India's first music-video against the stigma around mental health - created by Swarathma for the White Swan Foundation
Our music is so much about supporting causes that we believe in as individuals. Through our song 'Main Unme Se Nahin Hoon' we attempted to raise awareness on the stigma associated with mental health issues. In our country of 1.2 Billion people, mental illness impacts one in five Indians. There is a severe dearth of trained mental-health professionals. In addition, we tend to ignore such issues because, as a society, we consider them as individual weakness.
'Main Unme Se Nahin Hoon' is about inclusiveness for those suffering from mental health issues while not trying to be preachy. We created a video with a simple story of how, members of a typical Indian family suffer from various socio-psychological challenges that they are rarely able to talk about. The song is a hard-hitting track to evoke reactions.
We suffer from workplace stress, are pressured from a young age to always excel in academics as illnesses such as autism go unnoticed. The young today are racked with social-media and acceptance anxiety. Women who are home-makes suffer from several anxieties which go unnoticed in the grind of daily-chores. Our elders are depressed from loneliness and feelings of being discarded.
When such issues are addressed through regular therapy, a bleak family-life becomes so much more meaningful - filled with togetherness and joy. From suffering on our own in our own solitary whorls, we come together to support each other and we come bearing happiness.
Created as part of 'Moving Minds', an initiative by the White Swan Foundation, a Bangalore-based non-profit, that has Mindtree co-founder, Subroto Bagchi as chairman. White Swan Foundation is working to bring about a mindset shift on mental health problems - a wide array of illnesses such as depression, Schizophrenia, autism, dementia and bipolar disorders that largely remain undiagnosed because they are barely understood.
Here are a few photographs from the shoot featuring cameo roles by our friends:
Dr Sanjeev Nayak, and CXO Jishnu Dasgupta, cameo actors in the latest Swarathma music video.