UNEMPLOYMENT AND MENTAL HEALTH

Being unemployed for extended periods, not knowing where one’s next meal is coming from, the constant threat of eviction or violence, or social exclusion on account of caste, gender, or sexual identity, would distress anyone.

Mental distress successively impacts the power to carry employment or complete education, inhibits participation in social and family activities, decreases productivity, and diminishes resources within families. It isn’t surprising then, that those living with psychological state conditions might simultaneously grapple with unemployment, low education, food insecurity, inadequate housing, and financial stress. mental disease and poverty are thus intricate parts of a vicious cycle: poverty increases the dangers of psychological conditions and conversely, those living with psychological conditions are more likely to drift into poverty.

Within this self-fortifying cycle of mental disease and poverty, certain groups emerge more vulnerable than others. Social hierarchies—of gender, sexual orientation, economic status, ability, and caste—exclude, discriminate against, marginalise, and isolate certain groups and individuals. Consequently, marginalised groups that hold lower positions within these social hierarchies experience greater levels of mental distress than those that hold more advantaged or higher positions.

We need to locate psychological state within economic, environmental, sociocultural, and political contexts and  how the intersections of poverty, casteism, misogyny, and other violence impact mental health , and include it as a key ingredient across development programmes.