Patron of The Banyan’s centre Deanna Jejeebhoy during the inauguration held at Savera hotel on Sunday.
| Photo Credit: B. JOTHI RAMALINGAM
In an effort to extend social support and care to persons with mental illness, Chennai-based NGO The Banyan, Aaladamara Foundation, and the Banyan Academy of Leadership in Mental Health (BALM) inaugurated the Centre for Mental Health, Social Care, and Livelihoods, and the Last Mile Mental Health and Social Care Praxis Lab on Sunday.
Speaking at the event, former Chief Secretary of Keralam S.M. Vijayanand said, “Village panchayats are the natural frontline of any service delivery. When the whole government disappears, the panchayats and SHGs (self-help groups) work together in most parts of India.”
He further said they were repositories of social capital, and that SHGs and panchayats also help raise awareness of mental health in the community.
The centre brings clinical, social, and economic responses together as one integrated approach across five domains: income and social protection, livelihoods, relational stability, support for vulnerable caregivers, and access to basic healthcare.
A press release said the lab will study how social determinants and structural violence, including poverty and homelessness, are significant metrics in mental health care practice.
Director of The Hindu Group N. Ram said information asymmetry could weaken the administration and effectiveness of social care formulations for severe mental illness.
“The problem is particularly prominent in India because information is distributed through structures already marked by inequalities of class, caste, education, and gender. It is important to remember that power determines which information counts,” he said.
Deanna Jejeebhoy, the centre patron and sister of Ratan Tata, and Mr. Ram unveiled the centre and the lab respectively.
Co-CEO of BALM Preetha Krishnadas said, “Our health is shaped by the conditions in which we live, work and age, yet care systems stabilise symptoms and send people back to the very conditions that caused them distress. When they return, we call it relapse and locate the failure in the person rather than in the structure.”
Advocate Gitanjali Diwakar said that while the courts in India are burdened, the role of legal aid goes beyond providing case expertise and strategy to making time for people and communicating with empathy and sensitivity.
Actor Revathi, Commissioner of Central Taxes S. Nagarajan, Co-CEO of The Banyan Archana Padmakar, former Advocate General of Tamil Nadu P.S. Raman, and CEO of Aaladamara Foundation Mrinalini Ravi participated.
Published – September 28, 2026 12:19 am IST
