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Nearly half of Indian youth aged 15 to 24 report mental distress from climate change, yet only one in three knows where to seek help. Experts say this is a critical policy failure waiting to escalate

Climate change is no longer a conversation about distant disasters or polar ice. In India, it is a lived, daily experience for the country’s most emotionally vulnerable generation. A new report by consulting firm Primus Partners has revealed the staggering mental health burden climate stress places on youth aged fifteen to twenty four. The study estimates that anxiety, stress, and emotional burnout triggered by climate uncertainty is costing the Indian economy up to thirteen point seven billion US dollars every year, equivalent to zero point three five percent of the country’s current gross domestic product.
The findings, published in a nationwide research paper titled “The Cost of Climate Change: Young Voices in a Warming World,” offer a rare look at how environmental trauma is shifting from physical health to the psychological sphere, with young minds bearing the brunt.

Youth are aware, but unsupported
According to the report, over forty six percent of respondents in this age group confirmed experiencing mental health concerns such as anxiety, hopelessness, or sleep disruption directly linked to climate-related events. Alarmingly, only thirty three percent of them were aware of available support services. The remaining two thirds are left to manage these symptoms alone, even as weather extremes, seasonal unpredictability, and social uncertainty increase.
Among younger adolescents aged fifteen to eighteen, fifty six percent expressed awareness of climate anxiety. In the nineteen to twenty four bracket, that number rose to sixty percent. The intensity of the experience is also gendered. According to the report, more young women reported being emotionally affected by climate shifts than men, suggesting that future policy must be designed through a gender-sensitive lens.

Mental health is not just a personal loss
What makes this study different is that it does not treat mental health as an isolated health indicator. It links it to economic loss, educational disruption, and labour productivity decline. Primus Partners estimates that the cumulative effect of climate-linked mental stress on the fifteen to twenty four age group could result in an annual economic drain of nearly thirteen point seven billion US dollars. This figure is part of a broader projected six percent national GDP reduction that the World Health Organization and allied public health groups associate with untreated health burdens tied to environmental factors.
A 2020 Royal College of Psychiatrists study in the United Kingdom had also found that sixty percent of child and adolescent psychiatrists working in the public sector had encountered patients distressed by ecological grief, climate worry, or environmental trauma. The current findings mirror that global trend but place a sharper lens on India’s youth population, which remains under-researched and underserved in mental health planning.

Urgent calls for national policy integration
Experts are now urging the government to integrate climate-linked mental health strategies into existing public health structures. Dr Naveen Kumar, Head of Community Psychiatry at NIMHANS, says there is a strong case for embedding emotional wellness into climate resilience planning.
This includes:
Expanding climate education in schools, particularly focusing on emotional literacy and self-regulation
Providing specialised training to school counsellors to address eco-anxiety
– Developing formal referral pathways for students exhibiting climate-induced distress
Dr Kumar emphasised the need for disaster response strategies to include age-appropriate psychological support, especially in states prone to floods, droughts, or extreme heat.

Tele-mental health, outreach and rural gaps
The report also recommends expanding Tele-MANAS, India’s government-led tele-mental health programme, to ensure that climate-related stress can be addressed in rural or low-access areas. Community Health Officers, Accredited Social Health Activists, and Auxiliary Nurse Midwives must be made part of the outreach model. Without proactive awareness, even the most comprehensive support networks risk being underutilised.
Vivek Tandon, Vice President of the Health Practice at Primus Partners, highlighted the need to apply a gender lens to all future research in this domain. With more females reporting distress in this study, policy tools must consider how caregiving burdens, social expectation, and access inequities shape female experience of climate trauma.

A policy blind spot waiting to widen
Nilaya Varma, Co-Founder and CEO of Primus Partners, sees this study as a long-overdue bridge between climate policy and mental health strategy. “The findings highlight the urgent need for integrating mental health considerations into national climate resilience planning,” he said. “Young people are both the most affected and the least protected. By embedding psychological support into education, awareness, and climate readiness, we can avoid long-term socio-economic losses that will be far harder to reverse later.”
The report serves not only as an assessment of risk but as a framework for action. According to Prof Dr Sanjay Zodpey, President of the Public Health Foundation of India, climate trauma must now be considered a legitimate health determinant across public health, urban planning, and child development policy.
India has one of the youngest populations in the world. Without mental health infrastructure that acknowledges climate fear, the demographic dividend may quietly slip into a generational breakdown. The message from this report is clear. Climate is not just destroying biodiversity. It is damaging belief systems. And unless India protects its young minds now, it may pay for that oversight in both compassion and capital.

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