National Institute of Design finds a 'dost' for its students' mental, emotional well being - DNA

National Institute of Design finds a 'dost' for its students' mental, emotional well being


Depression Picture for representational purpose , Thinkstock

WRITTEN BY

Tanushree Bhatia Updated: Oct 11, 2018, 06:05 AM IST

After IIT-Madras, National Institute of Design, becomes the second educational institution to make provisions for its students to deal with stress and anxiety and open up to counsellors.

Four year old start up YourDost, is an emotional online platform that offers counselling services round the clock, while keeping their identity of the users anonymous.

The institute has bought the services of YourDost so that the students can avail it for free.

YourDost was founded by Richa Singh, a graduate of IIT-Guwahati, after one of her batch mates committed suicide due to academic pressure. She had realised then the need to have someone to speak to, which can even help save lives. The platform allows instant access to users to share their problems through an online interface. A team of over 75 experts cater to the needs of the users.

Pradyumna Vyas, Director, NID, said, "While in today's world, technology has made connections easier, loneliness on other hand has also increased. These days, students go through a lot of pressure, career issues, anxiety, burden of expectation, etc. The pressure eventually reaches a level where they need to share and open up, to feel light and be guided on the right track. Hence, we thought of tying up with a professional body to ensure their mental and emotional well being.

While we can appoint counsellors on campus, it becomes difficult to avail their services 24x7. That apart, anonymity helps, as we have seen several times that students are less enthusiastic about turning up in person." This platform will deal with both these issues.

"The facility can be availed by students, faculty and entire NID community across all campuses," added Vyas.

Commenting on the initiative, an ex-student of Strategic Media Design at NID, Gandhinagar, said, "The initiative will be beneficial to students who often grapple with academic pressure and financial troubles. However, I feel that sharing things with a counseller in person helps build trust and hence it becomes easier to pour ones heart out. So I am not very sure about how much a will be willing to student share on an online platform."

The online lifesaver - Indian Express

The online lifesaver

By Shruthi HM  |  Express News Service  |   Published: 06th September 2017 09:39 PM  |  

CHENNAI: An engineering student in a premier institution in the country commits suicide ahead of campus recruitment, in anticipation of failure to secure a job. The campus recruitment is yet to begin and the student is good at studies. However, just the fear of failure in campus recruitment drives the student to take an extreme step.

The incident in question took place in 2008 and the student was entrepreneur Richa Singh’s friend. This disturbing incident drove Singh, an IIT Guwahati alumnus, to start an initiative of her own to reach out to people in need of help. Her efforts materialised in the form of YourDost, an online counselling platform, which today reaches out to at least 2,000 people on a daily basis.

Co-founded with Puneeth Manuja, an IIM-B alumnus, YourDost provides affordable mental health care. “Richa’s friend committed suicide, in anticipation that she would not get placed and this was even before the placement started. Despite being a gold medallist in computer science (NIT Calicut), I myself did not get placed for the first few months. This incident connected with me immediately. When I was going through the crisis I didn’t have a support system. My parents are from UP and I was alone in Calicut. I felt that my friends would be laughing behind my back thinking a gold medallist is not smart enough to clear interviews,” Puneeth Manuja said, speaking to City Express about his journey leading to YourDost.

The company, in its present form of online counselling started in 2014, before which it existed as a blog. When Singh and Manuja began researching about counselling options, they realised that the stigma of seeking a professional’s help was huge and especially so in the case of men. Moreover, they also noticed gaps in the availability of counsellors, apart from affordability. “What we realised during the research before starting this initiative is that the stigma that is there in our society is huge. Forget professional advises, we don’t even express ourselves in front of our friends. That vulnerability is huge. There is fear of judgment. We all migrate for jobs and hence we won’t have support systems. This made us start YourDost,” Manuja added.

YourDost attempts to make counselling affordable by providing sessions priced between Rs 400 and Rs 600, as opposed to Rs 1000 and above per session which any counsellor would charge in an urban area. That apart, the first session is offered for free, enabling users to test waters. Since it’s an online session and provides the user an option to choose any user name, it also provides users the anonymity to open up without inhibitions.

Further, this online platform also addresses the issue of immediacy, Manuja explained. “I may
want to express my problems now and might not want to open up tomorrow. Since it’s a 24/7 support system, users can access professional help at any point in the day,”he added.

As much as 60% of the user base for the platform are from urban areas while the rest belong to tier 2 and tier 3 cities. While 65%  of users are working professionals, the rest are students. Majority of the users are in the age group of 18 and 35. In terms of issues major category is relationships - both pre-marital (body shaming, self confidence issues, not being able to find a match, break up) and post marital, especially in early years of marriage. Users also seek help to deal with work related issues including career confusion, conflict at work place, work life balance etc, according to Manuja.

Your Dost has raised two rounds of funds till now. The angel round and the seed round. They have raised $1.6 million. With a team of 20 people, YourDost is currently looking at making the business more sustainable to reduce dependency on funding.

An Emotional Support System Started by an IIT Alumnus to Stop Suicide - FANTOOSY

An Emotional Support System Started by an IIT Alumnus to Stop Suicide

By Aswathy Sachin - March 17, 2016

An Emotional Support System Started by an IIT Alumnus to Stop Suicide:

Almost all people in our country are the victims of depression to a great extent. According to World Health Organisation (WHO), Indians are among the worst hit by depression, and are committing suicides. In order to give an ending to this worst situation an IIT alumnus has started an emotional support system named yourdost.com. By yourdost.com IIT alumnus could stop suicide attempts to a certain limit. The name of the IIT alumnus is Richa Singh.

YourDost.com paves a platform for youngsters for discussing their problems with qualified and veteran persons, in obscurity.

Problems among those who have sought help range from stress due to bad performance in competitive exams like CAT, IAS, etc. and relationship issues, anxiety during exam preparation, and the feeling of rejection due to working in a field they don’t enjoy, reported The Huffington Post.

Image Credits: The New Indian Express

According to a 2015 report in The Economic Times, stress is part and parcel of college life, but for some students at the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), it can get overwhelming. Everything adds up: daunting academic loads, struggling to keep up after a lifetime of being an overachiever and the burden of expectations from family, friends and peers.

In 2014, the IITs saw an estimated 14 student suicides, probably the highest ever across these elite colleges. The inability to cope – often spiraling into depression – has haunted several students. “The world creates artificial expectations. There’s peer pressure, family pressure, societal pressure.

Unfortunately, for some students, their ambition is centered around pay packages. To their mind, their success will be judged only around their pay packages and placements,” said Indranil Manna, director, IIT Kanpur.

This is where Richa’s involvement plays a vital role. Anonymity helps, says Richa. “We all face problems, stress and anxiety at some point in our life but mostly we are not willing to talk about these, fearing social implications, being judged and for the fear of being judged. We are confident that technology combined with empathy and right kind of experts will go a long way in helping people going through a various emotional and mental challenges and equipping them to better deal with it,” says Richa in a report in Business Standard.

Your DOST, is available as a free service both through its web portal and mobile app, according to Inc 42, has close to 70,000 users, which is growing, at about 40% month-on-month basis.

According to psychiatrist Sidney Cobb social support was a subjective sensation in which the individual feels, “That he is cared for and loved. That he is esteemed and valued; that he belongs to a network of communication and mutual obligation.”

In this sense Richa is doing a wonderful job. She is offering a wholehearted help to the people suffering from depression and is always ready to solve their problems at any time. YourDost.com really acts as a reassuring system to needy persons. Well-done Richa and her team!!

'I couldn't clear JEE Mains and my parents won't talk to me' - Catch News

'I couldn't clear JEE Mains and my parents won't talk to me'

IPSITA SARKAR

@piercingharmony | Updated on: 9 May 2016, 10:56 IST

http://www.catchnews.com/education-news/i-couldn-t-clear-jee-mains-and-my-parents-won-t-talk-to-me-1462767843.html

I didn't get a good score in JEE Mains. Will I ever be successful in life?"

"My parents are not talking to me because I couldn't clear JEE Mains. How will they show their face to their friends?"

"I studied only for eight hours. My friends studied for 16 hours a day."

These are some of the actual questions that student helplines have received after the JEE Mains results were declared on 27 April this year.

Clearing the two-tiered JEE exam (Mains and Advanced) along with scoring well in the Class 12 examination is no child's play. And yet, this is what 17-year-olds in India are required to do in order to make it to an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT).

"The JEE exam is associated with pride and success. If you are an IITian, you are considered to be successful in life," says Richa Singh, an IIT Guwahati alumna.

"I was also in Kota and can relate to what aspirants are going through. There is an extreme competition to get into the IITs or into good medical colleges. Aspirants get up at 4AM, study till 12PM. Life has no other meaning," she adds.

Singh is now the founder of YourDost, an initiative to help students and aspirants overcome depression.

While the race to join IITs seems to claim a number of lives every year - with five student suicides this year alone - it is important to note that these institutes rank poorly in the list of world's best universities.

IT ALL BEGINS WITH KOTA

Aspirants appear for an entrance test to get a seat at the top coaching institutes (such as Allen, Bansal, Resonance, etc) in Kota. Getting selected to a good coaching institutes in this little town in Rajasthan is often equated to reserving a seat in IITs.

According to sources, more than 30,000 students from across the country compete for a mere 800 seats in Bansals' IIT classes.

"For many parents, it is a matter of pride. 'My kid is studying in Kota', 'My kid made it to Kota Resonance or Allen'," says Singh.

However, Kota has been making news for something else entirely of late. In 2016 alone, five aspirants from Kota committed suicide.

Every year, over one lakh students head to Kota to crack the entrance tests to leading institutes across India. In the study environment provided by Kota coaching institutes, aspirants study for up to 18 hours a day, submerged in a competitive environment with rigorous mock tests, classes and unending assignments, away from the security of home.

But backing out is not an option for all. The coaching classes cost anywhere between Rs 2 to 3 lakh and the guilt of not being able to perform well or the idea of quitting mid-way creates a panic situation for the teenage aspirants.

"It's a pressure-cooker situation. The pressure to perform well, coping up with the gruelling coaching schedule and living up to parents and communities' expectations can take a toll on the aspirants," says Singh.

In this high-pressure environment, students are trained to prepare for the JEE examination along with their Class 12 Board exams.

The students have to crack the JEE Mains exam and secure a good rank in CBSE's All India Rank list, which is prepared with Mains score and Class 12 marks before they can sit for the JEE Advanced exam - which will lead to a seat in the IIT.

COACHING CENTERS ENTERING PANIC MODE?

This year, Bansal Classes put the name of one of its student on a massive billboard, claiming that the student would top the Math section in JEE Mains 2016.

Pagalguy quoted AK Tiwari, Administrative Head of Bansal Classes, Kota as saying, "Kota has been in the news for all the wrong reasons in the past few months. It is a small step to instill positivity among the students. We want to reaffirm their faith in coaching institutes here and tell them that all said and done, we are doing whatever it takes to get you into the engineering institute of your choice."

But flaunting probable toppers even before JEE Mains results were declared is bound to further add to the extreme pressure the aspirants are under.

Catch tried to get in touch with various coaching institutes in Kota and Hyderabad in a bid to understand why aspirants resort to suicide. Many refused to comment on the issue - but were initially willing to tell us about the JEE toppers from their classes.

We spoke to an instructor from a leading coaching center in Hyderabad. "Sorry, we don't comment on these issues," he first said. After some probing, the instructor said, "We do have some training programmes at the beginning of the coaching session for both parents and students on how to deal with stress." He refused to explain anything about the programme.

"Somewhere they know, that culture has penetrated because of their existence. That they put candidates in pressure-cooker situation. They should create better environment to student," says Richa Singh.

WHAT CAN BE DONE?

According to a report by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, the coaching institutes form a massive Rs 24,000 crore industry in India.

The ministry is now seriously mulling ways to reduce the dependency of aspirants on coaching by introducing a series of changes in the current testing pattern which could be revealed by the end of 2016.

When it comes to the alarming number of suicides - of student or IIT-aspirants - it is difficult to pin the blame.

Most candidates come from environments where they are conditioned to believe that cracking the JEE and making it to an IIT is the biggest thing they will achieve. This belief is not just limited to the aspirants. Families and communities seem to advocate it too.

"Often, candidates are unaware of available options. What other options? Can I pursue photography as career. Can I pursue cooking as a career, become a chef?" says Singh.

"Life should not be about getting into these colleges. A lot of people want to pursue something else but never encouraged. When one is pursuing something they don't like, chances of failure is high. When someone asks you 'Why you do want to be in IIT?' You better have a good answer. Not 'My parents told me this is the only thing to do. Motivation level in such a case will be very different," she adds.

SUICIDE PREVENTION AND COUNSELLING HELPLINES

Suicide Prevention Helpline:

Vandrevala Foundation Helpline - 1 860 266 2345 (24x7)

Aasra - +91 22 2754 6669 (24x7)

For online counselling and emotional support platform, you can visit yourdost.com

First published: 9 May 2016, 10:22 IST

YourDost, WittyFeed join hands for ‘World Suicide Prevention Day’ - Financial Express

YourDost, WittyFeed join hands for ‘World Suicide Prevention Day’ 

WittyFeed, world’s 2nd largest viral content company has partnered with YourDost to be the digital partner of #StopSuicide campaign for World Suicide Prevention Day followed on 10th September.

New Delhi | Updated: September 8, 2016 5:04 PM

With This Collective Collaboration, Wittyfeed Will Share The Videos And Other Content Captured During The Campaign On Their Social Media Platforms, Including Facebook. The Core Idea Is To Spread The Simple Message Of Suicide #Notanoption Around The Globe.

WittyFeed, world’s 2nd largest viral content company has partnered with YourDost to be the digital partner of #StopSuicide campaign for  World Suicide Prevention Day followed on 10th September. With this collective collaboration, WittyFeed will share the videos and other content captured during the campaign on their social media platforms, including Facebook. The core idea is to spread the simple message of Suicide #NotAnOption around the globe.

YourDOST is an online platform for people with emotional and mental issues to speak with qualified professionals in an anonymous manner. The seeds for YourDOST were laid when co-founder Richa Singh tragically lost a hostel mate to suicide, at IIT Guwahati.

This campaign aims to reach users on Social Media. “The purpose of this campaign is threefold – firstly the message itself, which is to let people know that, suicide, is not an option. 

Second is to educate people about why suicides happen and how to nip suicidal thoughts in the bud. 

The third objective is to promote NGOs who provide suicide helplines for anyone who is or knows someone who’s having suicidal thoughts,” say co-founder Puneet Manuja.

On the partnership Co-founder & CEO of Wittyfeed, Vinay Singhal said “We feel very privileged to be associated with such a noble campaign. Every life is precious, and I personally believe that giving up is not a solution, fight back very hurdles of life and come out with flying colors.  I am very humbled that WittyFeed is standing for an amazing campaign which will create awareness among the masses and help in reducing the number of suicides.”

'I couldn't clear JEE Mains and my parents won't talk to me' - Catch News

'I couldn't clear JEE Mains and my parents won't talk to me'

IPSITA SARKAR

@piercingharmony | 9 May 2016, 10:56 I

I didn't get a good score in JEE Mains. Will I ever be successful in life?"

"My parents are not talking to me because I couldn't clear JEE Mains. How will they show their face to their friends?"

"I studied only for eight hours. My friends studied for 16 hours a day."

These are some of the actual questions that student helplines have received after the JEE Mains results were declared on 27 April this year.

Clearing the two-tiered JEE exam (Mains and Advanced) along with scoring well in the Class 12 examination is no child's play. And yet, this is what 17-year-olds in India are required to do in order to make it to an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT).

"The JEE exam is associated with pride and success. If you are an IITian, you are considered to be successful in life," says Richa Singh, an IIT Guwahati alumna.

"I was also in Kota and can relate to what aspirants are going through. There is an extreme competition to get into the IITs or into good medical colleges. Aspirants get up at 4AM, study till 12PM. Life has no other meaning," she adds.

Singh is now the founder of YourDost, an initiative to help students and aspirants overcome depression.

While the race to join IITs seems to claim a number of lives every year - with five student suicides this year alone - it is important to note that these institutes rank poorly in the list of world's best universities.

MY STORY: A Friend’s Suicide Led This IIT Alumnus to Touch 2 Lakh Lives with a Unique Platform - Better India

MY STORY: A Friend’s Suicide Led This IIT Alumnus to Touch 2 Lakh Lives with a Unique Platform

Guest Contributor March 23, 2016 My Story

In the MY STORY section, we present some of the most compelling and pertinent stories and experiences shared with us by our readers. Do you have something to share? Write to us: contact@thebetterindia.com with “MY STORY” in the subject line.

I encountered a life changing event when I was in college. One of my hostel mates at IIT Guwahati committed suicide because she was worried about her placements and was under excessive stress. Surprisingly, she did not show any visible signs of depression before that day. She never spoke to anyone about her concerns and the fact that she could take such a drastic step was beyond my imagination. To witness something like this from such close quarters raised many questions for me. How can someone take such a drastic step in spite of having access to a well-qualified counsellor within the campus?

I just could not understand why, and my curiosity led me to continue researching on the issue even after completing graduation.

And I found the answer in the taboo associated with mental health in India. I could see people who were stressed and worried everywhere around me. The statistics around depression and mental health in the country was even more alarming. One person out of every 10 in India is depressed and that is an extremely shocking number. I sensed that people wanted to share their worries but they couldn’t find anyone to confide in. Moreover, many people did not want others to know about their condition because they were worried that if people found out, they would be considered insane. This ignorance made caused many people to keep their stress to themselves.

That was how my perseverance and belief in the need of a system that could help everyday people improve their mental health, led me to start YourDOST – an online emotional wellness coach. With YourDOST, anyone in need of emotional support, mental wellness, self-improvement, personality development, etc. can easily talk to experts. Users can sign up anonymously and express their concerns before practicing psychologists, counsellors, career experts, and mentors.

By effectively utilizing technology, YourDOST is able to address two very critical aspects of seeking mental and emotional wellness – accessibility and anonymity.

In short, YourDOST is an online friend for people in need. We help people boost their confidence, build stronger relationships and overcome everyday problems better. Today, YourDOST has around 200 experts, 20 full time employees and we have already touched more than 2,00,000 lives.

I know that there is a long way to go before we completely end the stigma around mental health in India. But after reaching this stage, I also know that there is no stopping us. YourDOST will continue marching on this mission and touching more lives.

– Richa Singh

Meet YourDost.com – A Startup Which Stopped approx 70,000 People From Committing Suicide- Trak.In

March 18, 2016 at 18:51 pm

Meet YourDost.com – A Startup Which Stopped approx 70,000 People From Committing Suicide

Mohul Ghosh3 

The tipping point in the life of Richa Singh, founder of online counselling startup YourDost.com came in 2008, when her hostel mate from IIT Guwahati committed suicide due to academic and social pressure.

As Richa shared, “Later on, it was found that she was under pressure. She was unable to cope with the heavy syllabus and wondered whether her low scores would get her a decent placement. That incident just changed the way I used to think about life and the way things can suddenly turn around.”

Despite not being a psychologist or a counsellor, she launched her startup ‘YourDost’ in 2014, with the only knowledge of the technical aspects and a will to stop people from committing suicide and helping those who are facing emotional trauma and distress.

As it always happens, when a good and noble mission is started, like-minded people automatically join in to enlarge the cause. Her long time friends Puneet Manuja and Prakhar Verma soon joined her startup after leaving their respective jobs, and YourDost started to become huge.

Designed as a platform to provide services of a ‘Emotional Wellness Coach’, YourDost now has a team of psychologists, psychotherapists, counsellors, life coaches and career guides which provide chat based services for those who are confused, scared, hurt and emotionally unstable.

As per available reports, YourDost now gets somewhere between 350-400 conversations per day, as there exists 200+ experts from various walks of life who are contributing to the cause, and helping people to survive and live.

Around 2,00,000 people have sought guidance on this platform, 10,000 people have registered themselves, and approximately 70,000 people decided to ditch the idea of suicide and live.

Last year in November, YourDost raised Rs 2.5 crore as venture capital from RedBus founder Phanindra Sama, TaxiForSure founder Aprameya Radhakrishna, Capillary founder Aneesh Reddy and Nagesh Grandhi of Hyderabad Angels. This clearly means that there are investors and promoters who don’t want crisp ROI on every investment – they want a better society as well.

As per Richa, the funds would be used for creating awareness about emotional well being, develop a stronger platform for supporting more conversations, to increase their team and to develop content which can help emotionally distressed people.

Interestingly, Richa has tried several unique innovations, which has made YourDost a robust, scalable and dependable platform to offer high impact psychological support. For instance, the ability to remain anonymous.

As per Richa, “We all face problems, stress and anxiety at some point in our life but mostly we are not willing to talk about these, fearing social implications, being judged and for the fear of being judged. We are confident that technology combined with empathy and right kind of experts will go a long way in helping people going through a various emotional and mental challenges and equipping them to better deal with it,”

More power to Richa and her team; and best wishes for YourDost.com for doing a task which our society has failed to do.

Want to commit suicide? This portal will prevent you from taking extreme step! = One India

Want to commit suicide? This portal will prevent you from taking extreme step! 

By: Preeti Panwar 

Updated: Thursday, March 17, 2016, 18:00 [IST] 

Give your rating: 

Bengaluru, March 17: At a time when daily newspapers and news channels show news reports, showing people committing suicides, for even petty reason, an IIT alumnus, Richa Singh, has come up with a novel idea. In an attempt to stop people from ending their lives, Richa has founded a crowd-funded online portal, www.yourdost.com, where psychologists and coaches offer advice to those who are undergoing depression or stress in their lives. 

[IIT-Guwahati student found dead] 

             Richa Singh, Founder of YourDOST 

According to news reports, when Richa was a student in IIT guwahati, her friend had committed suicide, as she was under pressure to get a job placement. 

"We want to become a one stop solution for people's mental and emotional wellness be it personal, professional or academic", Richa was quoted saying as to Buzzfeed. 

[IIT-Bombay student commits suicide] 

About YourDOST 

YourDOST describes itself as, "YourDOST is your personal emotional fitness trainer - a trusted online friend you can talk to and a qualified expert who knows how to help you! The professionally trained counsellors help you cope with tough times - work stress, relationship, self-image and many more, and support you in your quest for self improvement." 

The portal also gives an option of chatting online with experts and book appointments. It provides an online counselling and emotional support platform designed to foster mental health by offering de-stressing tips and techniques, motivational quotes, etc. 

A panel of experts provide personalised guidance by helping them in develop healthy personal relationships, productive and satisfying work-life balance, more focused approach towards achieving goals and more confident self. 

They also claim to provide 24*7 support to guide people and the users have the variety of choice to choose among over 20 psychologists, psychotherapists, counsellors, life coaches and career guides. 

The information is kept completely confidential and users also do need to reveal their identitiy and they can present themselves as anonymous. 

[IIT Madras student ends life] 

[IIT graduate pursuing higher studies in US commits suicide] [Feeling depressed or hopeless? Check with your brain, not heart] 

OneIndia News Read in Telugu: ఒత్తిడిలో ఆత్మహత్య చేసుకోవాలనుకునే వారికి ఈ ఆన్‌లైన్ పోర్టల్ రక్ష! Read more about: suicide, depression, 

This IIT alumnus has stopped close to 70,000 people from committing suicide

This IIT alumnus has stopped close to 70,000 people from committing suicide

THINK CHANGE INDIA

16 MARCH 2016

• 10545 
 
 
 
 

According to an earlier study by the World Health Organisation(WHO), Indians are among the worst hit by depression, with nearly 36 percent of the population having a major depressive episode. While one person in India commits suicide every four minutes, younger Indians are among the worst hit.

That’s why Richa Singh, an IIT Guwahati alumnus, started www.yourdost.com, an emotional support system for people to discuss problems with qualified and experienced individuals, in anonymity.

Image : The Week

Problems among those who have sought help range from stress due to bad performance in competitive exams like CAT, IAS, etc. and relationship issues, anxiety during exam preparation, and the feeling of rejection due to working in a field they don’t enjoy, reported The Huffington Post.

According to a 2015 report in The Economic Times, stress is part and parcel of college life, but for some students at the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), it can get overwhelming. Everything adds up: daunting academic loads, struggling to keep up after a lifetime of being an overachiever and the burden of expectations from family, friends and peers.

Advertisement

Image: The New Indian Express

In 2014, the IITs saw an estimated 14 student suicides, probably the highest ever across these elite colleges. The inability to cope – often spiraling into depression – has haunted several students. “The world creates artificial expectations. There’s peer pressure, family pressure, societal pressure.

Unfortunately, for some students, their ambition is centered around pay packages. To their mind, their success will be judged only around their pay packages and placements,” said Indranil Manna, director, IIT Kanpur.

This is where Richa’s contribution plays a crucial role. Anonymity helps, says Richa. “We all face problems, stress and anxiety at some point in our life but mostly we are not willing to talk about these, fearing social implications, being judged and for the fear of being judged. We are confident that technology combined with empathy and right kind of experts will go a long way in helping people going through a various emotional and mental challenges and equipping them to better deal with it,” says Richa in a report in Business Standard.

Available as a free service both through its web portal and mobile app, YourDOST, according to Inc 42, has close to 70,000 users which is growing at about 40% month-on-month basis. Earlier in 2015, Yourstory had published an article onYourDOST.

299 - " YOUR D.O.S.T " - SUPPORT GROUP - CO FOUNDED BY RICHA SINGH, IIT GUWAHATI ALUMNA

January 17th 2015

Dear Mr Ram Krishnaswamy,

I am writing to you because I know you can relate to the problem I am going to discuss about. I have been following your blog suicides at IITs for so many years now.

I am Richa, an IIT Guwahati Alumnus. Throughout my life I have seen people suffering emotionally, and recent depression and suicide cases have really got me thinking. I have quit my high paying IT job and am determined to solve this problem. 

Inspired to do something about it, we are building a platform where people like us whenever in stress/depression can anonymously seek help from our volunteers who are psychologists and other experienced compassionate people. 

Even with the prototype the demand is huge (300+users served in a 3 week). 

URL for prototype: http://www.yourdost.com

  

We, with your support aim to provide an emotional support system to help people during depression and loneliness, thereby creating a stress-free society.  

Campaign: https://milaap.org/campaigns/dost

This is something I truly believe in and today I need your little support in taking this mission ahead. It would mean so much to me, and those whose lives we can change a little.

Warm regards,

Richa Singh, 
Co-founder D.O.S.T 
www.yourdost.com

JAN 19TH 2015

Thank you Richa for your email. Truly admirable of a youngster like you to abandon your career and take up this initiative. I presume your support is for public in general and not limited to IIT students..

I have created the Suicides at IIT's Blog to raise public awareness and to make administrators, who were sweeping this issue of suicides in IIT's under the carpet, to take positive steps in addressing the problem and recognising the need for timely intervention and professional assistance to save these students. 

As an individual I have been contacted by many IIT students PG and UG on line and am doing my bit on a daily basis. It was just this new year my IIT Madras 1970 Batch mates are raising Rs One Crore for this cause through an initaitive called "Reach Out…" based in Chennai

My efforts are limited to IIT students..

I hope you realise that doing this part time can give one satisfaction of giving back to society. Doing this full time is a different kettle of fish and I know many psychologists and psychiatrists themselves going into deep depression, affecting their personal lives and relationships. So take care

I need time to evaluate your request and see how best I can assist. Do you have any IITG alumni you know who live in sydney ? I have received two similar requests so far from PanIIT members.

Perhaps you can tell me how I can help..

Ram

Sydney Australia 

January 24th 2015

Dear Mr Ram Krishnaswamy,

Apologies for delayed response, somehow your mail landed in spam (still figuring out why!). Yes my support is for public in general, however I plan to start by increasing awareness by this among students (15 - 25 years of age) as they are the most vulnerable.

I really appreciate your effort. A friend of mine committed suicide in 2008 and that is when I felt very strongly about trying to build an emotional support system. Though it took years after that to be able to take this up fully.

Our prototype: www.yourdost.com

Reach out is a nice initiative. 

I agree but the kind of psychologists, experienced people we have on our platform are those who want to give back to society and volunteer few hours a day to help others deal with stress.

I checked but I do not have any IIT Guwahati alum that I know who stays in Sydney. I do have some friends back from my high school who are working in Melbourne. You can get more details about me from - https://www.linkedin.com/in/richa0387

I am doing some fund-raising to meet the increasing demand of our system. Even with just a prototype, in 30-35 days we are gratified by the response (have got 300+ signups, 7 counselors are onboard). I was wondering if you can support me in the campaign by contribution/ increasing awareness/ suggesting me who could I reach out to /mentorship - https://milaap.org/campaigns/dost

Looking forward to hear from you soon.

Warm regards,

Richa Singh, 
Co-founder Your D.O.S.T 
www.yourdost.com

  

Richa which batch are you ? I asked if any of your classmates are in Sydney to see if we could leverage the IIT Alumni assn in Australia and not to check on you. You call it DOST and at IITM we call it MITR..

As a first step I will create a Prominent Link on my Blog to Publicise DOST. so you tell me what text you want included and send me most appropriate jpg that will attract attention Plus a bit about yourself and what made you take this up as a full time career etc etc 

Ram

26th January 2015

Dear Mr Ram Krishnaswamy,

I am from class of 2009.

I do not have any classmates in Australia. Let me know if you think I should write to anyone in IIT Association.

Please find the attached banner.

Also a video that talks about my motivation: https://vimeo.com/92132402

 About me.

I am Richa Singh, an IIT Guwahati Alumnus with 5+ years of experience in product management roles. 

Throughout my life I have seen people suffering emotionally. My friend, Akshita (name changed) committed suicide due to anticipation of bad placement; but none of us had any clue of her suffering before she took the drastic step. I thought this could have been avoided if only she would have spoken to someone! Recent depression and suicide cases around have made me determined to solve this problem. 

Inspired to do something about it, we have built a platform (www.yourdost.com) where people like us whenever in stress/depression can anonymously seek online help from special friends who are psychologists and other experienced individuals. 

Let me know if you want me to make any changes.

Warm regards,

Richa Singh, 
Co-founder D.O.S.T 
www.yourdost.com