Talking about mental health has always been a taboo in India. People, in general, are dismissive about mental health of others and of their own for that matter. Mental health has mostly been neglected and trivialized at a cost people in India generally fail to realise.
Post covid, work from home has become a trend which has led to an increase in people complaining of back and neck pain. Even before the covid wave, employees with desk jobs used to be constant sufferers of back and neck problems. A lot of this has to do with the posture and human anatomy. Humans evolved from apes. As we developed from four-legged to two-legged beings, it was the SPINE which had to take the brunt. As the work can’t be neglected, there are certain things which are in our control and which can reduce the discomfort upto some extent.
Law as the balancing factor between human wants and social welfare emerges as instrument of social change. Law and society, both are organic concepts. Social advancement leads to growth of law and the converse is also true. The concept of law as social engineering was expounded by a famous American scholar of law in the early 20th century which provides for striving a balance between competing interests in society. Given the march of law and society, both international and domestic, in the direction of expanding human rights, jurisprudence and our Fundamental Duty as a citizen of our country, necessarily means that we become inclined towards acceptance of requirements of our society, be it even a small segment of society.
Mental health at work is now a business priority. Employees must be trained to build their consciousness and emotional Intelligence to regulate emotions in tough situations, develop the patience to deal with difficult people, motivate oneself and the team, being gently assertive, ensure unbiased decision-making, enhance effective communications and promote DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion). Clearly, it is in the interest of business to promote employees’ mental health and the cost of not doing it is quite high.
This article is taken from the case study of a successful corporate executive, who sought psychiatric assistance to overcome issues of anger management.
In the year 1971, family pension scheme (FPS-71) was introduced by amending ‘the Employees’ Provident Funds & Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952′, providing for payment of family pension in the event of death of the member while in service.