Prognosis

‘I Weep All the Time’: Trauma Lasts Beyond India’s Covid Peak

  • One psychologist sees 40 patients a week, rationing her time
  • India tech companies support finance and internet giants
Patients inside a Covid-19 ward at a hospital in Bangalore, earlier in April.Photo: Xinhua via Getty Images
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This is a sampling of the cries for help from workers in today’s India. The country is going through the world’s worst Covid-19 outbreak, a tragedy exacerbated by the trauma of seeing family and friends suffer as so many other countries emerge from the pandemic. Now Indian tech companies, which support Wall Street banks and Silicon Valley giants, are trying to figure out how to address the mental-health fallout for a generation of young workers.

Vijay Laxmi has never seen anything like it. The 31-year-old is an in-house psychologist at the tech services giant HCL Technologies Ltd., the source of the testimonials. She now counsels as many as 40 employees a week, four times the number during the first Covid wave last year. She’s had to ration her time and make sessions shorter because of the overwhelming demand.