PUNE: According to the experts, 70 per cent of women are migrants as they move from one place to another for education, employment or after marriage. At a two-day conference, the experts were deliberating over the link between ‘Migration, Resilience and Mental Health’: Innovative methodologies for Research, Policy and Practise in India inaugurated at Yashwantrao Chavan Academy of Development Administration (YASHADA) here on Tuesday.
Speaking during a panel discussion, experts highlighted that mental health is usually seen as mental illness. When viewed as mental illness, the question remains about the likely solutions. Hence, policies are needed that will focus on mental well-being.
Speaking during the panel discussion, M Sivakami, Professor and Chairperson at the Center for Health and Social Sciences, School of Health Systems Studies (SHSS) at Tata Institute of Social Science (TISS), Mumbai said that focusing on the positive aspects of mental health is important.
“Each of us has resilience and we should study more deeply how individual factors and other factors aid this resilience,” said Sivakami.
Speaking about migration and mental health, Santosh Chaturvedi, former dean at behavioural sciences, Senior Professor of Psychiatry and Head of Department of Mental Health Education at National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bengaluru said local people also feel the pain of migration.
“Those who have to live with migrants also feel insecure. Migrants have insecurities which at times come from the insecurities of the local people. With the different level of migration observed all across the world, there is a need to address this insecurity which is growing. In this, resilience is a positive dimension,” said Chaturvedi.
City-based psychiatrist Dr Vasudev Parrikar also said that there is a need to understand the evolving narrative. “We must help people to share their stories. Resilience often also depends on the person and how he copes up with everything around him,” said Dr Parrikar.
