AI project HEADS launched to shrink India's depression care gap

A two‑year AI initiative named HEADS was unveiled Thursday to improve early detection of depression across India. The program is a joint effort by NIMHANS, the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur and the LGBRIMH centre in Tezpur, with funding from the Wellcome Trust. Its goal is to create and test artificial‑intelligence tools that can screen for depression in five Indian languages – Kannada, Assamese, Hindi, Bengali and English – languages that have been largely ignored in prior mental‑health AI work. Lekhansh Shukla, an assistant professor of psychiatry at NIMHANS and lead researcher, noted that only about 20 % of Indians with depression receive timely treatment, making the gap one of the world’s biggest. At the hybrid launch, experts pointed out that most existing digital mental‑health solutions rely on English‑language, urban data, limiting their usefulness in rural or multilingual clinics. Shukla explained that earlier studies showed even advanced language models struggled to grasp emotional nuances in Indian tongues, prompting HEADS to build language capability from the start. The project follows a strict human‑in‑the‑loop model, meaning AI will support clinicians without replacing their judgment. A 15‑member panel of people who have lived through depression, anxiety or substance‑use disorders will guide every stage, from study design to bias checks and stress testing of the algorithms. Over the 24‑month period, roughly 4,500 patient interviews will be recorded at NIMHANS and LGBRIMH for analysis, while IIT Kharagpur handles core engineering and safety testing. Senior leaders from all three institutions attended the launch, marking a significant push toward fair digital mental‑health services in the country.