2024: A Year of Celebrating DEI, Health, and Wellness
In the 1970s, Kiran Seth, a young graduate of IIT Kharagpur attended a concert on Indian classical music in New York while studying for his doctorate at Columbia University. The concert had such a profound impact on him that on his return to India, he founded an organization called the Society for the Promotion of Indian Classical Music and Culture Amongst the Youth—better known as SPIC MACAY. One of the youngsters involved with SPIC MACAY was a young student from Delhi, Neha Kirpal.
Neha went on to found the India Art Fair and is credited with reviving the Indian art scene. She was awarded the Nari Shakti Puraskar (Woman Power Award), India's highest civilian honor for women, by the Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India, conferred by India's president, Pranab Mukherjee on International Women's Day.
Neha has served on the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry's (FICCI) National Advisory Committee for Art. Some of her numerous accolades include:
· She was included in India Today's list of 25 Power Women.
· Fortune India listed her in its 40 Under 40 list.
· She received the Most Powerful Women Award from India Today.
· Business Today magazine named her a "Most Powerful Woman in Business"
· She was Art Entrepreneur of the Year at Forbes India Art Awards.
· She was named a Young Global Leader from India by the World Economic Forum
· She was awarded the Indian of the Year award by NDTV.
But what has Neha Kirpal’s journey got to do with HR?
The Amaha Health Organization
In 2019, Neha joined Amaha Health (formerly Inner Hour), a mental health organization providing therapy across India.
After her work in the Indian art scene, she moved her focus to the marginalized mental health sector, driven by her own deeply personal experiences with the harsh realities of severe mental illness and the lack of quality mental healthcare in our country.
Amaha has grown into one of India’s largest mental health organizations today. It delivers accessible and high-quality treatment, care, and support in 15+ languages to individuals, families, and organizations nationwide. Their in-house team of 170+ psychologists and psychiatrists has delivered 100,000+ therapy and psychiatry sessions to adults across 600 Indian cities. They offer in-person consultations in Bangalore, Mumbai, and Delhi NCR for adults and families. Amaha’s digital self-help platform makes ongoing care easy and accessible. With over 500 self-help tools available, the app has touched over 5 million lives.
In 2024, she co-authored a book, "Mental Health: Lived Experiences of Resilience and Hope." [1]
Neha’s work with Amaha deeply resonates with our Vision at Zuci, which is “to create a workplace where diversity is celebrated, inclusion is the norm, and every individual is enabled and empowered to thrive regardless of their differences.”
Why Health and Wellness Matters
Without effective support, mental health issues can affect a person’s confidence and capacity to work productively, and the ability to retain or gain work. Here are some staggering statistics about health and wellness.[2]
Zuci adopted Amaha as our Health and Wellness app to support and care for our employees going through any form of distress. We ensure complete confidentiality of the app’s users, and they can speak freely about their issues and find guidance and advice with the complete guarantee of privacy and confidentiality.
As users of the app testify, the app is awesome, with a user-friendly and easy to navigate interface. The Tasks, Journal, and Goals features of the app are especially useful to any person using the app.
Zuci supports Amaha, one of the leading apps promoting mental health and employee wellbeing in the Indian corporate sector. Through this app, we offer our people a safe avenue to address their issues in consultation with experts in psychiatry and counseling.
What is your organization doing to promote health and wellness amongst your employees? What results have you obtained from your initiatives? Would love to read about your experiences in the comments.
Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash
References:
1. From Wikipedia
2. Based on a WHO report