India has 19 per cent of the world’s children and around 480 million of the country’s population is below 18 years of age. However, it is yet to formulate a mental health policy for children. The prevalence of various psychiatric disorders (behavioural, emotional, and developmental) has ranged from 8 to 12.5 per cent throughout. Among them, as much as 90 per cent of the children do not have access to mental health management. Dr Paul Russell pointed out that there was big lacuna on the part of the Central government which has introduced as many as 18 national health programmes focusing on the physical health of children, but none on mental health needs. Formulation of a well-defined, long-term mental health policy for children is need of the hour.
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