Mental health checks should be embedded in the community health programme

At a recent conference in Delhi, two strangers walked up to Neerja Birla, founder and chairperson of the Aditya Birla Education Trust, with a confession.

- POOJA BIRAIA

They told her they had once been “completely lost”, overwhelmed, unsure and reluctant to seek help. Opting for counselling at Mpower, founded by Birla in 2016, they said, became the turning point. The hardest step had been acknowledging to themselves that they needed support. Once they did, “there was no looking back”.

For Birla, such encounters are a reminder that mental health work is not abstract advocacy; it is about pulling someone out of what she calls a “black hole” and helping them find steadier ground again. For over a decade, Birla has worked to build that ground through Mpower.

Just before we begin our conversation, she recounts a recent, almost comic, episode. Her daughter Ananya and she were photographed outside Mumbai airport as Birla bent down to hug her dog Snoopy, completely unaware of the paparazzi. “It was suddenly all over [the media],” she says with a laugh, adding that she doesn't follow everything that circulates online and uses social media sparingly.

The anecdote becomes an easy bridge into a deeper discussion about visibility, perception and vulnerability, especially for women constantly navigating public scrutiny, private battles and cultural expectations.

In this wide-ranging interview, Birla speaks candidly about why awareness without acceptance is not enough, why women are often conditioned to endure silently, her own experience with postpartum depression and how sisterhood, systems and self acknowledgement can together reshape India’s mental health narrative. Excerpts:

You have said that in India the problem is that despite awareness regarding mental health issues, it is the acceptance that still has a long way to go.