Published Paper Details:

This paper argues that mental health must be treated as a core national priority in India's development trajectory towards 2047. The case is based on three linked propositions: first, the burden of mental illness is not merely a clinical concern but a constraint on human capital, productivity, public safety, social cohesion and constitutional dignity; second, India's present psychiatric infrastructure remains uneven across geography, workforce, institutions, financing and data systems; and third, the country's demographic, technological and federal capacities make a 2047 transformation feasible if mental health is elevated from programme-level delivery to mission-mode governance. Using doctrinal legal analysis, secondary policy review and systems planning, the paper examines India's National Mental Health Survey findings, the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017, the National Mental Health Programme, the District Mental Health Programme, Tele-MANAS and global standards under the WHO Comprehensive Mental Health Action Plan 2013-2030. It proposes a five-tier psychiatric infrastructure model covering community prevention, primary-care mental health, district psychiatric services, regional centres of excellence and national research-surveillance platforms. The paper further recommends a National Mental Health Infrastructure Mission 2047, a dedicated psychiatric workforce pipeline, mental health budgeting norms, insurance-linked continuity of care, school and workplace mental health systems, crisis response services, suicide prevention registries, and enforceable state-level accountability indicators. It concludes that India's goal for 2047 should be not only more hospitals and psychiatrists, but an integrated mental health ecosystem that is rights-based, community-anchored, digitally enabled and institutionally accountable.