On World Mental Health on 10th October recently, youth leaders trained by Anubhuti led our unique Community Mental Health Fair – Mann Mela in Rahtoli village in Badlapur, Thane District. Read more about Mann Mela here.
This is a games-based module made by founder Deepa Pawar in 2016 and launched in 2018 – to take mental health literacy, awareness, destigmatization and support in easily understood, everyday, simple formats to the grassroots.
The idea is to simplify and make mental health accessible – by presenting it as positive and achievable, and while being aware of local contexts and sensitive to ground realities.
Its biggest strength is that it is led by community youth, who are best equipped to lead mental health initiatives on ground, since they have the same lived experiences. It is highly replicable and localized.
Every year we strive to reach more marginalized groups. Having started with urban college students in 2018 – who were majority Bahujan, this current Mann Mela was with rural, Adivasi, Bahujan, single, not educated & other intersectionalities within women & youth. It was led by our 3rd trained batch of Mann Mela youth facilitators. More than 100 women and youth were reached with games, films, quizzes, songs and focus group discussions.