When we first conceptualised the helpline, it was never meant to be just another number to dial. It was built around a simple reality: when someone decides to ask for help, that first step needs to be easy to take.
When we first conceptualised the helpline, it was never meant to be just another number to dial. It was built around a simple reality: when someone decides to ask for help, that first step needs to be easy to take.
What a caller finds at the other end is a counsellor who listens without judgement. People call about grief, anxiety that has quietly grown over months, relationship concerns, stress, depression or simply a sadness they cannot name. Some callers spend the first few minutes in silence, gathering the courage to begin. For someone who has struggled to speak about what they are experiencing, even beginning that conversation can matter.
We know that stigma, cost, distance and sometimes simply not knowing where to go can keep people from seeking help. There can also be a considerable distance between recognising that something is wrong and feeling ready to speak to someone about it.
The helpline is designed to reduce some of these barriers. It is free, confidential and available in multiple languages. There is no appointment to make and no journey to undertake. For someone in a rural town or a large city, support begins with the same familiar action: picking up the phone.
The helpline grew out of the need we saw during the pandemic, when isolation, uncertainty and anxiety entered homes across the country. What began in response to an extraordinary moment has continued because the need for accessible mental health support did not disappear when that moment passed.
The helpline is now handling more than 137,341 inbound calls and 65,705 unique callers, showing the scale has grown roughly 20 fold since its pandemic-era origin. Language has also been an important part of making the service accessible. More than 65,000 cumulative calls have been in Hindi, nearly 30,000 in English and over 14,000 in Marathi.
The concerns emerging from these conversations also give us a window into what people are struggling with. Relationship concerns, anxiety, stress and depression are among the most common reasons people seek support.
One caller, a 20-year-old who had been struggling with self-harm, described the helpline as “the world’s best counsellor.”
Behind that description was something quite simple: the experience of being heard at a time when speaking itself had been difficult.
That remains the purpose of the helpline: to make reaching out easier and, when someone does take that first step, to have a trained person at the other end ready to listen and help them understand what can come next.
