Marico’s Harsh Mariwala joins TISS initiative to build awareness on mental health

MUMBAI: The underserved mental health sector has got one of India’s top industrialists championing its cause. Marico chairman Harsh Mariwala has stepped in to promote and expand a psychological counselling helpline run by the Centre for Human Ecology, a Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) division. "Health is something I have been passionate about and the lack of awareness, stigma and poor resources with regard to mental health in India is something which is extremely concerning. I wanted to invest in an initiative where I play a catalytic role, where there is large-scale potential to scale up," says Mariwala.

Barely a month into the joint programme, TISS-Mariwala Health Initiative, Mariwala has already started awareness-building, initially by reaching out to friends and acquaintances. His efforts have seen the likes of Sun Pharmaceuticals founder Dilip Shanghvi offering help. Mariwala hopes to also rope in actor Deepika Padukone — who has recently spoken out about her own struggles with anxiety and depression — as the face of the initiative. Padukone has been the brand ambassador of Marico’s Parachute hair oils. "The biggest challenge in these services is awarenessbuilding," says Mariwala.

According to TISS' Aparna Joshi, who started the iCALL Psychosocial Helpline initiative along with Sujata Sriram in September 2012, there are around 15-30 million people in India who are in need of mental health services. iCALL, managed by trained counsellors, caters to all age groups to provide information, emotional support and referral linkages.