At a Rozgar Mela (local job fair) in Hapur, Uttar Pradesh, a young man walked up to our stall, looked at the banner, and asked if we were

At a Rozgar Mela (local job fair) in Hapur, Uttar Pradesh, a young man walked up to our stall, looked at the banner, and asked if we were hiring.

We said no. We're offering free therapy.

He paused. Then asked, "Oh, is this related to mental health?" Pleasantly surprised, I said "Yes"!

He proceeded to sit down with our team and talked about the anxiety of the job search, the confusion of not knowing which roles he was even qualified for, the pressure of being the one his family is counting on.

We did a box breathing exercise. He took our wellness toolkit. And then he walked confidently to the next stall to drop his resume, knowing exactly what he wanted.

That scene repeated itself, more than 500 times, across five cities.

This is Phase 2 of Project Saathi.

After Phase 1, where we ran workshops in government polytechnics across UP, we wanted to go where the anxiety actually lives. So we set up free therapy stalls at Rozgar Melas, the government job fairs that pull thousands of young people from tier-2 and tier-3 cities into one ground for a single day.

Ballia. Azamgarh. Hapur. Muzaffarnagar. Agra.

Long days. A lot of heat. A lot of resumes clutched in nervous hands.

I assumed (naively) that mental health was a foreign concept in the smaller cities of India. That we'd spend most of our time explaining what it even was. That people would politely nod and move on to the next stall, the one with actual jobs.

That's not what happened. People knew the word. They were curious. They took pictures of our banner.

Even with the clock ticking and twenty more stalls to hit before the day ended, they sat down. They talked. Some even called us the next day to enrol into our monthly plans.

The other thing I didn't expect was how universal the anxiety was. It cut across everyone. Engineering grads, polytechnic students, first-time job seekers, repeat applicants. The specific story changed. The underlying knot did not.

A lot of what we did wasn't textbook therapy. It started off as career counselling, but as the conversation deepened, it became a safe space for vulnerability among the chaos of the fair.

It supported that young graduate student to develop confidence in themselves.

It supported the middle aged woman who wanted to create a dual income household for her family and came against all odds of society.

It helped someone who was dealing with the stress of layoffs and in an urgent need to find their next opportunity.

Our efforts here brings our totals to 1,500 free therapy sessions, 1,000 wellness assessments, and 300 people now on a monthly therapy plan.

All free.

The conversation around mental health has already started. We're just showing up to it.

As always, a huge shout out to the Emoneeds team, who are traveling across UP in this heat, running these stalls, and holding space for thousands of people on the most anxious day of their year, thank you.

This is what showing up for our people truly looks like. 🩵