Mental Health has never been considered a "real disease" in India. When it comes to depression, people often joke about it by saying, "it's just a phase" or "It's not real". People will laugh and joke around about self-harm or suicide, some of them don't even realize the impact they're having because in their head they're not doing it maliciously.

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In the past three years, the NDA government has taken a number of steps to improve the mental well-being of the people. On 28 March 2017, the Parliament passed the Mental Healthcare Bill, 2016 which will be repealing the existing Mental Health Act, 1987. The bill was already passed by the Rajya Sabha in August 2016. After receiving the assent of the President on the 7th April 2017, the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017 has come into existence.

So what exactly is the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017? The law was described in its opening paragraph as "An Act to provide for mental health care and services for persons with mental illness and to protect, promote and fulfil the rights of such persons during delivery of mental health care and services and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto."  The Act is aimed to provide for mental health care and services for persons with mental illness and to protect, promote and fulfil the rights of such persons during delivery of mental health care and services and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto. But, there are loopholes.

The draft rules failed to address the concern that psychotherapists and psychoanalysts are excluded from the act as the current definition of ‘mental health professional’ is restricted to clinical psychiatrists and professionals holding a postgraduate degree in Ayurveda, Homeopathy, Siddha, and Unani—all on the clinical side. Although including specialists from non-allopathic fields of medicine is laudable, it is unclear why psychotherapists and psychoanalysts were not included. This was also presented in Lok Sabha and ministers were pleaded to expand the definition.

According to the Act, mental illness is recognized as a clinical issue which can only be treated by medicines and clinical procedures which abandons the real issue of prevention and promotion of mental well-being. Medication works, and research consistently proves that therapy combined with medication is the most effective treatment for mental illness. It is sometimes possible to treat mental illness without medication, but it's rarely the best option.

Next up, the Act fails to provide a clear procedure for preparing an ‘advance medical directive’ (proposed by the act) through which individuals can dictate how they “wish to be” and “wish not to be treated”. This can be done by nominating a member on their behalf in case they lose their mental health. Some clauses have been deleted which were earlier present in the previous Bill. The Act fails to provide for the full list of treatment options available so that a decision can be taken by the individual without information asymmetry.

Lastly, the Act provides for the constitution of an expert committee for periodic review and effective implementation of the Act. Neither the Act nor the rules define the constitution, procedure, and terms of reference of the committee. Such an important body should be more transparent and subject to public scrutiny.

The neglect of mental health is evident from a World Health Organization report claimed that over 300 million people in the world live with depression which is an increase of more than 18% between 2005 and 2015. Gaps and loopholes in these acts are only slowing down the improvement in these percentages!