Elephant in the boardroom: Indian companies must learn to be more open about mental health

When attention deficit disorder (ADD), cortisol spikes and high cholesterol are openly discussed in water-cooler conversation, why is mental health not a factor that needs to be gauged before an employment contract is signed?

According to a senior partner at one of New Delhi’s most prominent law firms, the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act of 2016 states that one is prohibited from discriminating against a candidate based on the Act’s stipulated list of disabilities, unless proportionate to a legitimate objective.

A note released by the Press Information Bureau in December 2025 said that the same law defines a ‘person with disability’ as “someone who has a long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairment which, in interaction with barriers, hinders their full and effective participation in society equally with others.”

While employers cannot be biased during the hiring process, they can take a final call depending on the role’s needs. If the mental health conditions of candidates may obstruct their work efficacy, should employers not be informed of such diagnoses?

Maybe not under present workplace dynamics. But is it possible to reach a stage of openness where colleagues are aware of someone’s condition, just as one may informally know about those who are vulnerable to, say, a sudden dip in blood pressure?

According to an employment practice partner at a Mumbai-based law firm, “Recruiters and bosses are often biased, and any mental health-related concern will work against the candidate. It remains taboo. Even if the performance of the executive is exemplary, how open will a new recruiter be if one volunteers mental health related disclosure? Incapacitation due to a mental disorder will be far more detrimental to the candidate’s job prospects than a physiological one.”

According to a September 2025 report by the World Health Organization, more than “one billion people are living with mental health disorders… with conditions such as anxiety and depression inflicting immense human and economic tolls.”

Therefore, the chances of your working with someone who is dealing with a mental health disorder are pretty high, but you may never know since one is expected to keep mum.

Senior HR executives I spoke to explained that while at the hiring stage medical or any kind of personal questions are not asked, tests at an appointment-letter stage often indicate the candidate’s fitness. Candidates at junior and middle levels are groomed to keep personal struggles out of responses and, in fact, focus only on how they overcame assignment-related challenges.

No recruiter I asked had ever been informed by a candidate of suffering from anxiety or ADD, let alone having sought help or put together a list of ways to overcome the challenges. Such frank and open job interviews seem so rare, they might be non-existent.

Every year, India Inc has big jamborees to celebrate diversity, mental health help provisions, insurance coverage for one’s extended family, etc. But I am not so sure how a company would react if someone were to list a ₹2,000 therapy session as a Secret Santa wish. A bedside lamp is practical, but a therapy voucher is a sobering reality check.

What does a recruiter do if one finds out that a shortlisted person has mental health struggles? The definition of a best fit for a vacancy may include a ‘clean bill of health.’ In a company with a multi-generational workforce, with many older members anyway facing private health battles, is there a good reason to hire someone with mental-health ‘baggage’?

The answer is ‘yes.’ The quicker we accept that almost everyone up for hire has a struggle, physical or mental, whether it is identified at the outset or spotted later, the easier it will be to create a sensitized workplace. The team will make space and carry each other’s weight, but that requires candour. Colleagues have their own vulnerabilities too and may be glad to help, especially if common goals must be met.

There is also a fear of mental health becoming a crutch to fall back on if someone is unable to perform. Imagine you are up for a presentation. The team has worked on it for days. But on D-day, a colleague calls in saying they are having a panic attack and must miss the crucial meeting. You make a mental note to haul up the person only later, but for the moment you give other team members a pep talk and ask someone else to take over, knowing you are one person down.

Such a turn of events is unfair to you and the colleague who is asked to pick up the slack at the last minute , but would you have reacted in the same manner if the reason given was a BP drop instead? You would probably have checked in on the colleague and advised the person not to skip medication. It is a learning curve, but maybe we need to check if an employee caught in such a situation needs help.

If you were aware of the person’s mental-health struggle while offering the job, you did the right thing.

The author writes on workplaces and education at Mint.