They are there each residential area has its mentally disturbed people; each family has anecdotes of crazy relatives. Nobody wants to acknowledge them. As pressures of life grow, so do troubles of the mind. Governments worldwide are looking for ways to tackle mental illness that poses a major threat to global economy. India has a national programme in place to tackle the problem for more than three decades but it has failed to deliver. Now, to improve the situation the government has drafted a new mental health care bill, which will be tabled in the monsoon sesssion of parliament. It is also charting a mental health policy. Vibha Varshney and Kundan Pandey analyse whether the efforts will help improve the lot of india's mentaly ill