A one - day National Stakeholder Consultation and Agenda Setting Workshop was organized on the theme of ‘Climate Change and Mental Health in India’ on 22 March 2024 in Bhopal. Organized by The Analysis and Sangath Bhopal hub, the workshop brought together more than 10 experts to discuss the various impacts of climate change on mental health.
The workshop consisted of two technical presentations and three panel discussions. Dr. Naveen from NIMHANS and Praveen Ganganna from NCDS gave a detailed overview of mental health issues and outlined the key trends in climate change and its rising impacts on human health, as a part of their presentations. NCDS brought forth its mandate in climate change and health policies and highlighted the importance of awareness in citizen and community engagement.
As a part of the first panel discussion, Susan Thomas from SEWA, Narendra Chouhan from UNICEF and Archana Singh from PRADAN brought forth the evidence of the interconnection between climate change and mental health, from policy and ground. The workshop provided a platform to discuss the key issue of gendered impacts of climate change on marginalized groups. Another topic brought up were the Impacts of climate change on water security and further its impact on children.
The second panel involved Naman Gupta from UNDP, Chandan Khanna from Health Care Without Harm, Upadhyay Preeti from SHRC- Government of MP and Dr. Ashish Joshi from Makhanlal Chaturvedi University. The panelists deliberated on the innovative ways of collaboration to address the climate crisis and its impact on mental health. Other areas which were taken up were the sources of financial support for climate and health programmes, the role state agencies play in the implementation of these programmes, benefits of decentralization and importance of community awareness and engagement.
