Watch: From Woodoo to Starvation, Surviving Depression In Rural TN

Watch: From Woodoo to Starvation, Surviving Depression In Rural TN

Ponnurangan's story undermines the false notion that depression is an urban phenomenon.

Depression is often seen as an urban mental health problem, affecting mostly the upper middle class. But decades of studies in Tamil Nadu show that prevalence of depression in rural TN is twice as much as in the urban areas.

Ponnurangan is a 55 year old daily wage labourer in a village near Chennai. He lived with depression for fifteen years. For the firs ten years, he was thought to have been possessed by an evil spirit, and was subject to physical abuse. This is his story.