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Mental Health in an Indian Rural Community

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

M. N. Elnagar ,
Promila Maitra  and
M. N. Rao
M. N. Elnagar
Affiliation:
Department of Tropical Health, High Institute of Public Health, Alexandria, on WHO Fellowship at the All-India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health, 110 Chittaranjan Avenue, Calcutta-12, India
Promila Maitra
Affiliation:
All-India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health, Calcutta
M. N. Rao
Affiliation:
All-India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health, Calcutta
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Extract

The difficulties of organizing mental health services in developing countries are made all the greater by inadequacy of information about the extent of illness and disability. Some beginnings have been made in India, particularly under the sponsorship of the All India Institute of Mental Health, Bangalore. The Mental Health Advisory Committee of the Government of India (1966) suggested a probable prevalence of mental illness of 20 per 1,000 population in general, 18 per mille for semi-rural and 14 per mille for rural areas. These figures are much lower than the 72 per 1,000 suggested by Sethi et al. (1967). Ganguli (1968) estimated a prevalence rate of 140 per 1,000 in industrial workers near Delhi. Incidence rates have been much less studied than prevalences (Lin and Standley, 1962). A WHO Expert Committee on mental health convened in 1960 suggested as a working definition of a case of mental illness:

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 118 , Issue 546 , May 1971 , pp. 499 - 503
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1971 

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