New Delhi: The prolonged insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir is having a severe impact on the mental health of the people, especially women and children.
More and more women are knocking on the doors of mental health professionals in the strife-torn state.
Over 50 per cent of 60,000 people who have sought help for mental disorders in the past decade have been women.
Not only are the numbers growing, the list of disorders is also widening. Apart from psychosomatic disorders such as ulcers, many women are seeking help for schizophrenic tendencies like emptiness and midnight knock syndromes.
"Women, the largest survivor group in Jammu and Kashmir, have shown immense resilience. But continuing violence is taking a toll on them," said an employee of Psychiatry Disease Hospital in Srinagar, Arshad Hussain.
He added that women who were biologically predisposed to depression and anxiety were now displaying schizophrenic tendencies.
Hussain recently attended a conference organised by Women in Security, Conflict Management and Peace (WISCOMP).
"There is a marked increase in cases of abortion, incest, infidelity, crumbling marriages and early menopause," said another delegate at the convention, Rehana Kausar.
On the mental health infrastructure in the state, Kausar said, "There are only 13 psychiatrists, two-three clinical psychiatrists, 100-150 counsellors and 400-500 lay counsellors."
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