New Delhi, July 4 -- South Asia, with over two billion people and a quarter of the world's population, faces a mental health crisis that current systems are not equipped to absorb. Millions of people across the region live with depression, anxiety, psychosis, and trauma-related disorders, yet specialist care remains far out of reach for most of the population. The problem is not only stigma or low public awareness. There is also a severe shortage of trained mental health professionals, especially outside major cities.

India illustrates the scale of the challenge. The country has far too few psychiatrists for a population of more than 1.4 billion, and access is even more limited in rural districts. In such a system, the main bottleneck is...