India announced on Oct. 10 that it will be potentially rolling out a new policy that provides universal mental health services. The bill for the policy is awaiting approval by Parliament, but this would be huge for the country because its population is statistically especially vulnerable to the affects of mental illness.

The New York Times explained how serious the status in India is:

India has the highest number of suicides in the world. According to the World Health Organization, of 804,000 suicides recorded worldwide in 2012, 258,000 were in India. Indian youths between 15 and 29 years old kill themselves at a rate of 35.5 deaths per 100,000 — the highest in the world — and suicide has surpassed maternal mortality as the leading cause of death of young Indian women. A report from Human Rights Watch released in December exposed the horrific conditions in institutions where too many Indian women with mental and intellectual disabilities are confined, many against their will, and where some are subject to physical and sexual abuse and electric-shock therapy.

The potential new policy sounds hopeful and promising, but what are the chances that it will actually materialize? The government cut the health budget by almost 20 percent as of Dec. 23, which took it from $5 billion to just over $4 billion. The NYT explains the predicament:

There is only one psychiatrist for every 343,000 Indians currently, too few to reduce the shameful suicide rate. Among other problems are depression, acute economic insecurity, anxiety among youths over educational success, and distress among young women caught in a bind between the opportunities of a changing India and pressure from traditionally minded families to marry.

If Prime Minister Narendra Modi can actually follow through with this plan, it would be a huge improvement on India’s mental healthcare, but he does have a track record of not delivering with some of his proposed incentives.

[Photo from flickr user Trey Ratcliff]