Deepa Pawar, Founder-director of Anubhuti Trust

Over 22 years, Deepa Pawar has worked with youth, women, communities, colleges and government agencies on issues of gender, health, rights, leadership, sanitation, and more. Since 2018, Deepa has also operated a mental health programme for communities that have poor access to public or private healthcare for mental illness.

Founder-director of Anubhuti Trust, Deepa is perhaps the only woman from a nomadic community, to train, counsel and provide mental health support to youth and women of Maharashtra’s nomadic and denotified tribes. She came up with the unique concept of ‘mental justice' that posits mental health as a matter of social justice. Based on this, she developed ‘Mann Mela’, a ‘mental health fair’ where games, songs, discussions, etc, are used to take the subject to youth in a fun, accessible way. Over 500 youth and women in colleges, rural areas and Adivasi villages have benefited from this initiative.

Anubhuti Trust has provided mental health awareness and counselling services to students, corporators, government officials, teachers, healthcare providers, sanitation, and other informal workers, and diverse community members across Thane and Mumbai districts.