This mental health awareness initiative aims to lift 5 million people out of depression by 2025

Mental health is often hushed and stigmatised in a country as large and diverse as India. In an effort to keep up with the fast-moving lifestyle, many of us – especially the millennials – tend to overlook the effect it has on our mental wellbeing, physical health, or work-life balance. According to a World Health Organisation (WHO) estimate, India has the largest share of people with mental health disorders, followed by China and the US.

Moreover, between 1990 and 2017, one in seven people from India suffered from mental illness ranging from depression, anxiety to severe conditions such as schizophrenia, according to a study. However, 2020 saw another wave of mental health attributed to the fear arising from the pandemic and the isolation due to the ensuing lockdown.

To address the issue, Indifamily Foundation started the initiative Pehla Sukh - India Wellness Movement during the pandemic to impact individuals through innovation. The Indifamily Foundation aims to make a positive societal impact through diverse community engagement initiatives such as Seed Rakhi, Ek Chitthi, and Folk Fusion which have created employment, empowerment, and awareness. 

Pehla Sukh is supported by core team members of Indibni – Nitin Jain, CEO, Indibni Pvt Ltd, under the mentorship of Naren Bakshi (Co-founder, ICC-CWC), Wg Cdr VK Kala, Somnath Chatterjee (Co-founder, ICC-CWC), Premlata Sand (Chair, Indifamily Foundation), Basant Jain (Co-chair, Indifamily Foundation), Divya Jain (Managing Trustee, Indifamily Foundation), Adi Guru Das, and Jitendra Gautam.

Its mission is to impact five million people by 2025, educating them towards a holistic and healthy lifestyle. The online initiative is supported by the Silicon Valley’s India Community Centre-Crack the Wellness Code (ICC-CWC) and is driven by Indifamily Foundation, which is based out of Jaipur, Rajasthan.

Driving mental health awareness

Pehla Sukh aims at imparting holistic health driven by – personal (mental and physical), professional (financial and work), people (family, friends and society), passion (desires and ambitions), purpose (nature, spiritual and meaning of life).

“We enhance community wellbeing by championing the mission of educating, inspiring, empowering and impacting the disadvantaged sections, and all those in need of wellness best practices and preventive care,” Founder and CEO Nitin Jain tells SocialStory.

Pehla Sukh – India Wellness Movement aims to reduce risks and healthcare costs through a paradigm shift – from diagnosis, treatment and cure, to screening, prediction and prevention – enabling the transition from reactive to a proactive model of healthcare.

It offers guidance, content, best practices and resources (selected speakers, partners and practitioners) to improve the wellbeing of members through specified circles and support groups across large target groups with extensive outreach. 

“We design Indian-centric customised programmes and project packages focused on evidence-based Western and Eastern wellness best practices with preventive care, diet and lifestyle, leveraging our partner – CWC’s innovative wellness ecosystem,” says Nitin.

“This ecosystem comprises doctors, nutritionists, lifestyle practitioners, health heroes, coaches, entrepreneurs, institutional partners, service providers, healthtech companies, and other proactive stakeholders,” he adds.

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Online sessions

Pehla Sukh organises online sessions focused on mind and body wellness. People can register and add their queries as per the theme of the webinar, and the moderator asks those questions to the experts.

Post the webinar, they also conduct one-to-one Q&A with the experts and publish the videos on their YouTube channel.

“Our platform is easily accessible online and is joined by like-minded experts who are there to help out the general public with the issues they are facing and advising them ways on how to cope with it.”

In 2020, the team conducted seven webinars covering topics of work-life balance, women’s wellness, child wellness, heart health, among others.

Since the launch event on World Yoga Day on June 21, 2020, nearly 25,000+ people have attended the webinars, and the videos have been viewed by nearly one lakh people via the partner YouTube accounts.

“Our target group are millennials in India and the Indian diaspora who are navigating to attain work-life balance and holistic health,” shares Nitin.

One of the attendees, Gajendra Rathi from Mumbai says, “The vast knowledge of speakers helps a lot to maintain our wellness in day to day life. Work- life health balance for me personally was the biggest issue but with the practical suggestions given by doctors and guests speakers have changed my entire life. Have switched to healthy food and living habits.”

To support Pehla Sukh’s missions, Prem Lata Sand, Chair, Indifamily Foundation invested a seed fund of Rs 2 lakh. Along with that, Naren Bakshi, Co-founder, ICC-CWC sponsored a full-time executive, and all other logistics and resources are provided by Indibni Pvt Ltd through its foundation as their in-kind/CSR support.

“On an average, we are spending nearly Rs 35,000-40,000 per webinar/month, and the idea is to make itself sustainable by corporate partnerships, CSR funds and in-kind support,” says Nitin.

The initiative received a letter of endorsement from Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and the state’s Health Minister Raghu Sharma released a video appealing to the citizens to join this wellness movement.

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Challenges and the road ahead

Some of the challenges that the team is addressing include spreading education and awareness on leading a healthy lifestyle and how to take authentic, proven research/practices to people at large.

“Moreover, bringing wellness experts, doctors, health heroes on digital platforms and sharing their experiences/stories is another big challenge,” he adds.

In the coming years, Pehla Sukh plans to expand in terms of conducting awareness programmes and sessions about lifestyle diseases such as Type II diabetes, blocked arteries, and certain types of cancers.

“We are planning to organise wellness conferences and workshops once the coronavirus situation improves. We also have plans to engage wellness practitioners and start conscious dialogues with wellness doctors, organise wellness retreats, and create support groups. We also want to help people make habit changes, thus helping them take charge of their health,” he concludes.