Extraordinary Indians: Keka Majumder and Manika Majumdar of Janamanas are on a Mission for Mental Health Justice

Shakib’s* life had never looked darker. He was in his 20s and had inexplicably started believing that he had hydrophobia. Living in a rural area with little understanding of his condition and no access to professional care, Shakib’s family was at their wit’s end and had given up on a remedy. Neighbours and acquaintances deemed him insane, causing a further spiral into depression.

Today Shakib is a tailor, a thriving and contributing member of society, often helping the people who had once alienated him. And if he hears the names of Keka Majumder and Manika Majumdar, his eyes shine with happiness and gratitude. After all, it was their counselling and dedication that helped him get back on his feet.

Keka and Manika are two seasoned foot soldiers of Janamanas, an initiative of the mental health organization Anjali, which began in 2008. Operating from a kiosk near the Tetultala bus stop in the Rajarhat–Gopalpur municipality, Kolkata, the seven-woman team is on a mission to help poverty-stricken people overcome their mental health issues through door-to-door counselling.

In India, the stigma of mental health runs deep, even among the educated. Afraid to speak up for fear of being labelled ‘abnormal’, people continue to suffer from this silent epidemic. The issue is even more severe in rural areas where education is limited and superstitions abound. Most people in such areas often refuse to seek treatment, which only adds to their woes.

Undeterred by the lack of perception and awareness, the Janamanas team’s efforts have overcome significant hurdles. There’s always been a shortage of funds—as Manika recalls, they were initially paid as little as Rs 500 for half a month; there was a period during which they weren’t paid at all. Currently, they get Rs 6,000 per month.

Worse, despite intense planning, people simply didn’t show up for their awareness campaigns or visit their booth. So from 2015, they began door-to-door counselling, according to Provati Roy. “Even then, problems persisted,” says Kabita Mondal, “especially in Muslim-dominated areas where people refused to open their doors when we visited.” The situation changed only after days and months of persuasion.

Despite the odds, the Janamanas team provides free counselling sessions, organizes hospital trips and arranges for affordable medicine for patients. Japanee Das says that they also hold meetings, events and campaigns in the area, including educational plays that are very popular with the kids. She adds that they even set up stalls at community fairs to sell items made by local women and promote awareness. The door-to-door campaigns deserve a special mention, though—the team conducts one every week where five members cover 200 to even 300 houses a month, getting people to talk openly about mental health and accept it as an unfortunate but treatable human condition.

In Manika’s experience, around three members in each household are disturbed mentally, while every fifth or seventh house has a person with a severe mental disorder. Their work has led to greater tolerance and sensitivity towards victims of mental health. According to Jharna De, the team members are well known by now, and people approach them far more freely than they did when they first started out.

What is remarkable is that none of the seven members comes from a privileged background or has received a thorough education. What they do have is a history of experiencing or observing abuse—emotional, psychological or otherwise—in their families. Sandhya Sarkar, for instance, fell into deep depression and contemplated suicide as an escape from the abuse she faced from her husband and in-laws when she found Janamanas.

As a child, Manika also witnessed her mother’s abuse at the hands of her father and was made to quit school after class six. But today she is the winner of the Woman Exemplar Award from the Confederation of Indian Industry Foundation—an honour she received from the President of India in 2017.

In an age when the mental health epidemic is burgeoning, a selfless initiative like the Janamanas project is simply outstanding. Kudos to these seven remarkable women—heroes in every sense. “We have grown so attached to our work that we want to continue this forever” is a sentiment echoed by the team—and we can certainly toast to that!

*Name changed upon request