India, July 28 -- According to a recent World Health Organisation (WHO) report, the startling fact that one in six people worldwide is affected by loneliness, and that the condition is related to an estimated hundred deaths every hour, serves to be an eye-opener of sorts. Rather than being regarded as a statistic of the happenings, the data proffered calls for integrating a humanitarian approach into the analysis of the numerical information to ameliorate the lives of people affected.

WHO defines loneliness as "the painful feeling that arises from a gap between desired and actual social connections, while social isolation refers to the objective lack of sufficient social connections." The epidemic of loneliness and isolation is a global ...