Mental burden of protests: The toll on young minds out on India's streets

An unseen consequence of the resilience seen on India's streets is the toll on young minds, writes Nikita Puri

A young woman in Delhi finds herself re-examining her relationship after three years of being together with her partner. “You can’t break up with someone because of a difference in political beliefs,” her friends tell her. She’s conflicted, unsure of what to do. Elsewhere, there’s the case of a digital content writer who is seriously considering changing jobs as he is tired of the “toxic environment” at his workplace in the current era of “political polarisation”.

Even within families, traditionally considered safe spaces, youngsters are finding themselves at odds with their elders. These differences in opinions are far more evolved than squabbles usually attributed to differences in their generations.

All these instances have occurred, some more unexpectedly than others, since India’s streets erupted in protests staged against the Citizenship Amendment Act and the National Register of Citizens. Mental health practitioners say, the unintended fallout of this scenario, where the political has now become deeply personal, has been an increase in the number of students who find themselves facing a situation where their mental health is under duress.

A fresh college graduate from Delhi is beginning to realise she no longer wants to be in the same physical space with her childhood friend because they are now on opposing sides of the divisive citizenship law. It’s no longer a question of whom you voted for or whose policies on vikas you once supported, say mental health practitioners. “The debates with friends and family members are not over economic policies anymore.  It’s a difference in value systems,” says Itisha Nagar, a professor of psychology at Delhi University.

Anticipating a need for therapy following the outbreak and continuance of protests, and how they’ve been handled, a group of mental health practitioners have put out their contact details on social media platforms to lend their service for free to those affected by the turmoil roiling society currently.

Women at a demonstration against the citizenship law

“The demographic involved with the protests is young, they may not have the necessary skills to deal with the situation,” says Srividya  R, an independent psychologist based in Delhi who is among those who’ve volunteered their services.

The pro-democracy student protests in Hong Kong, which started in June last year, saw a third of the adults in the region reporting symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, found a survey carried out by the University of Hong Kong.  Published in The Lancet, a UK-based medical journal, the survey found an increase in symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder last year. One in five adults have reported depression or display indications of post-traumatic stress disorder, leading the authors of the survey to summarise that the protests in Hong Kong have resulted in mental health conditions comparable to that in conflict zones. At least twomillion adults in a city of 7.4 million have been affected.

Since minors were not part of the survey, the Hong Kong study says their figures are conservative.

The Hong Kong protests have seen two deaths in clashes with the police. At least 25 Indians have died since the protests began here. No assessment on mental health is in place in India, yet.  The only study on India is one published in 2015 by Doctors Without Borders, the Médecins Sans Frontières. After studying 5,428 households in 399 villages, the study says about 45 per cent of the population in Kashmir have symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, leading the authors to call Kashmir one of the saddest places on earth.  Depression and anxiety were found to increase with age in the conflict areas, with depression being more common among women.

In the face of lathi-charge and detentions, lawyers and activists were the first responders at march sites and police stations across India. Therapists have emerged as the second line of defence.

Sometime in December, Nagar and a few like-minded people made a Google form and invited students interested in talking to someone if they wanted help getting through the ongoing protests.

Within two to three days they had about 100 students. “It was too much volume for five of us to handle,” she recalls. They then put out a call for trained mental health practitioners who were willingly to go pro bono. The group has 30 professionals on board at present. Members of this group are based in cities across India and some even in the United States and Singapore. Since meetings may not be possible, they are now offering therapy via phone as well as skype. (This group can be contacted at mentalhealthforstudents@gmail.com.)

Zehra Mehdi, a psychoanalytic psychotherapist based in Delhi who answered Nagar’s call for pro bono services, talks of how the violence that has taken place inside campuses, such as the one in Delhi’ Jamila Milia Islamia, has really hit a nerve with students. “So many of them are scared, and angry at the disregard shown for spaces of learning,” says Mehdi. She’s been counselling close to 50 students over the last few weeks, most of them women.

Conversations in her sessions have changed from “I” to “India” since mid-December, says Priyanka Varma, a clinical psychologist, counsellor and psychotherapist based in Mumbai. Varma is the also the founder of The Thought Co, a Mumbai-based organisation that works towards mental health awareness and accessibility. “For ‘I’ to exist, ‘India’ has to exist. What I am getting from my clients is the sense that their idea of belonging is being threatened,” says Varma.

It’s not just those who’ve directly faced detentions or violence who are at risk of the anxiety and sleeplessness many Indians are reporting. “Even watching other people being beaten or being shoved around can be overwhelming. It’s traumatic to watch friends facing violence or a threat of violence,” says Srividya. 

The constant deluge of news reports and social media posts has certainly not helped the cause of mental health. “The backlash on social media for a post you are putting up, or how you are responding to a post, can be devastating for some if they feel forced to choose sides,” says Srividya. What echoes among students is the realisation that their friend isn’t the person they thought she was. “Unverified, unfiltered information flowing from social media, without any perspective or context, has led to the cesspool of information responsible for this,” says Srividya.

Given India’s current scenario, where demonstrations against the government are still going strong, there’s almost an immediate need to reduce the sense of isolation and loneliness felt by the country’s young. One way therapists are hoping to mitigate the fallout of the 

ongoing political milieu is to hold support group sessions. There’s safety in knowing one isn’t all alone.

Many students, counsellors and therapists confirm, are also continuously continuing to interact with trolls online. They caution against this and underline the importance of taking regular breaks from social media to shut out negativity.

“The fact that students don’t feel safe enough to tell their stories has added to their aggravation. Just being able to talk about things instead of bottling it up will go a long way in protecting these students against future detrimental mental health consequences,” says Nagar. Allowing oneself to pause to heal in difficult circumstances can be challenging, but it’s worth a stronger tomorrow.