Centre has no official data on nomophobia, Rajya Sabha told
In a written reply, the Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Prataprao Jadhav, informed the Rajya Sabha that a behavioural addiction clinic has been established at AIIMS, New Delhi, to manage various behavioural addictions, including internet and technology addiction.
'The data of patients suffering from nomophobia in the country is not maintained centrally,' said the minister in response to a question from Congress MP Phulo Devi Netam, who asked whether it is a fact that the number of patients suffering from nomophobia is constantly increasing in the country and whether a large number of these patients are young children and youth.
Nomophobia is the fear or anxiety associated with being without one's mobile phone or the ability to use it.
The minister said that to address the burden of mental disorders, the Centre is implementing the National Mental Health Programme (NMHP) across the country.
The District Mental Health Programme (DMHP), a component of the NMHP, has been sanctioned for implementation in 767 districts. Support for this is provided to States and Union Territories through the National Health Mission.
Facilities made available under the DMHP at the Community Health Centre (CHC) and Primary Health Centre (PHC) levels include outpatient services, assessment, counselling/psychosocial interventions, continuing care and support for persons with severe mental disorders, medication, outreach services, and ambulance services. In addition to these, there is a provision for 10-bedded in-patient facilities at the district level.
Jadhav also stated that the government is taking steps to strengthen mental healthcare services at the primary healthcare level and has upgraded more than 1.77 lakh Sub Health Centres (SHCs) and Primary Health Centres (PHCs) into Ayushman Arogya Mandirs.
Mental health services have been included in the packages of services under Comprehensive Primary Health Care provided at these Ayushman Arogya Mandirs.
Under the tertiary care component of the NMHP, 25 Centres of Excellence have been sanctioned to increase the intake of students in postgraduate departments in mental health specialities, as well as to provide tertiary-level treatment facilities.
Furthermore, the government has supported 19 government medical colleges/institutions to strengthen 47 postgraduate departments in mental health specialities.
There are 47 government-run mental hospitals in the country, including three Central Mental Health Institutions: the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bengaluru; the Lokopriya Gopinath Bordoloi Regional Institute of Mental Health, Tezpur, Assam; and the Central Institute of Psychiatry, Ranchi. Mental health services are also available at all AIIMS institutions.
The minister added that the government launched the National Tele Mental Health Programme on October 10, 2022, to further improve access to quality mental health counselling and care services across the country.
As of July 17, 36 States and Union Territories have established 53 Tele-MANAS Cells and have started providing tele-mental health services.
More than 23.82 lakh calls have been handled on the helpline number.
Additionally, the Tele-MANAS mobile application was launched on World Mental Health Day last year, on October 10. It is a comprehensive mobile platform developed to provide support for mental health issues ranging from overall well-being to mental disorders.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hindu
2 hours ago
- The Hindu
How Tele-MANAS helpline in Telangana became a lifeline for 1.3 lakh callers
In early 2025, a 38-year-old unemployed man from Hyderabad found himself trapped in a cycle of fear, sleepless nights, and persistent thoughts of self-harm. A few months earlier, he had been diagnosed with Bell's palsy, a condition marked by sudden weakness or paralysis on one side of the face. While the physical symptoms were being treated, his mental health began to unravel. Panic episodes, intrusive thoughts, and a growing sense of hopelessness slowly took hold, affecting his ability to function day to day. Then he turned to 14416, the toll-free helpline of the Tele-Mental Health Assistance and Networking Across States (Tele-MANAS) initiative. The call was transferred to a psychiatrist. Over the next few minutes, he was encouraged to speak freely and reassured about confidentiality. He was assessed for suicidal ideation and educated about the link between physical and mental health. 'He agreed to seek further care at the District Hospital. A few days later, during a follow-up session, he confirmed that he was already feeling better,' said a counsellor. But his case is just one among thousands. Since its launch in October 2022, Tele-MANAS helpline in Telangana has received over 1.38 lakh calls from people across the State experiencing mental health concerns, from anxiety and depression to substance use, sleep disturbances, and suicidal ideation. The round-the-clock call centre at the Institute of Mental Health (IMH), Erragadda, is staffed by a team comprising two psychiatrists, one clinical psychologist, 14 trained counsellors, two technical coordinators, and two support staff. Each day, the centre fields between 150 to 200 calls, connecting individuals to qualified mental health professionals who provide immediate support and refer serious cases to local District Mental Health Programme (DMHP) clinics or government hospitals. The intervention is free, confidential, and accessible to anyone with a phone. The helpline's impact is evident across all 33 districts. Kamareddy district recorded the highest number of calls at 19,366, followed by Hyderabad (9,904), Hanamkonda (8,086), Siddipet (7,911), and Vikarabad (7,067). 'Most common callers are young adults, unemployed individuals, and people dealing with sudden medical or financial stressors. Callers often report feeling isolated or unable to speak openly with family members, which is where the anonymity and availability of the helpline make a critical difference,' said a Tele-MANAS official.
The Print
11 hours ago
- The Print
AIIMS researchers call for warning labels on alcohol like tobacco
The opinion piece by oncologists Dr Abhishek Shankar, Dr Vaibhav Sahni and Dr Deepak Saini from the Department of Radiation Oncology, Dr BR Ambedkar Institute Rotary Cancer Hospital, AIIMS, Delhi stated that adolescence forms a crucial period for the initiation and intensification of substance use behaviour, including alcohol. In an opinion piece titled 'Expanding behavioural interventions through cancer warning labels in India: from cigarette packs to alcohol bottles' published in Frontiers in Public Health on July 24, the doctors have highlighted that alcohol, like tobacco, is a proven carcinogen, yet awareness remains low. New Delhi, Jul 27 (PTI) Researchers at AIIMS have called for strong, evidence-based warning labels on alcohol products to prevent avoidable cancers, building on India's success with tobacco warnings. Behavioural interventions instituted by means of alcohol warning labels may prove to be effective in affecting positive changes in the consumption habits of individuals belonging to this age group, particularly in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs), where it is all the more important for certain sections of society to be educated and sensitised towards the consequences of substance use, the researchers said. They stated that cancer cases in India have seen a steep rise, with data from the 2012 to 2022 period suggesting a 36 per cent increase in incidence (1.01 million-1.38 million). GLOBOCAN 2022 data saw about 1.41 million new cancer cases in India with a five-year prevalence at around 3.25 million and a total cancer mortality at 916,827. Alcohol attributable a fraction for cancer and age-standardised rate per 100,000 in India are 4.7 per cent and 4.8 per cent, respectively, according to the GLOBOCAN 2020 data. Data from 2016 suggested that 6.6 per cent of Disease Adjusted Life Years in India were attributable to alcohol consumption which followed that of tobacco at 10.9 per cent, the researchers said. The researchers also mentioned about the advisory brought out by the US surgeon general in January 2025 regarding the consumption of alcohol and the risk of cancer, which stated that alcohol consumption demonstrably elevates the risk for developing at a minimum, seven types of cancer (colon/rectum, liver, breast, esophagus, larynx, pharynx and oral cavity). The advisory also mentioned the mechanistic links between alcohol consumption and the risk of developing cancer along with the fact that this effect is observable regardless of gender. Even before the release of this advisory, alcohol-attributable cancers have been recognised to contribute significantly to the global burden of disease, the researchers said. Cancer warning labels on alcohol containers have been observed to be of benefit in reducing alcohol consumption and lowering the perception of consumption, they said. The Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) in 2016-17 noted an increase by 16 per cent for health warnings on cigarette packs, with pictorial health warnings demonstrating a 50 per cent elevated impact on the intention to quit smoking cigarettes. Warnings can be differentiated based on the type of messaging involved into loss-framed and gain-framed which have an emphasis on associated risks/harms and the benefits of quitting, respectively, the researchers explained. There is evidence in literature to suggest that gain-framed messaging possesses an advantage over loss-framed warnings but the research on such aspects has mainly focused on loss-framed warnings in the case of cigarette smoking. It is also suggested that a combination of messaging can help inform behaviour change in a more effective manner which is based off the concept of the role individual beliefs play in determining outcomes, they said. India being an LMIC, this trend indicates the effect of cancer warning labels in modifying the behaviour of a significant number of people consuming such products, the researchers highlighted. 'The LMICs may look into expanding the positive experience gained from tobacco warning labels to those pertaining to alcohol containers, which clearly state a cancer risk from consumption. It may also be useful for these cancer labels to state that there is no lower threshold for alcohol-related cancer risk along with the types of cancers demonstrably attributable to alcohol consumption so far,' the doctors said. They pointed out that a crucial but often ignored aspect while considering warning labels is the multiplicative interaction of smoking and alcohol consumption in determining cancer risk. A National Cancer Institute (NCI) Workshop in December 2020 emphasised the importance of addressing the combined usage of tobacco and alcohol. Co-use of tobacco and alcohol has been found to be associated with a multiplicative effect in cancer risk, particularly for pharyngeal and oral sites. The importance of reciprocative warning labels on tobacco and alcohol product packaging is further underscored by the fact that alcohol usage has been observed to go up with an increase in cigarette smoking, with the former being associated with lower rates of quitting and higher relapse rates in smokers. It may also be worth considering to have helpful or constructive labelling on containers which guide the user to seek medical advice or undergo screening for cancer instead of being terminalistic in its messaging by suggesting graphic or fatal outcomes upon consumption, the researchers said. 'Since cancer as a disease may present as a result of the combined effect of alcohol and tobacco consumption, it makes sense to place such cancer warning labels and not address these risk factors in isolation,' they said. PTI PLB MNK MNK This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.
The Hindu
12 hours ago
- The Hindu
Critical vulnerability exposed sensitive data of voluntary organ donors
A critical vulnerability in the Organ Retrieval Banking Organisation (ORBO) website of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, that exposed sensitive data of voluntary organ donors across India along with their identity, health profile and contact details was detected and resolved, thanks to an independent security researcher who flagged the flaw. ORBO is the nodal facility for cadaver organ and tissue donation-related activities of the AIIMS. It maintains a brain death donor registry, coordinates the process of organ and tissue donation and transplantation and disseminates information to hospitals. In mid May 2025, the researcher, Aniket Tomar, came across the vulnerability and alerted the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT). Breach of data privacy In an email informing about the critical data exposure, he said the vulnerability disclosed personally identifiable and medical information of registered organ and tissue donors without any authentication mechanism for accessing it, posing a grave threat to data privacy, compliance, and national health infrastructure security. The data leak provided unrestricted access to the complete list of organ and tissue donors registered with the AIIMS. The information included full name, residential address, date of birth, blood group, mobile number and emergency contact details of the donor putting hundreds of individuals at significant risks of identity theft, phishing attacks, and social engineering exploitation. 'Such a data breach from a reputed medical institution not only undermines public trust in digital health systems but also violates data protection principles under the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, 2023. The severity is amplified by the fact that the breach affects a sensitive demographic—organ donors—who expect the highest standards of confidentiality and data stewardship,' Mr. Tomar said in his alert to the CERT. Personally Identifiable Information (PII) fields should be sanitised or redacted in any publicly accessible reports, he said and called for a thorough audit of similar web applications across other government healthcare portals to prevent systemic exposure. The AIIMS should notify affected individuals in accordance with ethical standards. 'More than a technical lapse' 'I was able to view several lakh donor entries... The data was not limited to Delhi, the entries appeared to include donors from various regions across India, indicating a nationwide scope. The exposure of this data is a serious breach of privacy, undermining the trust of individuals who voluntarily shared their most sensitive personal information with a national health platform,' Mr. Tomar told The Hindu. More than just a technical lapse, the incident raises deep ethical concerns and threatens to erode public confidence in organ donation systems and the broader healthcare infrastructure, he said. On June 18, 2025, the CERT wrote to Mr. Tomar appreciating him for detecting the critical vulnerability. The vulnerability was successfully mitigated and the exposed data was no longer publicly accessible, the researcher said.
