There has never been a more important time to talk about mental health. There has always been a stigma around talking about Mental Health especially in India. But now the whole world is gripped with fear of Pandemic. Everyone is forced to stay at their homes. Millions have lost jobs, and many have been subjected to undue stress being away from family & friends. Even while working from home people are clocking in more hours than usual feeling mental burnout. During such times a popular Instagram page ItsAHappyWorld is creating awareness on mental health thru a campaign called #MentalMondays.
So far over 1M people have been reached and benefited from the Mental Mondays Campaign started from the instagram page of ItsAHappyWorld.
“I am happy to see that more and more people are accepting the importance of Mental Health and it is high time we put our inhibitions aside and start dealing with it, especially in a country like India where mental health literacy is very low”, says Swarnima Telang the person behind It’s a Happy World Instagram handle. Swarnima further says, “In India depression was identified as a serious concern only by 29.04% and schizophrenia/psychosis was recognized only by 1.31%. Stigma was noted to be present in help-seeking” Swarnina has been doodling since 6 years now and this is by far her biggest social awareness campaign.
What inspired #MentalMondays on It’s A Happy World Instagram page?
This was a long pending project. I started my page to create a world which is positive and happy as the name suggests – It’s a Happy World. But I have realized that one of the most important keys to happiness is a sound and healthy mind. This motivated me to leverage my platform and start an initiative which will at least start a conversation around Mental health and considering the present situation, there could not have been a better time to start this, says Swarnima.
My simple thought process for this campaign is to trigger a thought in everyone’s mind that it is OK to speak about your Anxiety issues, Depression, Complexes. My vision is just to contribute in this war against the stigma of not speaking about mental health. I want people to give equal importance to mental health at par with physical health. People keep suffering from this without speaking to their near ones or taking professional help which makes it worse for them.
Swarnima Telang believes through her platform ItsAHappyWorld she can leverage to start this spark. People are already sharing her illustrations, commenting on her posts which is making them understand and realize that they are not alone in this and it’s OK to speak about Mental Health and seek help. “I think this is not just a campaign. It’s a journey of a thousand miles and I have just begun it with one step from my side.” says the doodler Swarnima Telang. “People are commenting on my platform and tagging their near ones asking help for their issues. I am receiving hundreds of DMs from my followers about their little inspiring stories or their struggles. I believe half the battle is won when we have the will to fight.”
