According to World Health Organization (WHO) around 280 million people suffer from depression which is estimated
to be 3.8% of the total world population. More than 0.7 million people worldwide died due to suicide. According
to National Mental Health Survey of India during 2015-16, at least 5.3% of the population were found to suffer
from major depressive disorder at some point in their lives. Nearly 1% of the population were reported to be at
high risk for suicide in India. Depression is still not properly diagnosed in more than 75% of the population in low
and middle income countries leading to ineffectual treatment for this disorder. This may be due to many factors
like stigma associated with the disorder, lack of awareness, accessibility to care, and affordability of care especially
more so in rural areas. The later the diagnosis the more difficult and expensive the treatment. So early detection
is crucial and is important for providing timely support. Our approach to address this problem is by developing
an easy to access and use, Conversational Recommender System (CoRS) which helps to diagnose and classify the
severity of depressive disorder and provide non-clinical recommendations to help mitigate / manage this disorder.
CoRS is also made available in local language Telugu to enable a wider local participation. The System is intended
to provide succor to people suffering from depressive disorder and thus contributes significantly in managing their
mental health.