Karnataka health min blames modernity for stress; laments 'women want to be single now'

Stirring yet another controversy, Karnataka Health Minister Dr. K Sudhakar on Sunday, blamed modernity in Indian society as the reason for stress. Speaking at NIMHANS, Bengaluru on World Mental Health Day, Sudhakar lamented that Indians had moved from following their religious beliefs and living in large families to nuclear families - leading to paradigm shift in thinking. Furthermore, he also rued the fact that modern Indian women preferred to be single and married women preferred surrogacy.

Karnataka min: 'Women prefer to be single'

"Earlier, we lived in large families unitedly. We followed our religious beliefs. But in the last 2-3 decades, we started competing with each other, leading to stress. As Indians, we need to preach to the world how to handle stress because Yoga, meditation and pranayama are wonderful tools to deal with stress," he said. 

He added, "Unfortunately, today we are going in a western way. We don't want our parents to live with us. A lot of modern women in India want to stay single. Even if they get married, don't want to give birth, they want surrogacy. There is a paradigm shift in our thinking, it's not good".

Sudhakar's monogamy test dare

This is not the first time Sudhakar has made outlandish claims. Previously in the heat of the Jarkiholi sex scandal, Sudhakar had dared all 225 Karnataka MLAs to undergo a 'monogamy test'. After receiving massive flak from MLAs and the Speaker for his dare, he 'regretted' his statement, an hour later, asking people to 'understand his pain' and not take him 'literally'. Sudhakar - a Congress-turned-BJP leader, is one of the six ministers who had secured an injunction against 68 media houses from airing any CD or other material that is likely to defame them in connection to the Jarkiholi sex scandal.

Amid Opposition MLAs' protest against the media gag on the Jarkiholi sex scandal, Sudhakar said in Assembly, “This is an open challenge from me to those who think that they are Sathya Harishchandras. Let all the 225 of us face an inquiry. It is the question of morality and values. Let the people of the State know if they have any illicit relationship and extra-marital affairs.”

Karnataka's mental health issues

Recently, the state govt constituted the Karnataka Mental Health Authority to collate and publish a list of clinical psychologists, mental health nurses and psychiatric social workers registered to work as mental health professionals. The registry will ensure timely and efficient delivery of mental healthcare services to citizens in the state. This move was prompted by mental health issued being reported widely during the COVID crisis. As per National Mental Health Survey 2016, 56 million Indians suffer from depression, and 38 million suffer from some anxiety disorder.