Across India, a silent crisis is unfolding among its youngest citizens. While discussions on mental health often focus on adolescents or adults, emerging data and clinical experience show that emotional and behavioural difficulties are surfacing much earlier - even among children as young as one to ten years old. The sharp rise in these developmental and emotional challenges at such an early stage is no longer just a clinical concern; it has now become a public health crisis. It signals the influence of factors that are acting very early in life and shaping the foundations of development for coming generations.
This trend makes one thing clear: the difficulty does not reside within an individual child. Instead, it appears to be emerging from profound transitions and shifts in psychosocial and environmental conditions, as well as possibly genetic and epigenetic determinants. To respond effectively, India must rethink how it understands, supports and nurtures young lives - not in isolated sectors, but through coordinated societal action.
A Growing Concern
National and international studies highlight that early childhood is far from immune to mental-health challenges. Recent school-based research suggests that up to one in four children (approximately 23 percent) may experience symptoms of anxiety, depression, attention difficulties or other behavioural concerns. Globally, the World Health Organization notes that up to half of all mental-health conditions begin by age 14, often preceded by subtle early childhood warning signs.
Why The Youngest Are Especially Vulnerable
Multiple overlapping factors are driving this surge.
- First, ages 1 to 10 are marked by extraordinary brain development. During this period, chronic stress, inconsistent caregiving, family conflict or exposure to digital overload can shape neural circuits tied to emotional regulation, attention and resilience. Even mild but persistent stressors can affect sleep, behaviour and social engagement - patterns that may evolve into anxiety or mood disorders later.
- Second, emotional distress in younger children often goes unrecognised. A seven-year-old rarely says, "I'm anxious." Instead, they may become irritable or withdrawn, or show regressions in speech, sleep or toileting. These signs are too easily dismissed as "acting out" or "growing pains," creating a treatment gap at the very stage when early intervention has the greatest efficacy .
- Third, rapid lifestyle shifts are reshaping childhood. Urban children face reduced playtime, limited opportunities for safe movement, high academic expectations and prolonged screen exposure. Sedentary behaviour has replaced open-ended, imaginative play - a shift known to correlate with poorer emotional and developmental outcomes.
These trends reflect systemic pressures - including changes in parenting practices, schooling, social structures and digital environments - all of which collectively influence child development. Recognising them as such is essential for designing meaningful solutions.
The Missing Link: Early Detection and Support
Despite mounting evidence, mental health in the under-ten age group remains largely absent from India's paediatric and school-health frameworks. Current screening focuses on physical growth and nutrition, with limited attention to socio-emotional development. Routine health visits rarely include questions about language and communication, social interaction or relational behaviour and biocycles.
Early detection must become standard practice. Simple, age-appropriate screening tools can help identify difficulties with emotion regulation, attention or peer interaction - not to label children, but to understand and support the needs before distress deepens.
A Public Health Crisis Demanding Cross-Sectoral Action
Given the breadth of contributing factors, intervention cannot rest solely with clinicians or families. This is a cross-sectoral challenge requiring coordinated solutions across health, education, community systems and policymaking.
- Parenting practices may need to adapt to the realities of modern childhood, helping parents and caregivers create emotionally attuned, predictable and regulated environments.
- Primary education, especially in the early years, will need to broaden its focus beyond academics to include emotional literacy, life skills, self-regulation and cooperative and prosocial learning.
- Digital exposure in early childhood requires critical evaluation - not only in terms of screen time but in how it replaces play, sleep, and relational connection.
- Access to safe movement and free play must become a developmental priority, not an afterthought for city planners , schools and neighbourhoods.
- Growth and education frameworks need to shift from a narrow focus on cognitive and academic intelligence to an integrated understanding of mind, body and spirit, supporting whole-child well-being.
Today's fragmented approach to early childhood care - where physical health, cognitive learning and emotional development are treated separately - is no longer adequate. A well-integrated, holistic framework is imperative.
A Collective Responsibility
Parents, teachers, paediatricians, community workers and policymakers all play a role in shaping the emotional landscape of childhood. Encouraging emotional literacy , attempting rather than a grieving from an early age ,play-rich, inclusive classrooms and community settings , encouraging effort rather than outcome can buffer the effects of stress and social isolation.
Workplaces and policymakers can strengthen family well-being through supportive leave policies, parenting programmes, and public-awareness initiatives that normalise conversations around children's mental health. Evidence consistently shows that every rupee invested in early childhood mental-health intervention yields many times its value in improved educational, social and health outcomes.
Building an Early-Response System
India has made commendable progress by integrating mental health into public-health priorities, but the scope must now expand to include younger children. This requires:
- training paediatric and primary-care professionals to recognise early emotional distress,
- embedding mental-health components into the National Early Childhood Care and Education policy,
- ensuring that every school adopts socio-emotional learning frameworks,
- and strengthening coordination between health, education and social-welfare sectors.
The Path Forward
The message is simple but urgent: Children's emotional , mental and health is as fundamental as their physical growth. By waiting until adolescence to act, we lose the precious years when the developing brain is most adaptable and responsive.
Protecting India's youngest minds is not just about preventing mental illness - it is about nurturing resilience, empathy and holistic well-being. To do this, India must re-examine how it is raising and supporting young children, and commit to a unified, integrated approach that honours the complexity of early development.
Early attention today will shape the strength, creativity and balance of the generation that follows.
(By Dr Kavita Arora, Founding Cohort, IMHA; Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist; Co-founder at Children First)
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