Indian Mental Health Start-Ups See More Participation From Students

With the pandemic wreaking havoc on mental health, and with psychiatrists predicting that the effects will last for years, many students are flocking to the Indian mental health start-up scene. In most nations, venture funding for mental health firms reached a new high, especially as anxiety and depression-related illnesses became more prevalent. And India is certainly part of this global move to improve mental health awareness and resources.

Amigo, an online counselling and treatment software, was recently launched by a team of four engineering students from Manipal Institute of Technology (MIT). Mindcommute.com was created by Abhinav Kumar, a second-year engineering student at MIT Manipal, and Retik Singh, a third-year engineering student at the University of Pune.

The stigma connected with mental health disorders spurred the concept, according to Priyanshu Gupta, co-founder of Amigo and a third-year engineering student. “Most students go through a difficult phase, and although we have counsellors in college, walking up to them requires a lot of courage. Many feel that if they are spotted, they may be judged,” he explained.

Gupta, along with Arko Chattopadhyay, Enrique Ferrao, and Pranav Reddy, created a platform that provides counselling in eight categories: general counselling, teen therapy, child counselling, couple therapy, life coach and mindfulness, family therapy, parenting counselling, and corporate counselling.

He further added, “We have a simplified list of 17 issues and a user can easily reach out to any of the 36 therapists from across 20 cities. They speak 12 languages. The start-up is in the final stages of being incubated at the Manipal Universal Technology Business Incubator.”

Meanwhile, after being concerned by a number of suicides in their immediate vicinity, childhood friends Abhinav Kumar and Retik Singh decided to develop a website to help others "have a decent night's sleep." “This will be a free platform,” Kumar stated. “We've enlisted the help of friends like Mahika Pillai, a psychology student at Delhi University, who will serve as the psychology lead, Jyotnoor Kanwar, a behavioural neuroscience student at SFU in Canada, who will serve as the psychology consultant, and Pratham Mehra, a management associate from Symbiosis International University in Pune.”

He also shared, “We are seeking for more volunteers and will be launching a test series and chatbots soon. We aspire to be able to operate under the auspices of a parent NGO.”