According to the World Health Organization, India has the greatest burden of mental and behavioural disorders.
Every sixth Indian needs mental health help and yet the treatment gap ranges between 70% and 92% for different
mental health disorders.
Jan Sahas works with highly excluded and disadvantaged communities who are survivors or are at-risk of issues such
as gender violence, unsafe migration, forced labour conditions, sexual exploitation and trafficking. We recognize
that the communities we work with, deal with trauma in their day-to-day lives and are largely deprived of adequate
mental health care that they require in order to be back on their feet. To bridge this gap, Jan Sahas has
developed an in-house counselling unit with an aim to foster resilience among our communities and ensure their
access to mental health care at grass-roots level. Under this initiative, in the last one and a half year, over
1800 beneficiaries have received direct counselling services in 35 districts across 5 states. Over the last one
year, 397 mental health workshops have been conducted with schools and communities to increase awareness on mental
health and counselling. The team also facilitates identification and capacity building of ‘Barefoot counsellors’
(mental health caregivers) who are trained at providing counselling support at community level. In 2021, Jan Sahas
opened up its Certificate Course in Barefoot Counselling to other organisations wanting to adopt the barefoot
counsellor model to address mental health care at the grassroots. The first cohort had 25 participants. Jan Sahas
is also training community volunteers as Mann Sathis to foster community resilience, enhance mental health
literacy and make mental health care accessible at grassroots. Currently, there are 160 Mann Sathis in the state
of Rajasthan and training have started in Madhya Pradesh as well.
Jan Sahas’s in-house counselling team aims to foster resilience amongst our communities and ensure access to mental health services for all. For free counselling support contact us at 7385154560 or mail at counselling@jansahasindia.org