What is a loneliness epidemic? Is India becoming a prey?

The humankind has witnessed a myriad of health epidemics and pandemics ranging from the Spanish flu to HIV/AIDS to COVID-19. Additionally, the world has fought with these epidemics and more as well. However, the world is still ignorant of a form of epidemic that is silently creeping into the lives of people, with no devices, instruments, or thermometers capable of detecting it. 

The World Health Organization, thankfully, spreads some light on the matter, with its estimates conveying that at least 25 percent of older people and 10 percent of adolescents are lonely in their lives. Additionally, the Global State of Connections conveys through a report that over a quarter of 4.5 billion people actually felt "very lonely" or "lonely" in the year 2023. Just like every other epidemic ever occurred, both these numbers are simply an underestimation of the real situation of loneliness. The World Health Organization called the problem of loneliness a pressing global health threat in November. What sounds both interesting and disappointing is the fact that the health impact of loneliness has been associated with smoking over 15 cigarettes. Loneliness can give the body a strong feeling of something missing for survival.

The most recent example of loneliness affecting mankind could be evidently seen in the years of the pandemic, which adversely affected the long-term physical and mental health of the people.

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Are Indian people getting lonely?

For the purpose of research, loneliness has been described as the unpleasant experience resulting from a deficient network of social relations of an individual in an important way, either qualitatively or quantitatively. It is described as an experience other than "social isolation."

The National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) expressed that over 49.1 lakh people were actually living alone and experienced loneliness. This was a study of the year 2004.

In the year 2012, self-reported loneliness data showed that over 9.5% of rural adolescents and 17.3% of urban adolescents suffered from loneliness.

Next came the study of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies in the year 2017, where it was found that over 12 percent of the youth of India reported their feelings of depression, and over 8 percent felt lonely frequently.

In 2017 and 2018, the Longitudinal Ageing Study in India expressed through a study consisting of 72,000 individuals, about 20.5 percent of adults aged 45 and above reported feelings of moderate loneliness, and over 13.3 percent felt severely lonely. It was the very first time that it was noted that the elderly are facing social well-being issues, and there exists a need to address these issues.

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