Atmiyata Project – A Community-Based Mental Health Initiative  

In India, close to 14.3% of our population, i.e., 197 million people live with some form of a mental health condition.
The National Mental Health Survey (2016) shows that there exists a large mental health care gap wherein 76-85% of people with mental health conditions in need of mental health care and treatment cannot access the necessary care. This is primarily due to both, demand and supply-related factors.

Demand-related factors: These include stigma, discrimination as well as other structural and social barriers that make it difficult for people to access mental health care.

Supply-related factors: These include the lack of specialised professionals, poor quality of available services, high costs, services that are inaccessible as they are located far away, and a purely bio-medical approach that does not consider socio-cultural factors that influence an individual’s mental health.
This mental health care gap is particularly large in rural areas as many individuals are trapped in a cycle of poverty, social isolation, ill-health, disability, and social exclusion.

The Atmiyata intervention employs a stepped care approach, using community-based volunteers knowns as Champions, who are identified, trained, and mentored to:

1. Provide psychosocial support: Champions provide 4-6 counselling sessions using evidence-based techniques to those with common mental health conditions such as depression and anxiety.
2. Make referrals: Refer persons with severe mental health conditions to public mental health services when required.
3. Facilitate access to social benefits: Enable access to social care benefits such as pension, disability support, etc. to increase financial stability.
4. Build awareness: Raise community awareness by using the Atmiyata App to show films based on social determinants of mental health to a small group of 3-4 community members.

Built on the tenets of empathy and volunteerism, Atmiyata equips communities to meet their own mental health and social care needs.

Atmiyata aims to assist people with common mental health conditions lead productive and healthy lives, breaking the vicious cycle of poverty and mental ill-health. It strives to create a shift in the mental health systems in low-middle-income contexts through its community-led approach.

As a mental health intervention, Atmiyata seeks to reduce the treatment and psychosocial care gap for both common and severe mental health conditions, improve access to benefits and quality of life, and reduce levels of disability.

The effectiveness of the Atmiyata intervention has been evaluated through a Stepped Wedge Cluster Randomised Controlled Trial (SW-CRCT) with a nested economic evaluation from 2017–19. The SW-CRCT results showed that:

1. Persons with common mental health conditions receiving the Atmiyata intervention are 3 times more likely to show reduction in symptoms of depression and anxiety, with a sustained effect.
2. The Atmiyata intervention is effective in reducing symptoms of depression and anxiety, improving quality of life and social participation.
3. Champions (trained community-volunteers) are skilled to identify persons with common mental health conditions with an accuracy of 58%, which improves over time.

The detailed results of the evaluation can be found here..

Our preliminary results show that Atmiyata is also an economically viable model with a return of $9.35 on every $1 invested, we will soon publish the results of the economic evaluation.

From 2013 to 2015, Atmiyata was piloted as a proof-of-concept study in 41 villages of Nashik district, Maharashtra. Atmiyata was transitioned to scale in Mehsana, district Gujarat across 530 villages.

Since 2019, in addition to Mehsana, Atmiyata is being implemented at scale in Patan and Sabarkantha districts of Gujarat across 1219 villages covering a rural adult population of 1.7 million.

From January 2018 to March 2025, Atmiyata has reached: 57,089 persons with common mental health conditions, 7924 persons with severe mental health conditions, linked 19907 end-users with to social benefits. The Atmiyata films aimed at creating awareness have been viewed by 176552 individuals.

From December 2022 to March 2025, Atmiyata has reached: 4012 persons with common mental health conditions, 1657 persons with severe mental health conditions, linked 2999 end-users with to social benefits. The Atmiyata films aimed at creating awareness have been viewed by 35,029 individuals.

From December 2022 to March 2025, Atmiyata has reached: 3390 persons with common mental health conditions, 2300 persons with severe mental health conditions, linked 7285 end-users with to social benefits. The Atmiyata films aimed at creating awareness have been viewed by 41,085 individuals.

Additionally, we have scaled up Atmiyata through strategic partnerships, where we provide technical support while the partner organization leads the implementation of the intervention.

Ambuja Foundation

Ambuja Foundation is active in 11 states across diverse geographies and rural settings. Building on this presence, we integrated Atmiyata with Ambuja Foundation’s Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD) programme, which leverages trained community workers known as sakhis to provide essential support.

In 2024, we piloted the Atmiyata intervention across 101 villages in Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, and Himachal Pradesh, reaching a rural adult population of approximately 100,000.

Hasiru Dala

From 2022 to 2023, we partnered with Hasiru Dala, a social impact organisation working with waste pickers, to pilot the Atmiyata intervention in 8 blocks of Bangalore’s urban slums covering an adult population of 22,800.

Delhi Commission for Women

We trained 53 Mahila Panchayat coordinators in collaboration with the Delhi Commission of Women, supported by Mariwala Health Initiative, Mumbai. The training enabled NGO coordinators and paralegals to deliver Atmiyata counselling alongside their work on gender-based violence, demonstrating that Atmiyata can be effectively implemented in urban-poor communities.

Association for Health Welfare in Nilgiris (ASHWINI)

We are collaborating with ASHWINI in the Nilgiris to introduce Atmiyata in Gudalur, marking our first engagement in Tamil Nadu, focusing on four diverse tribal communities. Currently, we are co-designing to adapt the intervention to their context with the community members, ASHWINI’s team and other stakeholders.

We hope the insights gained will lead to an effective intervention in Gudalur and create pathways to work in similar communities in the future.

Kadam Jan Vikas Sanstha (Madhya Pradesh)

We have entered a partnership with Kadam Jan Vikas Sanstha, a Gwalior-based organization focused to addressing gender-based violence and severe mental health conditions. We are planning to implement Atmiyata within their communities.

Scaling with Ambuja Foundation

Following the successful completion and evaluation of the pilot, we are excited to announce the expansion of our partnership to implement Atmiyata in additional locations. In the next phase, we will now expand this collaboration to three additional sites in Punjab and West Bengal, covering over 170 villages across seven states.

Piloting Atmiyata at Newham, East London

With funding from the Barts Charity, we are set to pilot Atmiyata intervention in collaboration with Queen Mary University of London. It is exciting to see a Global South innovation move to the high-income country context and we look forward to our collaboration to build on community-led interventions for mental health and social care.

Atmiyata for Gender-Based Violence

In 2024, we developed a targeted intervention to address the mental health impacts of gender-based violence. This process included a series of workshops with diverse stakeholders, guided by a theory-of-change framework, along with in-depth interviews with community champions and members. Insights from these engagements informed the development of an intervention plan and training manual. The training has been piloted, and the intervention is now underway.

The Atmiyata intervention has also been adapted into an online course, aimed at equipping individuals with skills to use evidence-based counselling techniques to identify, reach out, and support persons in distress. To know more about the Atmiyata Course, click here.

Our strategic focus is to:

• Implement the Atmiyata programme at scale, through replication and adaptation in new contexts
• Develop and evaluate innovations to better address community mental health and social care needs
• Collaborate and partner with community-based organisations to integrate Atmiyata within their existing programs/ portfolio

Co-leads

Jasmine Kalha, Co-lead,
Kaustubh Joag, Co-lead
Nitish Narkhedkar, Programme Manager
Neeraja Auti, Project Manager
Palak Korde, Project Manager

Funded by

Grand Challenges Canada

Mariwala Health Initiative

Azim Premji Foundation

Collaborator

Health & Family Welfare Department, Govt of Gujarat