Social Entrepreneur Spotlight

Bhairavi Prakash

Founder of Mithra Trust

Personal Information/Background

Hello, I’m Bhairavi Prakash, from (Madras) Chennai. I studied Psychology at The Women’s Christian College in Chennai and at The Institute of Work, Health, & Organisations, in Nottingham. I have lived and worked in London, Chennai and Bangalore.  I was part of the (un)fortunate cohort that graduated to begin working just as the financial crisis of ‘08 hit. I was interning in London and working on an incredible project in workplace mental health when I saw first hand the number of colleagues that were scared of losing their jobs, and this prevailing sense of doom and gloom that seeped in everywhere, even the daily commute. It made me realise how ill-equipped we are in dealing with what life throws our way.  I made a decision to go back to India where mental health was still taboo and create my own path in this space. In the past decade I have worked in HR Consulting, as an intrapreneur to set up a behavioural health division that focused on school mental health, as a consultant on digital health interventions, and as currently as a social entrepreneur and the Founder of Mithra Trust.

What motivates you and tip for those who want to enter the social impact space?

I was always fascinated by why my dogs behaved the way they did, I wondered what they did when no humans were around (turns out they just lay around and sniff each other, just like they did when we were around). I would dream up expeditions to go spend time with the orangutans and study them or study dolphins in their natural habitat. Well into my undergraduate psychology program, I was sure I wanted to study animal psychology further. For reasons I can’t quite remember now  I choose to study Work Psychology, and when I was in the UK I heard that a classmate from school had taken her own life. This made a huge impact on me as in high school the Principal asked me to take care of her. Since that incident, the rate of student suicide has increased and in India we have as the highest rate of student suicide in the world; every hour a young person takes their own life. Through the years I have asked myself why the Principal chose me and asked me to help her, it was only when I understood my gifts and strengths were in helping people, that I began to live a full life, this inspired me to found Mithra (friend in Sanskrit). Mithra’s approach to mental well-being covers the entire spectrum from negative to positive, from surviving to thriving. Mithra’s audience consists of those who see themselves as “not being okay” but not necessarily being mentally ill, even though we cater to those with clinical depression, anxiety, and various common mental health disorders. 

More Details about the Initiative - the problem, the solution and the model..   

I have seen people refuse therapy, yet open up with peers.  The purpose of Mithra is to provide mental health information and tools, in a way that a peer would. We do this by providing products (The Meh Kit), services ( discussions, and workshops) and information ( tools, stories, and re-frames).  

For Men’s Mental health in November we launched the Meh&Me series where we invited men to share stories of a time when they were low. The reception and engagement that the series had was so powerful that we’ve made this a regular feature! We also conducted a Let’s discuss the Meh session for men. In addition to this we’ve run ‘what to say’ series on sexual assault, abortion, and miscarriages . Based on the what to say for abortion, I was invited to write an article for Feminism in India on why I choose to address this topic. 

Tips for young social entrepreneurs:

Just keep swimming

This has been my mantra since I founded Mithra in 2018

My grand ideas became small ideas, my 3 year plans turned into 3-month plans, there have been numerous setbacks, major failures, but the wins are so deeply meaningful that it makes it all worth it. 

Social impact is hard because who really wants to change ?! Changemakers keep swimming against the tide and if we’re lucky, we find a community that’s swimming right by our side. 

So make sure you find a community. I found mine with The Amani  Institute and this community turns up in ways I could not have even imagined. 

So yeah, just keep swimming, and find others who are excited to swim against the tide with you and have fun, enjoy the process!