Current data is difficult to come by, but a paper published in The Lancet says according to the World Health Organisation, in 2011, there were 0·301 psychiatrists, 0·166 nurses, and 0·047 psychologists for every 100,000 mental-disorder patients in India. The number of psychiatric beds per 10,000 patients in psychiatric hospitals was 1·490, and in general hospitals 0·823.While the Budget increased the allocation for NIMHANS from Rs 350.94 crore to Rs 382.6 crore, funding for another autonomous body, the Tezpur, Assam-based Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi Regional Institute of Mental Health, was slashed from Rs 80 crore to Rs 60 crore.Speaking to The Economic Times online, Dr Milan Balakrishnan, consultant psychiatrist at Bombay Hospital, said, "The National Mental Health Programme was supposed to make sure that every district in the country has access to qualified psychiatrists. But in the 25 years since its inception, I don't think it has been able to secure any penetration at all. ""We were hopeful that this year's Budget will [bring good news], since the Prime Minister himself in his Mann Ki Baat talked about how big a problem mental illness is," said Dr Balakrishnan. "But I don't see how that will lead to any real-world change."

Source: Economic Times February 01, 2018 11:26 UTC