India, July 27 -- Mental health remains one of the most neglected areas of Indian healthcare. Psychiatry and psychology are still too often treated as peripheral departments in hospitals and clinics. The neglect is not because the need is small; it is because stigma continues to shape how society, institutions and even insurance systems view mental illness.

Just as the heart, liver, kidneys or lungs can malfunction, the brain and mind too can suffer from illness, imbalance, trauma, stress and dysfunction. Depression is not weakness. Anxiety is not drama. Mental illness is a medical and human reality, and it deserves the same dignity, urgency and financial protection as physical illness.

India's mental health burden is substantial. The I...