Dr Sanjeev Jain is head of the department of psychiatry at Nimhans Bangalore. A clinical psychologist, he speaks on the present and future young of India with the insight of a sociologist and social psychiatrist. Dr Jain is currently engaged in researching and writing a four-volume history of the growth of psychiatric services in India. The final volume will focus on the psychiatric history of India’s partition in 1947. Excerpts from an interview with Sugata Srinivasaraju:



What is your assessment of the post-liberalisation generation?

What has been evident in the last 15-16 years is the so-called opening up of the economy or rather a blending of the Indian consciousness into a multiple- channel global consciousness in terms of attitudes and lifestyles, experienced only by people who can read and write English. It is debatable if the rest of India has changed. Clinically speaking, what is worrying about the young is the rising rate of depression, suicides and drug and alcohol abuse....