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A senior trainer, Published Poet and writer. She is a prominent part of the programme Barabari ki Daggar, Surakshit Safar and conducts gender sensitization training for the commercial driver(Delhi NCR), Delhi Police, Marshall in Delhi. She is also involved in project development and implementation of the same through various and impactful ideas and great enthusiasm. She is a part of this organization since 2014 and dedicatedly works to support the idea of gender equality and she believes that we can achieve equality if all of us gets sensitive towards the issue of gender equality. Though it is going to take some time but can be achieved through the program gender sensitization.
She has also worked for Dainik Bhaskar and Pratham Pravakta as a reporter. She was also involved in career counseling for Deepalya.
Her perception about lives and challenges of today’s women changed while working for a daily talk show called Nari. Namrata has a Master’s Degree in Philosophy and a diploma in Mass Communications and a basic career counselling course.
A post-graduate in Counselling Psychology from the University of Madras, she is very passionate about her profession and opting for the field of Counselling Psychology was the first stepping stone in her plan to help others so that they can help themselves. Being a good listener and naturally empathic in nature, she took to this profession organically and continues to use her natural skills to provide hope and relief her my clients.
Her main focus is on counselling the ones in need, especially children. She dreams to channel her compassion for animals into animal-assisted therapy as a more popular way of healing minds.
She holds bachelors and masters degree in psychology from Ambedkar University Delhi and 1 year diploma in counselling, guidance and psychological interventions from Banaras Hindu University.
Vinita worked with children for three years in cry organisation and also have internship experience from RINPAS and KUTUMB organisation. Also she conducted workshops on CBT, personality enrichment, substance abuse in adolescent lives.
Pranaamya works with individual and group mental health in the community set up in Rajasthan. She is graduated from TISS, Mumbai and takes keen interest in therapeutic spaces where individuals explore and dab in their mental lives. She also tends to look at mental health with a holistic perspective, therefore is a keen participative learner.
She likes to read and write, listen to music, and take walks!
“Riddhi holds a Master’s in Psychology (Clinical) from Amity University, and completed her Bachelor’s in Psychology from Jesus and Mary College, Delhi University. At Manas, she works in the capacity of a Psychologist placed at Nirmal Chhaya Complex.
She carries out therapeutic work with both children and adults and is an ardent and an authentic practitioner working within the eclectic framework of psychotherapies. She also conducts workshops as a part of the organisation’s mental health curriculum program across schools.
She fervently aspires to explore the intersection of gender based violence and trauma and its contribution to the development of psychopathology in tandem with early childhood experiences.
Riddhi cherishes good puns, great tea, and all things Bollywood. She also hopes for an animal cruelty free and an all inclusive world, and finds strength in actively working towards and propagating these ideals till this imaginative vision becomes a reality.
She conducts clinical assessments, family session, group sessions, pre-marital counseling and providing psycho education to the population residing at the Institution.Conducting individual sessions and workshops based on addressing mental health issues, management of current stressors, interpersonal concerns, career enhancement and other adolescent-related issues to help them in adjusting to life at the home and at school.
Sakshi has completed masters in psychology from Delhi University with focus on cognitive and behavioral approach and psychoanalytic school of thought. She also likes to work with the social media team for developing content for social media platforms of manas.
She works with children, adolescents and adult females for helping them dealing with psychological problems and also to enhance their mental well being and conducts clinical assessments, family session/parent counselling session along with providing psycho education to the population residing at institution. She has completed her Master in Psychology from University of Delhi with specialisation of neuro-developmental and socio-emotional concerns that children and adolescents might encounter.
In addition focusing on research and developing content on manifesting mental health issues for the manas’s social media page.
She works with women and children along with clients undergoing psychiatric treatment and requiring psychotherapy at nirmal chhaya unit.
She prefers the humanistic, psychodynamic and cognitive behavioural, insight oriented approach to promote safety; understanding and help people cope with mental and emotional disorders.
Priyanka completed her Master’s in Psychology (psycho social clinical studies) from Ambedkar University Delhi and has worked as an intern at B.L.K. Super Speciality Hospital, delhi. She has also worked with hysterical population for her Master’s Dissertation in order to understand the possible links of possession with hysteria. She has a keen interest in Paranormal Psychology.
She loves listening to music and is an animal lover.
Ambika is stationed at the Mental Health Unit in Nirmal Chhaya Complex. Having an expertise in third wave psychotherapies she uses eclectic approaches with a cognitive bend. Genuineness remains an important part of her therapeutic approach. Being focused and goal oriented she had the aim of becoming a Clinical Psychologist since adolescence. She has completed her Masters in Clinical Psychology from Amity University and M. Phil. in Clinical Psychology from PGIBAMS and before joining Manas she has worked as a School Counsellor at Salwan Public School.
Ambika likes to travel, meet new people and know them, design dresses, and baking to enjoy in my free time.
He is one of the members of the team, ‘Barabari ki Dagar, Surakshit Safar’, to provide Gender Sensitization training to commercial drivers in Delhi NCR. Pankaj was involved in the training programme for Haryana Roadways as well as implementation of traiing programmes for UBER in Hyderabad.
He has over six years experience in development sector. He started his career with international NGO Magic Bus India Foundation after that he was a part of Buddy4Study.com (India’s Largest scholarship platform)
Shailendra works with Manas as one of the tariners involved in the gender sensitization training programme in Delhi NCR, providing training sessions to public transport drivers. He has learned and is constantly learning so many things which help him become a better human being at a professional level as well as personal level. Before working as a trainer, he worked in couple of organizations as a project coordinator. Shailendera has done field projects in Karnataka, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh and he holds M.A. in Development from Azim Premji University, Bangalore.
He like to watch web series, movies, reading and writing, attend seminars, talk shows, events and he also likes to have discussions on intersectional feminism, society, culture, politics, media, satire etc.
Tekchand sharma is a trainer at Manas Foundation, attached to the programme “Barabari ki Dagar, Surakshit Safar’, to provide Gender Sensitization training to commercial drivers in Delhi NCR. He loves to traveling, talking to people & spending time with his family. He worked with many organization in different states on different issue like HIV/AIDS, woman empowerment , child care and FSW (Female sex workers) at grass rout level.
At Manas foundation he get different experiences, he also feel working with a team where everyone appreciate each other’s efforts & finds it a comfortable place to work keeps all motivated.
Achyuta Nanda is an experienced and senior trainer of Manas Foundation, working for Building Bond Programme from the last six years. Apart from training he is coordinating at Burari Training center and handling of Safe Gaadi app.
Achyuta Nanda has done his Bachelor and Master of Social Work and has worked with other organizations like Gram Vikas, Deepalaya, and FHFI. He has previously worked in profiles such as worked there as Co-coordinator, counselor, and researcher.
He believes in gender-based equality and that is why gender sensitization programme is also his passion. Recently he attended the national level TOT on gender justice and masculinity and has also became a national level trainer under Eksaath Abhiyan. He is very creative and always thinking about new ideas. Apart from his profession he loves to read the news and play badminton.
He is a key member of the team, ‘Barabari ki Dagar, Surakshit Safar’, to provide Gender Sensitization training to commercial drivers in Delhi NCR. He is involved in multiple aspects of the programme right from its start. Prior to Manas, Pramod worked with Unique Psychological Services, Subharti Medical College, Apollo Hospitals and HCR Institute as a Psychologist and Special Educator. He has a Master’s Degree in Psychology from VBSPU, Jaunpur and P.G. Diploma in Guidance and Counselling from Davi Ahilya Viswavidyalaya, Indore.
Outside of the office, he likes to work with children with special needs and enjoys singing songs, bhajans and playing the Dhol.
A part of the ‘Barabari ki Dagar, Surakshit Safar’ team, Ratika is involved in conducting Gender Sensitization Trainings. She is also involved in capacity building of the new hires in the team from time to time. Her responsibilities include liaison with Government officials for the implementation of projects.
Prior to Manas, she worked with a Special Schools for Children with disabilities and Care Homes for Orphan Kids. She has completed her masters in Management in NGO from Jamia Milia Islamia and in Developmental Therapy from School of Rehabilitation Science, AADI.
Beyond her work, she likes travelling and is always ready to explore new places. She enjoys spending time with her daughter and watching movies.
Teena is a Senior Trainer in ‘Barabari ki Dagar… Surakshit Safar’ Programme, Teena’s role is to liaison with the different government departments that Manas is working in collaboration with the program. She’s also involved in the formulation of training modules, reports and data analysis of the project.
Prior to Manas, she’s worked with the KD Singh Foundation and other NGOs in providing legal, medical and rehabilitation assistance to the survivors of sexual assault cases. Teena’s educational qualification includes LLB, a Bachelor’s Degree in Education and Double Masters in Hindi and Sanskrit.
Beyond her work, she enjoys spending time with her daughter, loves gardening and trying out new recipes.
He feels that his career under Manas foundation that helps to build his professional skills and would lead him for a better career with every step.
He also having some other experience in the fields of computer knowledge of hardware networking and one year training in Charted accountant firm.
He is pursuing Master in Financial accounting from Ignou University, and graduated from veer kunvar Singh University.
He likes to travel and explore new places and reading articles, bike riding and sporty person.
Pankhuri joined Manas Foundation after completing her Masters in Social Work from Delhi School of Social Work. She manages the Daughters of Delhi Scholarship Program- carries out vendor management, coordination and is closely intertwined within the growth of the stakeholders.
She has played a key role in developing the gender training module. She thoroughly enjoys creating content for the gender domain as well as writes and administers radio campaigns. Pankhuri with her eclectic approach is actively involved in the school-based mental health program.
She is an inter-sectional feminist who is deeply spiritual and takes personal as political. She likes philosophy, questioning, banters, art and expressing.
As a program coordinator in gender sensitization program of manas, he coordinate between uber training centres at pan India level. He does Capacity building of trainers and ensures the smooth functioning of the project. He also likes to design and execute creative activities for the trainers and partners so, everyone can learn through multiple ways.
He has done bachelors and master in social work from University of delhi and also he is a ex- fellow of the gandhi fellowship. Through the academic and internships experience he has collected good knowledge of the social issues and ground reality. He always eager to learn new things and like to travel with full energy.
Off the clock he likes to play djembe, mixing the songs, act in street plays and doodling.
An undergraduate from Delhi University, NIMHANS alumni with an MPhil. in Medical and Social Psychology and an Ashoka Fellow. She founded a citizen organization, Manas Foundation [2000], to take mental health work into the broader community, reaching out to marginalized and resource-poor segments, with a critical focus on women and children.
In 2007, Monica was awarded the prestigious Ashoka Fellowship in recognition of the inherent innovation in Manas Foundation’s approach towards plugging-in and co-creating mental health service delivery, generating awareness/sensitization as well as executing interventions for recovery and reform. She is also the recipient of The EdelGive: Social Innovation Award for her work with underprivileged women, using models of psycho-social care and rehabilitation. She serves on several significant boards such as the Taskforce for Women Safety under the Chairmanship of Hon’ble Lt. Governer, as an external committee members for the Department of Women and Child Development [DWCD], a member of the State Child Protection Society and is a member of the governing body of the Integrated Child Protection Scheme [ICPS]. Through her years of innovating, training and creating the space and receptivity of mental health in the communities, she has worked with a plethora of afflicted populations like children and women afflicted with sexual/emotional/physical abuse and violence, juveniles in conflict with the law, children trafficked for labor and sex work, reproductive and child healthcare clinics as well as with the other NGO and GO stakeholders, to build capacity and enhance the mental health taskforces. She has also successfully partnered with the NMHP in Rajasthan and augmenting the DMHP in Dausa district for greater acceptance, reach and impact of mental health care in the district. With such a diverse repertoire of skills and knowledge, she has endeavoured to create person-centric and system-centric change agents who are leading the change in mental health landscape of India.
Monica is in continuous dialogue with the government, CSOs, educational institutes and corporate to co-create a system that encapsulates a multi-tiered model of intervention on the pillars of positive-preventive-promotive methods in mental health care; to illicit awareness about mental health needs as well as management and alleviation of mental health disorders with a psycho-social approach. With her vision to inform and impact policy so as to bridge the gap between the service-provision and service-implementation, she has been instrumental in defining the guidelines for mental health needs and child care and protection policies for the Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights [DCPCR] and also coauthored a report on Women’s safety in National Capital Territory of Delhi highlighting the mental health aspects of the same.
Harleen is a Psychologist & Programme Manager at Manas and works closely with the trustees and senior consultants in overseeing the implementation of the mental health and gender justice programmes. She also represents the organization while collaborating with funding agencies, corporate organizations and CSOs. She believes that each team member has a unique perspective to bring on the table and enjoys discovering that about her colleagues.
Harleen completed her post graduation in psychology in the year 2009 and since then has had a meaningful journey working with diverse sectors; rich in experience and learning. She believes in practicing principles of mental health and gender justice as not just a part of her therapy sessions but also of her every interaction which adds more meaning and value to her relationships, personal and professional.
When off the clock, she enjoys spending quality time with close friends and family members. Also her child is the centre of her universe and she makes it a point that everyone knows this!
At Manas, she is involved in carrying out psycho-diagnostics and psychometric assessments. She also sees clients of all age groups for therapeutic intervention. In addition, she is also involved in implementation of various projects such as delivering mental health workshops in schools and other organisations. She also undertakes research work and is a keen follower of the latest research work in the field of psychology, particularly community mental health and recovery.
She has completed her MPhil in Clinical Psychology from Government Medical College and Hospital, Chandigarh and her Masters in Applied Psychology from TATA Institute of Social Sciences.
In her free time, she likes to unwind with cheesecakes and a psychological thriller.
Vedha Chopra is a psychotherapist/counselling psychologist who is currently working at Manas Foundation. She has completed her Masters in Psychology from University of Delhi Faculty of Arts. She specialises in and has extensive experience in working with clients experiencing trauma with a history of sexual and physical violence, traumatic bereavement, trafficking and family conflict.
She is extremely passionate about increasing mental health awareness within communities and organisations and is actively engaged with creating and delivering interactive modules for promoting positive mental health amongst children and youth. She has also developed and facilitated trainings to build capacities of professionals working in different community service organisations for providing psycho-social support to women, children and young people.
During the course of her work she has assisted on many psychological assessments for evaluating an individual’s IQ or diagnosing Specific Learning Disability, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity disorder, Autism Spectrum Disorder and other neurodevelopmental concerns in children.
A psychologist by choice and wanderer by nature, Naveen Kumar is one of the founding trustees of Manas. He has over 20 years of experience in providing mental health inputs to individuals and disadvantaged groups through his clinical practice and community outreach projects. He has been instrumental in conceiving the idea and process behind the key target interventions implemented by Manas to promote well-being and positivity for many vulnerable and volatile communities.
Naveen’s association as alumni of IMT Ghaziabad and Campus Law Faculty, Delhi University helped him build his understanding of the corporate and legal worlds. As his core area of interest, this experience enables him to effectively provide mental health care required for issues related to work situations, environmental stress and personal and professional relationships.
His work is highly appreciated and recognised in the field of individual therapy, especially with marital problems, and resistant psychological issues of obsessions and addictions. He switched to psychology in 2000 and completed his Masters and training as a psychologist to follow his keen interest in human behaviour and the principles governing it.
She is having 3 decades experience in the field of education, counselling and social impact.
She has led organization like Canadian Education Centre, India (CECN) which was set up with the support of Government of Canada to promote Canada as an attractive education destination. She was the Managing Director of Maple Bear South Asia a Canadian early childhood education and elementary program with 130 schools in South Asia.
CEO of Modi Edutech which is also the joint venture partner for Maple Bear South Asia to focus on international education and expansion of education related interests of the VK Modi group.
In February 2014 she received the Governor General of Canada Gold Medallion for the contribution towards promotion of Canadian Education in India and facilitating Canada India relations. She has contributed towards publishing of several articles and especially contributed a Chapter focusing on women in workplace and breaking glass ceilings in a book called
“Awaken the Magic”.
She serves on several IC committees of various Government Ministries as the NGO representative. Her passion is to mentor youth and be a leadership coach and practicing as a clinical.
A technical specialist on gender justice and gender based violence, Rashmi has worked with various International and local social development organisations for almost 19 years. Her work has entailed programme development, programme implementation and donor management. Apart from this developing technical capacity of the teams on issues of gender and GBV is another core skill and experience, which she possess.
Previously at CARE India, as the Executive Director, Gender Equity and Diversity her core responsibility was to lead the process of developing and implementing organisational approach to integrate gender equity and diversity in thematic interventions on health, education, livelihood and disaster response and develop and implement strategies to integrate gender and diversity within all organisational process, practices and policies.
Additionally she has worked with other leading development organisations like Oxfam GB, Action Aid on leadership roles to design and implement project focussed on gender (standalone and mainstream)
At Manas Rashmi is the technical consultant on gender based initiatives and informs the process of proposal development, donor management and team capacity building of some of the key interventions of the organization. Her keen interest in mental health has also over time led her to bring structure and impact mechanisms to Manas’s community based mental health care programmes thereby adding more value to those intervenions.
Dr. Banerjee received his training in psychiatry (DPM and MD) from NIMHANS, Bangalore and AIIMS, New Delhi. As a practicing psychiatrist over the last 20 years, his interest has been in the mind-brain and mind-body interfaces that underlie all psychiatric disorders.
Just as the mind is seated in the brain, the bran too is one with the body. Physical and brain illnesses are often intertwined. These observations have shaped his interventions that integrate psychiatry both with psychology as well as with the other medical specialties, especially the neurosciences.
While a clinic-based practice addressed the needs of the individual patient, it is clear that each individual is a part of a larger community. In 2000, Dr. Banerjee along with Monica founded Manas to give shape to their shared vision of improving mental health in the community.
Mental health services are virtually non-existent in the remote and rural areas of the country, where they are needed the most. Through various community health projects, Dr. Banerjee is working with these under-served populations. His fascination with the breath-taking cultural and natural landscapes of India takes him to magical places. He returns from these experiences enriched and better able to understand the communities he works with.
