Alliance

The India Mental Health Alliance recognises the

fragmented nature of the mental health

landscape in India. We have initiated an alliance

with over 300 member organisations till date,

shared knowledge and advance cross-sectoral

collaboration. We believe this is critical for

long-term systemic change in mental health

The India Mental Health Alliance recognises the fragmented nature of mental health landscape in India. We have initiated an Alliance to bring diverse stakeholders together to build shared knowledge and advance cross-sectoral research and collaboration dedicated to long-term, systemic change in mental health.

-IMHA National Convening (2025)

Over the coming years, we are committed to mainstreaming and prioritizing mental health in national development priorities, facilitating convening, collaboration across sectors, providing training and resources to support better care design and delivery, strengthening policies, and enabling greater long-term funding for mental health.

We aim to co-create with people from diverse backgrounds, locations, and areas of work related to mental health and cross-sectorally, learning from their different contexts and viewpoints. Our goal is to connect people from various sectors, foster knowledge, and encourage cross-pollination.

Over the coming years, we are committed to mainstreaming and prioritizing mental health as a national development goal; facilitating convening and collaboration between cross-sectoral stakeholders; providing training and resources to support better care design and delivery; strengthening policy; and enabling greater long-term funding for mental health.

We aim to include people from diverse backgrounds, locations, and areas of work related to mental health and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), learning from their different experiences and viewpoints. Our goal is to connect people from various sectors, fostering knowledge creation and encouraging teamwork.

Connect

Collaborate

Capacity

Convene

-Mannotsava – The National Mental Health Festival (October 2024)

By bringing together member organisations from different sectors to address mental health as a development issue, the Alliance will play a catalytic role to Connect, Collaborate, Capacity and Convene.

Alliance

Membership

Mental Health Text

The Alliance brings together organisations across sectors and geographies that share a commitment to addressing mental health from multiple perspectives.

The Alliance is bringing together diverse organisations across sectors and geographies, with unique expertise & interest to address mental health from multiple perspectives.

Membership is open to organisations aligned with the Alliance’s values and committed to shared learning and impact.

There is no fee to join the Alliance.

-Alliance Member Meet and Greet – Mumbai (2026)

Membership is open to organisations or associations that are aligned with the Membership Charter values, with a commitment to shared learning and impact. There is no fee to join the Alliance.

To recommend any organisation for membership or to express interest in joining the Alliance, click below

351Member Organisations and Counting....

[As of August 2026]

Key Initial Offerings to Alliance Members

The Knowledge Centre is a hub for credible mental health information for stakeholders across India’s ecosystem. We currently host over 300 curated resources including toolkits and capacity-building materials, lived experience–led resources, laws and policies, landscape reports, data and evidence, and more.

The Knowledge Centre is meant for multiple types of stakeholders including NGOs, funders, mental health professionals and more. To enable usability, it is categorised and searchable.

Future plans include video resources and greater regional language content.

-Alliance Table at the IMHA National Convening (2025)

IMHA hosts online and in-person convenings to create dialogue and collaboration across sectors working in mental health.

In the past, we have hosted consultations with Alliance members on themes such as:

On 29th September 2025, IMHA hosted its First Annual Convening – a landmark, closed door gathering of 130+ Alliance members from across the nation. It brought together organisations from different sectors, across geographies, and created opportunities for deeper networking and a dynamic exchange of ideas. This year, we look forward to building on the energy of the event and to our regional convenings and the next Annual Convening .

-What Mental Health Practitioners Can Learn From Family Carers and those “Left Behind”

-IMHA National Convening – 29th Sept 2025

‘-Experience to Expertise’ session

This will be IMHA’s first in-person Annual Convening. 

Date: 29 September 2025 

Venue: India Habitat Centre, New Delhi 

Time: 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM

Registrations are now open (only for Alliance member organisations)

With over 300 million Indians living with mental health conditions and a greater number of carers supporting their journey; we believe its critical to centre lived experience expertise alongside clinical expertise to truly build a responsive and collaborative mental health ecosystem for our country.

Through knowledge resources, fellowships, and collaborative programmes, IMHA aims to create pathways for embedding lived experience in professional practice and community-based mental health work

Homecoming, Mental Health Journeys of Resilience, Healing and Wholeness

This belief led our Co-Founder Neha Kirpal, along with Dr. Nandhini Murali, to co-author Homecoming: Mental Health Journeys of Resilience, Healing and Wholeness — a first-of-its-kind anthology bringing together deeply personal narratives from 11 women leaders who have navigated complex journeys with severe mental illness.

Through their powerful and vulnerable accounts, the book expands how we understand healing, resilience, identity, and recovery — foregrounding the knowledge that emerges from lived experience covering a range of mental health conditions like schizophrenia, bipolar, ADHD, OCD, Suicidality, Depression and others. We see this only as a starting point, as we will invite more lived experience ambassadors from across the country to share their narratives and insights and build a repository in our online knowledge centre over time.

Lived Experience Expertise Series

The book brings together the voices of eleven women who have courageously shared their journeys:

Neha Kirpal

Co-Founder, India Mental Health Alliance, Co-Founder, Amaha Founder, India Art Fair

Neha Kirpal is the co-author of Homecoming, Mental Health Journeys of Resilience, Healing and Wholeness, Co-Founder of India Mental Health Alliance & Amaha Health and the Founder, India Art Fair. She is an Aspen Fellow and Eisenhower Fellow, has been part of the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders community. She received NDTV’s Indian of the Year Award, Business Today’s India’s Most Powerful Women in Business Award and is a recipient of the Nari Shakti Award, presented by the President of India.

Dr Nandini Murali

Founder, SPEAK Author of Homecoming & Left Behind: Surviving Suicide Loss Mental Changemaker

Dr Nandini Murali is a mental health changemaker and the co-author of Homecoming, Mental Health Journeys of Resilience, Healing and Wholeness. After her husband’s suicide, she founded SPEAK to foster stigma-free conversations, and launched SPEAK2US and Project SPEAK supporting bereaved women. With over two decades of experience across mental health, gender and organisational culture, she is a certified life coach and author of Left Behind.

Dr Kavita Arora

Founding Cohort, India Mental Health Alliance, Co-Founder, Children First Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist

Dr Kavita Arora is a senior psychiatrist with over twenty-five years of clinical practice and lived experience expertise. She is a Founding Cohort member of India Mental Health Alliance (IMHA) and Co- Founder Children First, and has been an advisor and trainer for gender affirming mental health practices across several Indian institutions.

Dr Poornima Viswanathan

Asst. Professor of Psychology at OP Jindal Global University Clinical Psychologist Steering Council, IMHA

Dr Poornima Viswanathan is a clinical psychologist, psychotherapist and assistant professor at O.P. Jindal Global University with a PhD from NIMHANS. An autistic adult with lived experience of bipolar disorder and complex PTSD, she brings a person-centric, trauma-informed lens to her work. She co-founded the Centre for Neurodiversity Studies and Aagahii, and serves on IMHA’s steering council, integrating lived experience with clinical practice, research and advocacy.

Zainab Patel

Trans Rights Activist, Social Entrepreneur, DEI Practitioner

Zainab Patel is a leading voice on diversity, equity and inclusion in India, with over fifteen years of experience across corporate and social sectors. A petitioner in the NALSA and marriage equality cases, she has held leadership roles at Cummins, Pernod Ricard, KPMG and UNDP. She founded Trans Café and Transformation Salon in Mumbai, creating employment for transgender persons, and is a prominent speaker on LGBTQ+ rights and inclusive leadership.

Kairavi Bharat Ram

Founder, Typsy Beauty Youth Mental Health Ambassador

Kairavi Bharat Ram is an entrepreneur, author and mental health advocate. After navigating her own experience with depression, she wrote C is for Cat, D is for Depression, a children’s book published by Scholastic. She studied at the London College of Fashion and founded Typsy Beauty, a makeup brand rooted in creative expression. Her work reflects resilience and a commitment to building open, informed conversations around mental health.

Sidrah Naiyer

Social Worker focussing on Policy Implementation

Sidrah Naiyer works at the intersection of lived experience, systems and care. Raised in Bahraich, Uttar Pradesh, she has lived with depression for over a decade, shaping her understanding of dignity and survival. Her work spans rural classrooms, mental health spaces and policy environments. She believes vulnerability is a form of leadership and centres care, voice and lived realities in her efforts to bridge the gap between people and systems.

Dr Rhaisa R.M.

Doctor of Psychiatry with Lived Experience

Dr Rhaisa R.M. (pseudonym) is an MBBS doctor with experience in psychiatry in India and currently pursuing clinical attachment in London. Living with mental illness since childhood, she brings lived experience into her clinical and advocacy work. She focuses on youth and women’s mental health, trauma-informed care and integrating lived experience into psychiatry, and has presented at national and international forums.

Dr Pheroza J. Godrej

Founder, Cymroza Art Gallery, Mumbai Trustee, Raika Godrej Family Trust

Dr Pheroza J. Godrej is an art historian with a PhD in ancient Indian culture. She founded Cymroza Art Gallery and has curated major exhibitions globally. She chairs the Museum Society of Mumbai and serves on multiple boards, including the Bhau Daji Lad Museum and Asia Society India Centre. She is also associated with Oxford’s India Centre and leads initiatives across heritage, environment and archival work.

Janani Iyer

Academic Coordinator & Teacher at The Shri Ram School Mental Health Advocate

Janani Iyer is an educator with twenty-eight years of experience, focused on compassionate, inclusive education and student well-being. She integrates storytelling, talking circles and reflective practices into classrooms to support emotional expression and confidence. She has worked extensively with students and teachers, leading workshops across institutions including The Shri Ram Schools and Heritage, and is recognised for her student-centric approach.

Aparna Piramal Raje

Author of ‘Chemical Khichdi’ Speaker, Facilitator, Educator

Aparna Piramal Raje is an award-winning writer, speaker and former CEO. Her bestselling book Chemical Khichdi shares her journey with bipolar disorder and was widely acclaimed. She has written for Mint and the Financial Times, and her ‘Head Office’ column profiled over 100 CEOs. A Harvard Business School graduate, she is also a facilitator and keynote speaker on leadership, mental health and workplace transformation.

Building on the momentum of Homecoming, IMHA launched the Experience to Expertise series — a space that brings lived experience voices directly into dialogue with mental health professionals and practitioners.

Each session brings together contributors from the book alongside leaders from across the mental health ecosystem to reflect on lived experience, recovery, and the insights it offers to the mental health field.

The response has been deeply encouraging, with 100+ mental health professionals joining each session, reflecting the growing recognition of lived experience as a critical form of knowledge.

This is a year round ongoing series, with multiple engagements planned

Sessions So Far

The conversations around Homecoming have also extended into podcasts and media platforms, bringing lived experience stories to wider audiences.

-What Mental Health Practitioners Can Learn From Family Carers and those “Left Behind”

-How Lived Experience Can Reshape Mental Health Practice in India

‘-Experience to Expertise’ session

Events & Literary Festivals

The book has travelled across cities and platforms, sparking meaningful conversations on mental health and lived experience.

-Launch – India International Centre, Delhi (September, 2025)

-Godrej Ideas India, Vizag (September, 2025)

-Launch – Bangalore International Centre, Bengaluru (November, 2025)

-The Hindu Lit for Life, Chennai (January, 2026)

-Jaipur Literature Festival, Jaipur (January, 2026)

-Founders Room: Mental Health hosted by Asia Society and The Raika Godrej Family Trust (March, 2026)

Podcasts & Media Conversations

The conversations around Homecoming have also extended into podcasts and media platforms, bringing lived experience stories to wider audiences.

-We the Women with Rishabh Shah, Kubbra Sait, Neha Kirpal and Barkha Dutt

-Stories Seldom Told with Smitha Tharoor

Why This Work Matters

Through Homecoming, the Lived Experience Expertise series, and the many conversations that continue to unfold around them, IMHA is committed to building a movement that recognizes lived experience as essential expertise in shaping the future of mental health in India.

Because when lived experience is centered, systems of care become more humane, more responsive, and more grounded in the realities of those they serve.

We aim to enable learning and development for Alliance member organisations through sessions conducted by peers and national and international experts. These sessions include topics relevant to organisational capacity building, as well as essential topics relevant to mental health and cross-sectoral integration. So far, our sessions have included

Funder archetypes and fundraising strategies by Dasra
Sessions by Sattva on Theory of Change and Results-Based Management frameworks; and on capacity and scale development resources
Monitoring and Evaluation by Labhya
Grant Management by United Way Mumbai
Cross-sectoral integration of mental health by Dr Shekhar Saxena
Working with Government systems by PATH

Across these sessions, we have had over 200 members attending, learning, and sharing their own experiences.

Alliance Membership Charter

Alliance Governance

IMHA, a Section 8 Company, ensures all funding supports the Alliance’s growth and capacity building in mental health. As the Alliance’s Secretariat, IMHA manages infrastructure, outreach, convenings, and the Knowledge Centre. Over time, the Alliance will establish its own governance with a rotating chair from member organizations.

We respectfully do not advocate on behalf of any organisations and refrain from promoting for-profit businesses. Membership in the Alliance is focused on enhancing and supporting the collective, rather than advancing the interests of any individual organisation. Membership does not entail any obligations regarding funding or fundraising for other members by IMHA..