presidential address
Presidential Address
Address delivered at the ANCIPS 2009 in Agra on 9th January 2009
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61st ANCIPS, AGRA - 9th January 2009
Roadmap to Indian Psychiatry
Dr. E. Mohandas
Introduction
"We are responsible for what we are, and whatever we wish ourselves to be, we have the power to make ourselves. If what we are now has been the result of our own past actions, it certainly follows that whatever we wish to be in future can be produced by our present actions; so we have to know how to act."
Swami Vivekananda
With all its alluring contrasts and remarkable features, India has a grand heritage of 34,000 years. Down the traditional lane, it has evolved into a pluralistic, multilingual and multiethnic society. It is quite striking that while India is the second-most populous country, it has the largest democracy in the world. The second fastest growing economy and the third largest military force are also her golden quills. 74% of the 1.14 billion population of India live in rural areas. India has 28 states, 7 union territories, 612 districts and 6, 38,365 villages. The fact that there are 22 official languages in a single country is ample evidence for the heterogeneous nature of the society it represents. Having a literacy rate around 64.8%, India has 80 million internet users. With all this, I do not mean to say that India is not without its lacunae. Even while India is the world’s twelfth largest economy, we can’t close our eyes to the grim truth that 22% of the population is below the poverty line.1-3
Coming to the academic scene, India is proud to have 289 institutions providing undergraduate medical training (196 MCI recognized, 77 MCI permitted, 16 in “danger zone”). The postgraduate training in psychiatry includes MD (83 centres, 159 seats), DPM (46 centres, 107 seats) and Diplomate of National Board (22 centres, 36 seats). Strikingly, 25% of medical colleges in India do not have a psychiatry department. 4-6 Apparently, there are only around 4000 psychiatrists in India to serve the five crore mentally ill population currently.
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