The Keshav Desiraju IMHO is an initiative to facilitate law and policy reform in mental health and suicide prevention globally through stakeholder collaboration, research and an open-access repository of data and information on mental health laws, policies and services.
Our mission is to improve mental health outcomes by facilitating equitable, accessible, affordable, quality, and rights-based mental healthcare.
Why Keshav Desiraju IMHO?
There are several disparities in India’s mental health system. These can be attributed to systemic gaps ranging from a dearth of trained personnel, negligible budgetary allocations to the lack of adequate infrastructure.
To address these gaps, there is a need for accurate information, data, and research on the mental health system, that is easily available in the public domain.
The Keshav Desiraju India Mental Health Observatory (Keshav Desiraju IMHO) was established as a repository to address these gaps in availability of data and information on different components of the mental health system. Over the years, we have expanded to actively promote mental health laws, policies, and systems that are responsive, rights-based, and person-centred through national and international initiatives.
How are we addressing the issue?
The overall objective of the Keshav Desiraju IMHO is to create a collaborative mechanism by engaging with diverse stakeholders.
We collect and disseminate data and research on the mental health system at a national, state and district level.
Main activities:
- Assess existing laws, policies, and programmes related to mental health and suicide prevention and review their implementation.
- Evaluate budgetary allocations and utilisation of funds for mental health at the national, state and district level.
- Support policymakers at the state and national level for evidence-based policymaking and programme implementation.
- Develop a network of collaborators including policymakers, civil society organisations, mental health professionals, service users, caregivers, researchers, media, funding organisations and other stakeholders for monitoring, evaluating, and disseminating data on the mental health system.
We disseminate data, information, and analyses through a range of open-access publications such as policy briefs, budget briefs, issue briefs, reports, papers and open-access dashboards. You may access all our publications here.
For more details on the Keshav Desiraju IMHO, visit our website.
What is the potential impact?
- Improve access to data on the mental health system in India
- Support the prioritisation of evidence-based policymaking for mental health and suicide prevention in India
- Ensure laws, policies and programmes on mental health and suicide prevention are implemented through a rights-based and intersectoral lens
Where have we reached?
We at the Keshav Desiraju IMHO have developed several publications that include policy briefs, issue briefs, budget briefs and resource manuals. You may access all our publications here.
Some of our initiatives:
MiNDbank: MiNDbank is a central platform for key national and international policies, strategies, laws, service standards, evaluations, and other resources related to mental health, substance use, and suicide prevention. The platform houses around 8700+ international and national resources related to mental health, substance use, suicide prevention, and general health from 190+ countries. To learn more and access the MiNDbank database, please click here.
Suicide Insights and Trends in India (SITI) Dashboard: The SITI dashboard consolidates the official data on suicides published by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) in its Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India (ADSI) reports. The dashboard presently has data from 1967-2024. View the dashboard here.
Suicide Reporting India Watch (Project SIREN): An initiative to track media reporting of suicides by analysing leading English newspapers and online publications, using a media reporting scorecard. We publish these details on Project SIREN’s website every quarter.
Dashboard to assess mental illness coverage among health insurance providers: A dashboard to assess the extent to which insurance policies have complied with Section 21(4) of the MHCA to ensure health insurance coverage of mental illness is on par with physical illness. View dashboard, here.
Mental Healthcare Act, 2017 Implementation Tracker: A resource to track the implementation of various provisions of the MHCA across different states and union territories and at the centre level. View tracker, here. Please note: The tracker is best viewed on a desktop and is not suitable for mobile interfaces.
Public Archive: An initiative to make data and information on mental health related laws, policies and programmes in India accessible. The Public Archive houses government circulars, responses to RTI requests, law and policy documents, and court judgments. View Public Archive, here.
Mental Health Systems Assessment: Audits of the District Mental Health Programme and Adolescent Friendly Health Clinics. The IMHO provides technical expertise to governments to review mental health programmes and schemes to improve access, quality and uptake of services.
Development of the Kathmandu Charter: Supporting the WHO South-East Asia Regional Office in conducting a summit for over 45 people with lived experience and caregivers in the region. The outputs of the summit and consultations are a rights charter (The Kathmandu Charter) and video interviews of people with lived experience.
Climate change and mental health: Conduction of a Regional Consultation on collaboration with the UNESCO South Asia Office on youth mental health and climate change.
Using creative approaches for local mental health policymaking: We have piloted the use of creative tools and games to engage with people with lived experience, community-based organizations and local panchayat members to address mental health needs of their communities.
To learn more about the Keshav Desiraju IMHO and read all our publications, please visit our website.
Project Leads
Lead
Soumitra Pathare, Centre for Mental Health Law & Policy, ILS, Pune.
Tanya Nicole Fernandes, Centre for Mental Health Law & Policy, ILS, Pune.
Funders & Partners
FUNDERS
PARTNERS
