In early August, former student Amiti Varma kicked off our new Alumni Seminar series. She spoke to the senior students and teachers about her work, and her journey from school to where she is today. It was a very informative and interesting session, brief account below.
Amiti spoke about Public Health as a concept and explained how complex and multi-faceted it is as a field of work, with so many different opportunities for engagement.
She then went into the idea of mental health, and how public mental health is in India. She works at the Centre for Mental Health Law & Policy, at the Indian Law Society. Their work aims to enable people to live healthy and fulfilling lives by strengthening and transforming mental health and suicide prevention ecosystems. They work to achieve this through: a. Policy change, b. Research and c. Capacity building.
One portion of the talk and discussion revolved around suicide – data, trends, definitions and the recent landmark decriminalisation of suicide in India in 2017. An excerpt below:
“Section 115 of the MHCA 2017, instead presumes a person attempting suicide is under severe stress. The Act mandates government to provide care, not punishment. This is a rights-based approach that puts people and individuals first. Decriminalization of suicide marked a major milestone for mental health legislation.”
The audience was left with a deeper understanding of these important topics, and also many things to reflect upon…Thank you Amiti.
~ Kamala