Over 700 participants, including volunteers, representatives from Mpower, various departments of Aditya Birla Education Trust, Aditya Birla Group, and students from colleges across Mumbai, came together to champion awareness and collective action for mental wellbeing.
Mumbai, January 19, 2026: Mpower, an initiative of Aditya Birla Education Trust marked a significant milestone at the Tata Mumbai Marathon this year as it completed 10 Mindful Years of sustained work in India’s mental health space. Founded by Mrs. Neerja Birla, Founder and Chairperson of Mpower and the Aditya Birla Education Trust, Mpower was joined by Aditya Birla Group to spotlight the importance of mental health through collective, visible action.
Over 700 participants—including employees and senior leadership from Mpower, Aditya Birla Education Trust and the Aditya Birla Group, as well as college students from across Mumbai—took part across race categories. While many joined the Dream Run, several participants also ran the half marathon (21 km) and full marathon (42 km), reflecting a deep personal and organisational commitment to advancing mental wellbeing.
Student volunteers played an active role along the route, cheering participants and amplifying messages around mental health through slogans and encouragement. Their presence reinforced the idea that mental wellbeing is a shared responsibility—cutting across generations, institutions, and communities.
Over the past decade, Mpower has built an integrated mental health ecosystem spanning prevention, early intervention, and clinical care across communities, institutions, and public systems. Its work includes Project Samvedana, implemented with district hospitals across Maharashtra, which strengthened rural mental health identification and referrals to the District Mental Health Programme, significantly reducing delays in care and saving an average of 410 hours and approximately ₹3,754 per individual by lowering travel and access-related costs—contributing to improved productivity and livelihoods. Project Saksham, in partnership with the Mumbai and Maharashtra Police, delivers trauma-informed mental health support across 100% of police stations in Mumbai and Thane, providing counselling to survivors of sexual abuse and violence, alleged perpetrators, police personnel, and their families, addressing psychological distress at both individual and systemic levels within the criminal justice ecosystem. Project Mann, working with the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), provides structured mental health literacy, screening, helpline access, and counselling for personnel and their families, contributing to a reported 40% reduction in suicide rates among CISF personnel, underscoring the impact of sustained, targeted mental health interventions in high-stress security environments. Complementing this, Project Suraksha supports Railway Protection Force (RPF) jawans through focused mental health literacy and early-identification programmes integrated within the workplace, strengthening coping mechanisms and emotional resilience among frontline railway security personnel. Project Masoom focuses on children in state-run Child Care Institutions, providing immediate trauma relief and ongoing counselling to support emotional stability and developmental outcomes for vulnerable children, while COPE (Counselling and Outreach for Peer Empowerment) Clubs embedded across colleges create trained peer-support networks that normalise mental health conversations and encourage early help-seeking among young adults.
Since its inception in 2016, Mpower has reached over 7 million beneficiaries across India, contributing to measurable shifts in awareness, help-seeking behaviour, and institutional responses to mental health needs.
The Tata Mumbai Marathon provided a fitting moment to reflect on this journey—underscoring Mpower’s belief that mental health must be embedded into everyday life and supported through continuity and long-term engagement rather than episodic interventions.
As Mpower completes 10 Mindful Years, the focus remains on building thoughtfully and responsibly, while ensuring that mental healthcare continues to be ethical, credible, and trusted. The collective participation alongside the Aditya Birla Group reaffirmed the importance of partnership and shared responsibility in advancing mental wellbeing across society.
About Mpower
Mpower is a mental health initiative of the Aditya Birla Education Trust, established in 2016 to provide ethical, credible, and accessible mental healthcare across India. Its work spans clinical services, outreach programmes, education-led interventions, and community engagement, with a focus on long-term impact and systemic change.