Mariwala Health Initiative

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Mariwala Health Initiative

A Mental health funding&advocacy agency with a focus on marginalised communities Our goal is to improve the overall well-being in India.

The Mariwala Health Initiative (MHI) is a funding organisationin the field of mental health in India. We conceptualize well-being as a combination of mental health and social factors and aspire to create a holistic mental health ecosystem in India that is accessible to everyone across social landscapes. We are a catalyzing and enabling force for organizations that strive towards this goal. We align with a rights-based, psychosocial approach that consider mental health concerns as a disability. We expand on the narrow medical understandings of mental health and illness and looks at it through a systemic lens. We understand caste, gender, religion, region, ability and sexuality based oppression as a major contributor to mental health distress. We encourage community-based interventions and actively promote deinstitutionalization of mental health services. We are a feminist, LGBTQ affirmative and user-survivor centered organization.

01/12/2025

Within tier-2 cities of Uttarakhand, MHI partner UKNP+ works to address the need for stronger AIDS response to ensure survival of those living with HIV/AIDS - who already face challenges in treatment adherence, managing side effects, and daily life. Since 2010, UKNP+ has been building peer support and advocating for rights to healthcare that is often denied on the ground of insufficient resources.

On , let’s focus on bridging the gaps between communities and healthcare systems - for holistic, stigma-free support, and integrate mental health care into HIV/AIDS programs. >

26/11/2025

“Our Constitution is a source of mental strength.”

- Aamir Kazi, Samvidhan Pracharak reflects on how equality, justice, and liberty nurture dignity, belonging, and collective well-being.
Working closely with students and Muslim minorities, and known for initiatives like the Samvidhan Rail Dabba and Wall of Samvidhan, Aamir reminds us that public awareness of our rights is itself a form of care.

22/11/2025

Mariwala Health Initiative recently supported the launch of Surviving Heat on the Streets: An Assessment of the Psychosocial Impacts of Extreme Heat on Homeless Persons by Housing and Land Rights Network (HLRN) India.

Many of the communities forced to live without shelter — including groups like the Gihara Samaj, a marginalised SC/ST community — are pushed into precarious, unsafe environments through generations of caste-based exclusion. These structural inequities shape every aspect of their daily lives, from lack of water, sanitation, and healthcare to constant exposure to discrimination and social isolation.

As heatwaves intensify, the report urges policymakers to recognise homelessness as a public mental health issue — one that must be addressed through a climate justice and caste equity lens, ensuring dignified housing and psychosocial support for all.

21/11/2025

At the Umerkhadi Observation Home, team works to bring care, dignity, and emotional safety into institutional spaces.

Their mental-health approach blends CBT, arts-based therapy, emotional-vocabulary building, and restorative practices, helping children articulate feelings, reflect on conflict, and rebuild confidence in themselves.

This partnership reflects MHI’s belief that mental health and justice must go hand-in-hand: healing, not just discipline.

20/11/2025

As we mark Transgender Day of Remembrance, we recognise the urgent need for care systems that affirm trans lives. Prevention must move beyond awareness toward addressing the structures that produce crisis: discrimination, erasure, and institutional neglect.

Nothing about us, without us.

15/11/2025

Birsa Munda’s legacy is rooted in resistance, a struggle for land, dignity, and the right of Adivasi communities to live by their own social, political, and ecological visions.
Even today, these questions remain urgent.

Kusumtai Alam’s poem speaks from this ongoing reality: the pressures on Adivasi identity, the cost of displacement, and the refusal to let history be rewritten.
Her words remind us that listening to Adivasi voices is not commemoration, it is solidarity with their constitutional and collective rights.

07/11/2025

Stress doesn’t look the same for everyone — especially not for those on the frontlines of social change.

For women, Dalit, Adivasi, q***r, and disabled leaders working within their own communities, stress isn’t just personal — it’s structural. It stems from navigating discrimination, resource scarcity, and systemic neglect every single day.

As we mark International Stress Awareness Week, we look to these leaders and organisations building collective, community-rooted models of care — from Godhra to Kolkata, Mt. Abu to Puducherry. Because their stories remind us: resilience isn’t born from isolation, it’s built in solidarity.

📖 Read more in our latest zine: Unfiltered — link in bio.

06/11/2025

Studies show that war and armed conflicts generally have a catastrophic effect on health and wellbeing of affected populations, causing more mortality and disability than any major disease.

The Geneva Convention includes protocols to identify the role of military activities in causing extensive damage to the environment and its harmful effects on health and survival of the population as war crimes. But in escalated conflict situations, as seen in Sudan and Gaza, these protocols are insufficient in preventing serious violations of humanitarian principles meant to protect the environment.

Environmental rehabilitation cannot be part of conversation without addressing the persistent lack of security & stability forced upon generations >>

05/11/2025

Join MHI’s Dr. Shruti Chakravarty () and Pooja Nair () at the upcoming QACP Basic Level Workshop, where we explore what it takes to build empathy, awareness, and inclusive practice within mental health spaces.

Across two days of immersive learning, participants will learn to:
🌈 Apply a q***r-affirmative lens in counselling
💬 Build understanding of gender and sexuality beyond binaries
🤝 Engage with q***r-trans clients through a rights-based, compassionate approach

📅 4–5 December 2025 | 📍 M.O.P. Vaishnav College for Women, Chennai
🗓️ Register by 1 December | 🎟️ Early bird till 20 November

30/10/2025

With 850+ mental health professionals trained in q***r-affirmative practice, and over 500 practitioners listed in our open-access database 🌈 , the Q***r Affirmative Counselling Practice (QACP) continues to build a growing network of care that affirms q***r and trans lives.

Explore the QACP-trained practitioner database here ⬇️
🔗 https://shorturl.at/605Ue

🟡 Please note: The practitioners listed have completed the QACP course by MHI. We encourage individuals to do their own due diligence before approaching any mental health practitioner. Completion of the course does not guarantee affirmative practice, and MHI is not responsible for practitioners’ actions. Community feedback remains the best guide for choosing supportive care.

***raffirmativecare ***rmentalhealth ***rrights

27/10/2025

Dr. Manju Madhavan speaks about the urgent need for medical practitioners to build awareness and sensitivity towards intersex persons. The diverse bodies are not a problem, but the lack of understanding often is.

🎥 Watch the full Panel 4: Counter-Narratives to Body-Gender Binaries on YouTube: link in bio

Jointly organized by MHI, HSNC University & KC College.

26/10/2025

“Over time, through conversations with intersex adults, parents, and healthcare providers across India, it became clear that what was missing were practical, affirming resources rooted in human rights, affirmation, and our own cultural realities.”

On , MHI draws upon Koushumi Sujata Chakraborti’s observations - and highlights ICFI’s efforts to address the vulnerabilities experienced by intersex children in absence of affirmative care and resources. >>

🔗 To access this resource, visit icfi.org.in

Address

Grande Palladium, Old CST Road, Kalina
Mumbai

Telephone

+912266480500

Website

http://www.mhi.org.in/

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