Contents:

1. World Mental Health Day 2024
2. Atal Pension Yojana (APY)

World Mental Health Day 2024

Focus: GS-II: Social Justice

Why in News?

The World Mental Health Day is observed annually on October 10.

About World Mental Health Day:

• World Mental Health Day was first initiated in 1992 by the World Federation for Mental Health (WFMH), a global organisation dedicated to promoting mental health worldwide..
• This global observance aims to raise awareness about mental health issues and mobilize efforts in support of mental health care worldwide.
• The importance of World Mental Health Day is underscored by the growing recognition of the profound impact mental health has on individuals, families, and communities.
• The theme for 2024, Mental Health at Work, highlights the critical connection between mental health and the workplace.

Understanding Mental illnesses

• Mental illnesses include anxiety disorders, psychotic disorders, mood disorders, substance use disorders, personality disorders and eating disorders.
• The majority of suicides in the world are related to psychiatric problems or to the illnesses listed above. Death by suicide is a complex phenomenon and not fully reported.
• Mental health may not be the primary concern in developing economies like India as there may be other communicable and non-communicable diseases which may be more prevalent.

Importance of mental health:

• Emotional and mental health is important because it’s a vital part of your life and impacts your thoughts, behaviors and emotions.
• Being healthy emotionally can promote productivity and effectiveness in activities like work, school or caregiving.
• It plays an important part in the health of your relationships, and allows you to adapt to changes in your life and cope with adversity.
• Our mental health encompasses our psychological, emotional and social well-being. This means it impacts how we feel, think and behave each day.
• Our mental health also contributes to our decision making process, how we cope with stress and how we relate to others in our lives.
• Global burden of mental health will be well beyond the treatment capacities of developed and developing countries.
• The social and economic costs associated with growing burden of mental ill health focused the possibilities for promoting mental health as well as preventing and treating mental illness.

Atal Pension Yojana (APY) 

Focus: GS-II Social Justice

Why in News?

The total gross enrolments under the Atal Pension Yojana (APY) have crossed 7 crore, with an enrolment of over 56 lakh in the current Financial Year 2024-25.

About Atal Pension Yojana (APY)

• APY was launched on 9th May 2015 with an objective of delivering old age income security, particularly to the workers in the unorganised sector.
• APY envisages Government providing guarantee of minimum pension after 60 years of age.
• The scheme even after garnering 2.23 crores workers under the ambit of pension, still remains unequivocally relevant for addressing the challenges of rapidly increasing aging population of India.
• The scheme has been implemented comprehensively across the country covering all states and Union Territories with male to female subscription ratio of 57:43.
• APY can be subscribed by Any Indian citizen in the age group of 18-40 years having a bank account and its uniqueness is attributable to three distinctive benefits.
• It provides a minimum guaranteed pension ranging from Rs 1000 to Rs 5000 on attaining 60 years of age.
• The amount of pension is guaranteed for lifetime to spouse on death of the subscriber and lastly, in the event of death of both the subscriber and the spouse, entire pension corpus is paid to the nominee.

Future of APY

Going forward there is still the humongous task of increasing the pension coverage, as only five per cent of the eligible population has been covered under APY till date.