Study of mental wellness in Indian IT companies: awareness, acceptance and effectiveness of mental wellness program

Abstract

As India’s economic growth accelerates, the IT Industry has emerged as the largest contributor to GDP growth. A large percentage of our young workforce is going through tremendous pressure in a highly competitive industry and battling with increased health risk, succumbing to mental and physical depression, lower efficiency and lifestyle issues very early in life. Here, it becomes important to raise awareness amongst Companies towards the effects of Mental Wellness on the performance of its workforce and consciously drive them to prioritize the overall health and wellness of its employees. This is to further enable strategic decisions and actions to bring about a cultural change and eliminate any stereotypes and stigmas associated with stress, depression or mental illness. While there is ample amount of research and recommendations initiated by World Health Organization(W.H.O.), the adoption and effectiveness of mental wellness is unsatisfactory in developing nations like India. According to an estimate by the (W.H.O.), mental illness contributes to about 15% of the total disease conditions around the world. The same estimate also suggests that India has one of the largest populations affected from mental illness. As a result, W.H.O. has labelled India as the world’s ‘most depressing country’. Moreover, between 1990 to 2020, one in seven people from India have suffered from mental illness ranging from depression, anxiety to severe conditions such as schizophrenia etc. It is no exaggeration to suggest that the country is under a mental health epidemic. This research aims to analyze the IT Industry today by surveying and interacting with Business and Human Resource (HR) Leaders and understand the root cause of what their understanding is towards the cause and effect of mental illness across organizations. In this study we aim to understand reasons behind lot adoption based on literature review, personal experiences and controlled Survey to over 70 Managers. Furthermore, Qualitative interviews of Business leaders from 30+ IT Companies of varied sized helps put together insights drawn after rigorous refinement.