**10. Conclusion**

COVID-19 causes strong mental health issues, as number of deaths, death of family members and friends and lockdown are factors affecting the thought of a person. During the pandemic people facing the problem with inadequate supplies, inadequate information, financial loss, stigma and infection fear. According to our survey children are having lesser knowledge about pandemic while they are curious to know but are not able to understand scientific complexities. Children are little bit irritated locked at home but mostly happy with their families and do not have any anxiety or fear of death. While teenagers are not much happy and worried for their family and friends' health. They were eagerly waiting to meet their friends as being unsocial makes them lonely, irritated and anxious which motivates them to fight with other family members. Adults are most mentally affected, as they have load on their shoulder and see whole life been affected due to corona virus. This group has people mostly worried about its effect on studies/jobs/financial condition. They are not very easily irritated and annoyed but hard to sit still. Most people in this age group are accepting situation, eating well and keeping themselves active. Aged are mostly facing loneliness, anxious and irritated due to being separated from other family members. They watch news channels for atleast one hour a day and afraid that something awful might happen. The number of person infected and died were increasing every day. Even isolation, lockdown and physical distancing are prolonged. Opportunities are decreasing and as a result financial problem are increasing. This leads to increase of mental health issues exponentially. There is stigma related to COVID-19 among people which might be initiating factor of mental health issues. To avoid stigma one can believe that not all who are having symptoms like cough and sneeze have COVID-19, despite precautions if anybody catches COVID-19 its not their fault, one should face fear and anxiety with facts not discrimination, stay positive and remember COVID-19 will heal but stigma and mental trauma left behind will not. In India there is lack of clear and effective communication and a knowledge-based stigma reduction strategy that can translate into public education, community engagement and trust in the health care system. Firstly, we should have knowledge that virus will not be going away any time soon. Any long term strategy must be introduced, broad based and transparent with key public figures who can help the state to communicate on this daily. Secondly, we must move from language of fear and paranoia to one of empathy. We can stop using terms such as "infected" "carrier" and switch to "affected" and "acquired." This reminds people that patients and those at risk are people like us. A public awareness campaign around breaking stereotypes that harm social cohesion and empathy is the need of the hour. We have already seen sections of mainstream media demolishing certain communities and ethnicity. This is not just unethical, but also has an impact on disease control and people lives. There is need to understand the side of mental health during the pandemic, increase the number of researches and find the actions to cope with issues for their effective management.
