Publishing

aaina: Mental Health Advocacy and Activism in India

In March 2001, Bapu Trust for Research on Mind and Discourse published India’s first advocacy newsletter, aaina. The aim was to provide a forum to discuss critical issues concerning mental health and the rights of persons with psycho-social disabilities. The hope was that this would enable sustaining alliances between groups and individuals concerned with these issues and promote advocacy. Seven years later, aaina has grown to represent the collective voice of mental health service users/survivors and campaigners in India, with consistent messages of user empowerment, good practice, policy, legal and social reform in the mental health sector in India.


The Centre for Advocacy in Mental Health proposes to publish a book based on the back issues of aaina, which will mark the consolidation of almost a decade’s work in mental health in India. The book will be edited by Jayasree Kalathil, who was also the founding editor of aaina. You can browse the back issues of aaina here.

 

Different Tales: Stories from Marginal Cultures and Regional Languages

school kids‘Different Tales,’ a project of Anveshi Research Centre for Women’s Studies in Hyderabad, India, aims to produce a series of stories for children between the ages of 8 and 12. All stories deal with themes that are not usually covered in mainstream children’s story books, and highlight the resilience of children from disadvantaged and marginalised communities. The decision to produce these books were based on the findings of a three year project that looked at children's books and what was available to children from marginalised communities.


This is a three-language project with books produced in English, Malayalam and Telugu. Jayasree is the Editor of the Malayalam series. She has also written one of the books in the series, The Sackclothman, which explores the friendship between the village "madman" and a little girl.

Read more about the project and find out where you can buy the books.