LIFESTYLE CHOICES, WORKPLACE CULTURE AND FAMILY SITUATIONS ARE CRITICAL FOR PRODUCTIVITY

SPENDING FREE TIME ON SOCIAL MEDIA OR RARELY EXERCISING OR NOT SPENDING ENOUGH TIME WITH FAMILIES HAS WORSNED MENTAL WELL-BEING

RETURNING TO OUR ROOTS MAY ALLOW US TO REACH FURTHER FOR THE SKIES IN TERMS OF MENTAL HEALTH: ECONOMIC SURVEY

Mental well being is the ability to navigate life’s challenges and function productively. Mental well-being encompasses all our mental-emotional, social, cognitive, and physical capabilities. This can also be construed as the mind's composite health states the Economic Survey 2024-25, tabled in Parliament today by the Union Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman.

LIFESTYLE WORK CULTURE AND MENTAL WELL-BEING

Economic Survey highlights that lifestyle choices, workplace culture and family situations are critical for productivity and if India’s economic ambitions are to be met, then immediate attention must be given to lifestyle choices that are often made during childhood/youth.

The Economic Survey highlights that the increase in mental health issues in children and adolescents is often linked to the overuse of the internet and, specifically, social media. Giving reference to Jonathan Haidt’s book ‘The Anxious Generation: How the great rewiring of children is causing an epidemic of mental illness’ Survey emphasizes that the arrival of the “phone-based childhood” is rewiring the very experience of growing up.

Economic Survey emphasizes that a better workplace culture will lead to better mental well-being. It also states that lifestyle choices and family situations also play a significant role in mental well-being.

The Economic Survey states that individuals who rarely consume ultra-processed or packaged junk food have better mental well-being than those who regularly do. It also says that those who rarely exercise, spend their free time on social media or are not close to their families have worse mental well-being and spending long hours at one’s desk is equally detrimental to mental well-being. 

  Figure 2: Mental Well-Being and Lifestyle

The Survey highlights that low levels of mental well-being is worrying, the ramifications of these trends on the economy are equally disturbing. The document also highlights that hostile work cultures and excessive hours spent working at the desk can adversely affect mental well-being and ultimately put the brakes on the pace of economic growth.

Economic Survey emphasizes the urgent need for school and family-level interventions to encourage healthy pastimes meeting with friends, playing outside,  investing time in building close family bonds would go a long way towards keeping children and adolescents away from internet and improving mental well-being.

The Economic Survey states that returning to our roots may allow us to reach further for the skies in terms of mental health. Economic Survey 2024-25 notes that given the direct costs to human welfare and the spirit and sentiment of the nation, putting mental well-being at the centre of the economic agenda is prudent and the scale of the problem is immense.

The document also states that it is about time to find viable, impactful preventive strategies and interventions as India’s demographic dividend is riding on skills, education, physical health and, above all, mental health of its youth.

Mental well being policy should be central to economic planning, urging preventive youth, family and workplace interventions. The Economic Survey 2024-25 links youth mental health to economic productivity, identifying lifestyle choices, workplace culture and family situations as key determinants of mental well being and warning that social media overuse, sedentary habits, poor diet and excessive desk hours undermine well being. It urges school, family and workplace interventions and recommends centring mental well being in economic planning with preventive strategies to protect the demographic dividend.