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. aaina grew 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, until it ceased publication in 2009.

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.