehensive primary healthcare.
Tertiary mental healthcare has been expanded with 25 Centres of Excellence for postgraduate education and 47 postgraduate departments across 19 government medical colleges. The country has 47 government-run mental hospitals, including three central institutions, with mental health services also available across all AIIMS.
The National Tele Mental Health Programme, launched in October 2022, runs 53 Tele MANAS Cells across 36 States/UTs in 20 languages, handling over 29.82 lakh calls, while its mobile app provides video consultations and support for mental health issues.
To address gender-based stressors, the government has set up 864 One Stop Centres, 14,649 Women Help Desks, and integrated emergency support via Women Helpline-181 and ERSS-112. Additional initiatives include the Mission Shakti Portal, Safe City Projects, AI-enabled railway surveillance, transport safety programmes, Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), and the SHe-Box portal, all aimed at prevention, redressal, and monitoring of workplace sexual harassment, ensuring holistic protection and rehabilitation for women.
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