Mental Illness & Freedom | Editor Chinki Sinha In Conversation With Vandana Gopikumar Of The Banyan
[Music] Who in the world doesn’t want to belong? Who in the world doesn’t want love? Who in the world doesn’t want a valued social role? Who in the world doesn’t want to feel respected? And if you look at all of this, a valued social role, respected, being able to have a conversation, being able to trust, that is freedom. I think uh there’s a lot of hope that we saw. Uh there was another thing that we learned is also to give people agency like how you guys do it at the pan. We also realized that sometimes we become very self-centered and want to do everything ourselves. But we also tried and asking and asked people to write their own stories. We met this lady in Kovaleum and u uh she just agreed to write her story and she sent a story beautifully written very simple and I thought that was also freedom to be able to get to a point of u that agency where you have no shame talking about how you felt when something happened to you. Hi, we are with Vadana Gopi Kumar of the Banyan and uh we have collaborated with the Banyan for uh the Independence Day issue and we have been wanting to do this for a long time and we wanted to take mental health as the issue and here she’s the guest editor also for the issue along with other others Sajjie Jan and Dr. Lakshmi Narimhan and um they have kind of given us access to all their projects and we’ve sent reporters everywhere to uh write the stories and uh we just want to talk about how grave the issue is, what can be done and how she goes about doing things and also our own stories along with many others like Samya Vicki you met many of them Priti who are all in their own way forming a support group for other children because often what happens when the mother is unwell uh and there are ups and downs and of course the mother is also playing the role of the care provider right everybody with a mental health issue is also a caregiver I’m a caregiver right I may be living with a severe mental illness but I am a caregiver and that happens in most cases the extent may vary so in this particular case it’s lovely that this group of kid these kids have gotten together and they’re using various ways in which they can reach out to other kids who are going through similar situations where their parents uh the family there’s a lot of I mean they’re seeing violence sometimes uh they’re seeing the way in which their mother’s being treated they’re seeing the mother’s ill health in some cases can be really bad but they’re rising about that and are holding on to hope not just that they’re holding on they’re sharing their stories of course there’s on the one hand material success but on the other hand they’re sharing their stories and that material success also comes with education so education all these things in the role that they play in mental health but the fact that we have people like Ibu and look at how brave he is to even write that story. We I was reading it and I was like oh my god will I ever be this brave to uh talk about it and it was amazing isn’t it? So this issue is for the Ibus for the Amlies for the Jacquelines and for all of us to just make the world a safer kinder place.
Born in Ajmer, Ibrahim spent most of his growing years taking care of his mother, who suffered from a mental health disorder. She would often wander the streets, looking for his father, who had left them because of her condition. To support them, Ibrahim worked at a juice shop. Today, he works as an assistant cinematographer in the Indian film industry.
Outlook Editor Chinki Sinha says that sometimes we forget to give others the agency to tell their own stories—like Ibru, who grew up as a caregiver for a loved one with a mental health disorder. We try to act on their behalf, instead of simply asking them to speak for themselves. That, too, she says, is a form of freedom.
This Independence Day, Outlook dedicates its special issue to ‘Freedom From the Stigma of Mental Illness’, in collaboration with The Banyan, an organisation that provides housing to people with mental health issues, assists them with reintegration into society, and encourages them towards independence.
Vandana Gopikumar, the co-founder of ‘The Banyan’, is guest-editing the issue along with Dr. Sanjeev Jain and Dr. Lakshmi Narasimhan.
As we enter the 79th year of Independence, India is grappling with economic uncertainty and social fragmentation. Mental health issues affect all strata of the society. Yet, the national discourse around it remains limited. We can no longer afford conversations that exist solely in urban therapy rooms or academic conferences.
Dr. Gopikumar says, “If you look at it, having a valued social role, being respected, being able to have a conversation, being able to trust—that is freedom.”
From across the country—Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Delhi—we bring you accounts of people struggling with mental health issues, caregivers, as well as ground reports highlighting the intersectional nature of mental health disorders through the lenses of caste, poverty, gender-based violence, and the presence of societal support, or its lack thereof.
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