India Launches MANAS Mitra App To Promote Mental Wellbeing Of Citizens

In 2017, 197¡€3 million Indians had mental disorders, including 45¡€7 million with depressive disorders and 44¡€9 million with anxiety disorders. The outbreak of the pandemic has only worsened this situation, with as many as one in three Covid-19 survivors experiencing mental health issues within six months of their infection.

And to promote mental wellbeing across age groups in India, K VijayRaghavan, the Principal Scientific Advisor (PSA) to the government, has launched the pilot version of a mobile app.

PTI

Mental health app MANAS

The app, MANAS, which stands for Mental Health and Normalcy Augmentation System, is a comprehensive, scalable, and national digital wellbeing platform and is designed to augment mental well-being of Indian citizens, the principal scientific advisor¡¯s office said in a release.

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It integrates the health and wellness efforts of various government ministries, scientifically validated indigenous tools with gamified interfaces developed and researched by various national bodies and research institutions.

Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser

MANAS was initiated by the Office of the Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government of India. It was jointly executed by NIMHANS Bengaluru, AFMC (Armed Forces Medical College), Pune and C-DAC (Centre for Development of Advanced Computing) Bengaluru, the release added.

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Lieutenant General Madhuri Kanitkar, member of PM-STIAC (Prime Minister¡¯s Science, Technology, and Innovation Advisory Council), highlighted that MANAS is ¡°based on life skills and core psychological process, with universal accessibility, delivering age-appropriate methods and promoting positive attitude focusing on wellness.¡±

Representative image

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And although the app caters to the overall wellbeing of people of all age groups, the initial version of MANAS focuses on promoting positive mental health in the age group of 15-35 years, she added.

The future roadmap

While launching the app, Mr VijayRaghavan also laid down future directions for the app development. ¡°The app must be integrated with the public health schemes like the National Health Mission, Poshan Abhiyan, e-Sanjeevani and others so that it is used widely. Besides, the application must be made multi-lingual.¡±

However, MANAS is not yet available for public use, and field trials will be conducted over the next 100 days to validate the app, the Indian Express reported.