Count Us In continues to evolve as a survivor- and community-led platform exploring how exclusion shapes mental health, wellbeing, dignity, and belonging. Across two fellowship cohorts, leaders from communities including migrant workers, gender-variant individuals, caste-marginalised groups, nomadic communities, and survivors of violence are documenting lived experiences of exclusion while generating local solutions grounded in community realities.
As the first cohort transitions from research to action, fellows have begun piloting community initiatives across 4 states focused on addressing barriers identified through their research.
Highlights from the action phase include:
- Supporting individuals to access identity documents, government schemes, and social protection entitlements.
- Facilitating school admissions and educational access for children from migrant communities.
- Creating awareness around labour rights and grievance redressal pathways for workers facing exploitation and workplace violations.
- Convening family and community dialogues on identity, inclusion, belonging, and wellbeing.
- Strengthening connections between communities and local institutions to improve access to services and rights.
Beyond these immediate outcomes, the programme is generating a deeper understanding of how distress is often linked not only to individual experiences, but also to barriers to rights, stigma, invisibility, unsafe migration, institutional exclusion, and lack of belonging.
These learnings are increasingly shaping Count Us In beyond a fellowship model towards a broader vision of strengthening community mental health and social inclusion ecosystems through survivor-led evidence, community action, collective learning, and systems engagement.
As the programme evolves, Count Us In seeks to contribute to a future where lived experience, community knowledge, and public systems come together to build stronger pathways for belonging, resilience, participation, and mental wellbeing.
