Are the Durga Pujas responsible for a mental health crisis?

Kolkata: Well, truthfully, this could well be Diwali or any other mainstream Indian festival, to qualify as justifiably accused. While a large section of the citizenry is obsessed with revelry, an increasingly significant populace is slogging with enforced disregard for holidays or even humane shifts.

As per the latest learned data points, the Durga Puja micro economy in West Bengal alone is worth about Rs. 40,000 crores, that too at conservative estimates. While a chunk of this is the creative economy, which does the honors before the holidays commence, a considerable volume is generated by the point-in-time service economy, from public utilities to private indulgences. In Calcutta city itself, about 3 lakh police personnel were deployed to ensure fluidity and the figure would be notably enhanced when other necessary facilities are added, including Fire, Healthcare and allied utilities.

Now coming to the party with enhanced vigor are the tech-enabled services, including the Swiggy-Zomato clique and the entire spectrum of e-commerce advantages, from Amazon to Urban Company. The F&B sector is equally culpable as this is truly bonanza time, and as a logical outcome, the employees are forced to perform draconian time slots, to ensure profitability and valuation of promoters. Cab aggregators or facilitators dangle suitable carrots to the empanelled fellows, and nobody can deny that business booms in such periods. I am not even mentioning healthcare, airlines and all forms of public transportation for excessive involvement is a historical expectation.

Now, here is the alarming hypothesis, inspired by somebody I know well from the hospitality industry who is living in a switching mode of acute jet lag and clinical automation. In West Bengal alone, during the Durga Pujas, I anticipate a million such people, possibly a lot more who are sacrificing their revelry for employment imperatives. By a simplistic rule of thumb, every such person must have an average of 3 family stakeholders who are suffering as a continuum reaction, as in the parent or sibling or child is unable to activate partake. Thus we are sitting on a bare minimum 3 million corpus for this solitary festival in a single state, and the amplification of this number nationally for Diwali and even the national holidays will add to this tally.

Once again, from defensible conversational evidence, it is clear that the lack of unified family participation can bear heavily on a child or spouse. A psychologist I spoke to confirmed that this is a proven form of peer inadequacy, where the good societal fortune of others can disturb the mental equilibrium, and since folks don’t change industries in a hurry, this can be a dangerous pattern. And to reiterate amply, I do mean the entire gamut of the enforced workforce, from cops to chefs. Inarguably, there are surges in earnings for the management suites, and even if that is passed on generously, this societal damage cannot be denied.

Quite logically, this promises to be a continuing pattern, as the influence of tech-enabled services grows further and the nation gets even more affluent, and thus more celebratory. Certain industries have belled the cat quite astutely, and this includes banking, newspapers, education and state services like the judiciary and routine operations. In the traditional job sectors, that pattern is followed sharply and legacy organizations are delighted to extend happy leaves, especially when past cultural evidence plays an alibi and current business imperatives are not affected.

Now that a problem has been put forth, is there a logical solution? To the naked imagination, it does seem that those employed in the ‘Festive Service’ sector, encompassing both public and private, might as well warn impending or existing marital partners that they will be generally absconding when the rest of society is gloriously enjoying. But then if one were to be recklessly innovative, a few compensatory opportunities can be explored, perhaps starting with the imminent festival of lights.

Not just NGOs but even business ventures can create community outing programs for the ‘Festive Sector’ families, to ensure wholehearted participation. I can envisage Police departments, Zomato, F&B bodies and other such stakeholders ensuring that such group events are implemented, with the aid of professional event managers.

Technology can be an immense ally as groups can unite such families for pandal hopping while the working folks reunite at opportune moments, and an added sop can be a special privilege for such folks. Including a whole host of discount cards and even, deferred holiday packages for a weekend staycation with the entire family. ‘Be Parent Proud’ is yet another movement that can be curated, extending to daughters and siblings naturally, whereby, like army families, the temporary absence of a significant family member is a badge of pride, not an agent of depression.

Most certainly, better thoughts can be formulated by finer minds, but my intention will need to be earnestly replicated. To ensure that we do not let a mental health crisis steadily unfold as an unintentional backlash of super-accelerated micro-economies that mean so much to so many of us.