Mental health conversations are finally gaining traction in urban India. But for many in Pune’s working-class communities — house helps, rickshaw drivers, daily wage earners, and security guards — the words anxiety, depression, or trauma often go unspoken. Or worse, unheard.

In these populations, the daily struggle to survive often overshadows the need to heal. But the pain is there. It festers — quietly, invisibly — until it spills out in the form of chronic fatigue, substance use, aggression, or complete emotional numbness.

It’s time we stop seeing mental health as a middle-class luxury and start recognizing it as a human right. Especially for those who build, serve, and sustain our city.

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A Hidden Epidemic: Mental Health in the Margins

In Pune’s fast-growing urban economy, thousands of workers live precariously. A single health crisis, job loss, or abusive employer can destabilize their entire lives. Add to that:

• Long hours with little rest
  
• Poor nutrition and living conditions
  
• Gender-based violence (especially among domestic workers)
  
• Social isolation due to migration
  
• No access to therapy or awareness about psychiatric symptoms

The result? Anxiety and depression are rampant. But they don’t always look the way textbooks describe.

Instead of “low mood,” it shows up as constant irritability.

Instead of “panic attacks,” it manifests as dizziness and breathlessness — often treated as physical ailments.

And because of stigma, most don’t seek help — or even know help exists.

The Accessibility Gap

While Pune is home to several top psychiatric rehabilitation centers and residential treatment programs for schizophrenia and other mental illnesses, they are rarely accessible to working-class populations.

Even when affordable mental health treatment in Pune is available, it’s often too far, unfamiliar, or simply not marketed in a language and manner that feels welcoming.

Bridging the Gap: What Needs to Change?

Here’s what can make a real difference:

1. Community-Based Mental Health Interventions

Bringing care to bastis, chawls, and labor communities — not the other way around. Partnering with NGOs, housing societies, and schools to host awareness drives and counseling camps.

2. Mobile Mental Health Units

Vans staffed with trained psychologists and social workers that rotate through working-class neighborhoods in Pune, providing crisis counseling and early interventions.

3. Training First Responders

Auto drivers, sanitation workers, and domestic helpers often witness mental health emergencies — training them in basic psychological first aid could save lives.

4. Language and Cultural Relevance

Many working-class individuals in Pune speak Marathi or Hindi. Mental health outreach needs to move beyond English — with visuals, relatable analogies, and even folk-based storytelling.

Centers That Are Making a Difference

Some mental health rehabilitation centers in Pune are starting to pivot. For example:

• Programs that offer holistic mental health rehab with yoga and art therapy, which can be especially effective with non-literate or trauma-affected populations.
• Women’s mental health rehabilitation centers that support domestic violence survivors from low-income groups.
• Efforts to make inpatient mental health care in Pune more financially accessible through CSR-funded beds or sliding-scale pricing.

Why It Matters

Healing is not just for the privileged. Mental health is not a luxury. And mental illness is not exclusive to the educated elite.

When we ignore the emotional lives of the working class, we reinforce an invisible caste system — one where only some people get to be mentally whole.

Recognizing, funding, and expanding affordable therapy for anxiety and depression in Pune isn’t just good healthcare policy — it’s a step toward justice.

Because not all wounds bleed. And not all pain cries out. But all of it deserves to be heard.