Skip to main content
  • Accessibility
  • Headlines
  • Coronavirus-News
  • Get-Hooked
  • Technology
  • Education
  • Employment
  • Parasports
  • Ask Bhavna
  • NHBrandView
  • Independent Living
  • Lifestyle
  • NH Videos
×
Newz Hook – Changing Attitudes towards Disability Logo
  • Stories
  • Videos
  • Inclusive
  • NH Voice
  • Login
COVID-19 Notification by Government in Accessible Format

Accessibility Tools

Text Size:

Contrast Scheme:

  • C
  • C

Reset

  • Home
  • Get-hooked
  • Anubhuti Charitable Trust’s mental health programme offers support at a critical stage in students’ lives

Anubhuti Charitable Trust’s mental health programme offers support at a critical stage in students’ lives

Get-hooked October 1, 2019
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)

Four of every 10 students experience depression and one student dies by suicide every hour. Yet, schools and colleges in India are poorly equipped to deal with students’ mental health issues. Anubhuti Charitable Trust is trying to change that with its Mental Health Justice in Higher Education programme.

600 million, that’s half of India’s population, is under 25 years of age. A majority of them come from vulnerable backgrounds, socially and economically. Many of them struggle to access financial support to finish their education, one of the many triggers for emotional distress. It especially affects girls, many of whom drop out of the education system.

It was a similar experience that led Deepa Pawar, founder of the NGO Anubhuti Charitable Trust, and her team to start the Mental Health Justice on Higher Education programme in colleges in Mumbai and Thane districts. Formed and led by women, Anubhuti works actively among marginalised communities in these areas, the focus being to offer services in a non-discriminatory manner, develop youth leadership and gender equity for vulnerable sections in rural and urban areas.

Mental health is a strong focus of Anubhuti’s work and encountering feelings of anxiety, humiliation, guilt, and self-blame among youth from these communities led the NGO to start a programme that aims to better equip schools and colleges to improve mental well-being as well as find ways to address causes of psycho-social distress in the education system.

Anubhuti implements a rights-based, intersectional, feminist training module of mental health which is sensitive to socio-political backgrounds of the student-clients and which trains school teachers to implement a school-based counselling program for their students. – Deepa Pawar, Founder, Anubhuti Charitable Trust

Encouraging students to come forward and seek help can be challenging. There’s a fear of being judged and labelled. To help overcome this, Anubhuti conducts Mann Melas: Mental Health Fairs that are designed to encourage help-seeking behaviours in students, their parents, and the communities they live in. The school counselling programme includes a resource directory and referral networks with mental health services.

The impact these interventions are making is evident in the testimonials shared by many students in colleges.

“Please continue this work with youth. We have many problems, we need to learn how to deal with them, how to solve them by focusing on them. Suicide is never the last option.”

“The activity where we understood the social situation and therefore mental situation of people who are ostracized from society was thought-provoking.”

“I am facing so many problems leading to a lot of anger in me. This session was very useful for me”.

“It feels empowering to know that it is legitimate to think and talk about our mental health, and to create that same space for others.”

Among the main factors affecting mental health among youth are increased competition, job insecurity, social insecurity, gender and disability, to name a few. Some interesting findings have also emerged from these interventions in terms of data, which offer valuable insights on the nature and extent of interventions needed.

Important findings

To share a few, trainings and data collection among 500 college students across Kalyan, Dombivali, Ulhasnagar, Ambernath, Badlapur and Karjat showed that 75% could not answer what they understand by sexual violence/harassment. Many were unable to answer what they would do to protect themselves and not a single young woman said she would approach the college ICC (Internal Complaints Committee) if she felt unsafe. Another study among 1,000 students showed that 95% youth knew of at least one suicide in close circles.

“Sexual violence and harassment in educational environments also prevents young girls and women from accessing higher education” as Deepa pointed out in an interview to Rise Up. “Despite their major social and economic contributions to their communities, women and girls are not in positions of leadership”.

Anubhuti also actively supports community youth on a case by case basis to access education. “We provide scholarships to vulnerable youth every year, as part of our counselling support for them to complete higher education”, says Amrita De, a core team member at Anubhuti. “This is irrespective of how well they score in exams, the criteria are social vulnerability and the commitment to continue in education”.

Reach Anubhuti Charitable Trust
here

Also Read: Bridge the Gap campaign seeks to make mental health an election issue in the 2019 elections

Watch in Sign Language

Support us to make NewzHook Sustainable – Make a Contribution Today

We need your continued support to enable us work towards Changing Attitudes towards Disability. Help us in our attempt to share the voices of people with disabilities that enable them to participate in the society on an equal footing!

Contribute to Newz Hook

NH Videos

Healing pain through art - Dr. Anubha Mahajan, Founder Chronic Pain India

Contribue to Newz Hook |Disability news. Support us to make NewzHook Sustainable – Make a Contribution Today.

Newsletter

 Subscribe to our Newsletter

Want to feature disability stories or share disability news with the disabled community? Write to:

editor@newzhook.com

Newz Hook - Accessible News

Download App Now!

Videos

View More

Get-hooked

'We have only one life, so live it to the fullest' - My Take by Krishnakumar PS

Technology

#TechThursdays – Kibo XS, world’s 1st intelligent personalised scanning & reading companion

Get-hooked

#ChampionsWithCP – Rohit Jain believes he is different, not disabled

Get-hooked

#ReassessMS - Campaign on Multiple Sclerosis underlines gaps in disability assessment guidelines

Newz Hook Logo

About Newz Hook

Newz Hook | Disability News - media site focusing on Disability Stories and Changing Attitudes towards Disability globally. We highlight disability news, offer inclusive solutions and create accessible collaborations. Our focus is to have Inclusion Champions from across the globe who will share disability stories and news.
Lets come together to change attitudes towards disability!

Newz Hook is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Follow us on:

Related Links

  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Partner with Newz Hook
  • Embed Newz Hook Timeline
  • Affiliate disclosure
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Contribute to Newz Hook

Our Awards

Zero Project Award Winner 2018
Back To Top
© 2019 All Right Reserved. Inclusive News India Private Limited.

Ask Bhavna

All fields are mandatory unless specified as optional.