World Mental Health Day 2026: Tele-MANAS Passes 47.75 Lakh Calls

The correct answer is 14416. Tele-MANAS, which stands for Tele Mental Health Assistance and Networking Across States, offers free and confidential counselling on this number at any hour of the day, in several languages, without the caller having to reach a hospital. Options B, C and D are wrong because they are not the number for this service; they are the kind of close variants an examiner uses to test careful reading. Candidates should store the helpline alongside the other figures released for World Mental Health Day: the service began on 10 October 2022, it had taken 47,75,644 calls by October 2026, and it works through 53 cells covering all 36 states and union territories of the country. The service is especially valuable in rural and remote areas where specialists are hard to reach.

The correct answer is A. The day falls on 10 October every year, and the theme for the 2026 observance asks that the voices of those who have lived with mental health conditions be heard and allowed to shape policy and services. Option B pairs the right date with a theme of an earlier year, so it is wrong. Option C carries the right theme but the wrong date, since 7 April is observed as World Health Day. Option D is wrong on both counts, as 2 October is marked for other reasons in India. A useful link for revision: the launch date of Tele-MANAS, which also falls on 10 October, in the year 2022, so the service was started on a World Mental Health Day.

The correct answer is 767 districts. The programme runs under the National Mental Health Programme with support to states and union territories through the National Health Mission, and it funds outpatient care, counselling, psychosocial help, medicines, follow-up, outreach, referral and inpatient treatment at the district level. Options A, B and D are wrong because no such sanction figure was reported. Pair this number with the other reach figure of the same release: mental health services have been built into the primary healthcare package at more than 1.83 lakh Ayushman Arogya Mandirs, where health teams screen for early signs of distress, give psychosocial support and send patients to higher centres when needed. Together these form the ground-level layer below the telephone counselling service.

The correct answer is MANN Jaagriti. It is a structured community engagement initiative meant to strengthen mental health literacy, cut the stigma attached to mental illness and prompt people to seek help early rather than late. Instead of relying on single-day events, it works through schools, colleges, workplaces, health facilities and other community spaces, and draws in healthcare workers, teachers, youth, families, caregivers, civil society bodies and people who have themselves lived with mental health conditions. Options B, C and D are invented names and do not correspond to any programme announced with the observance. Remember the pairing for the examination: Tele-MANAS is the telephone counselling service, while MANN Jaagriti is the awareness and community engagement arm.

The initiative also seeks to move beyond one-time activities, so that states and union territories hold locally relevant conversations through the year and spread word about the services already available, Tele-MANAS among them.