Shaktipreneur in Spotlight: Chetna Singhania (Founder, Vartamaan Care Network)

“I founded Vartamaan Care Network to address the issue of suicide among the youth and aspire to touch maximum lives with my work,” says Ms Chetna Singhania, Shaktiprenrur in Spotlight and Founder of Vartamaan Care Network.

Vartamaan Care Network is a mental health organization based in Tinsukia, Assam, to improve individuals’ psychological well-being across their life span through age-appropriate & human-centred services.

Inspiration behind Vartaman 

Chetna, a psychologist, was overcome with guilt and helplessness when a young student in her neighbourhood committed suicide.

“The unfortunate incident urged me to question myself and analyze the situation of the mental well-being of students,” she says.

Singhania started researching mental health disorders and suicide prevention and discovered that a community-based approach would be more effective. 

“I decided to develop a community-based day-to-day mental healthcare model for educational institutions which we now call “SAATH- Together we are,” she adds.

Vartamaan care network: The name

‘Vartamaan’ stands for ‘the present moment or the idea of mindfulness’ and  ‘network’ stands for ‘the vision of creating a worldwide accessible network of mental health professionals. 

Their mental health care model for studentsis based on bringing the community, service providers, and institutions together to make timely mental healthcare accessible for students.

“The model wouldn’t achieve its mission even if one of the stakeholders is not present in the loop,” she adds. Hence, it is named “SAATH- Together we are”.

Chetna the entrepreneur

Vartamaan is a 1.5-year-old initiative.

After some initial apprehensions, Chetna’s strong belief in the idea motivated her to work towards it. She set out to navigate her options and equip herself with the skills and resources to start her entrepreneurial journey. 

“It has been a journey of self-discovery and I am proud of my choices,” she says.

She joined the Gandhi Fellowship, which helped her foray into social entrepreneurship. After that, she joined STEP, which gave her the confidence to lead her initiative.

“So far, I have been discovering myself, challenging the patterns, and breaking mental barriers on the way,” she says.

 Impact of the organization 

Vartamaan’s SAATH model has made mental health care accessible for more than 2000 students of Dibrugarh University and has directly supported the positive mental wellbeing journey of 300 + students. The organization has touched 3500+ lives through awareness campaigns, counselling services, the SAATH project for Covid impacted people, and SAATH for students communities.

The team and the roles of members

The leadership team of Vartaman comprises four members from the founding team – 

• Chetna leads the Programme Design, Operations, Finance & Partnerships.
• Vaibhav Mishra leads the Human Resources along with co-leading Partnerships.
• Amrita Mazumdar is a social worker with a specialization in Counselling and Deaddiction. She leads the Counselling and Therapy Department. 
• Himanshu is a development professional and takes up sliding responsibilities. 

Apart from that, there are four other internal team members and 13 interns.

“We have a practice of creating a monthly Action Plan elaborating the responsibilities of every team member ahead of time and follow up to ensure that all the are tasks complete on time,” she says.

Impact of covid 

Vartamaan got the best opportunity during covid to launch themselves, as the need for mental health care became more pronounced during this period. 

Future plans 

 For the next three years,  Vartamaan plans to scale the SAATH model to three more states making mental health care accessible for 50,000 + students. 

Advice to new entrepreneurs 

Chetna advises the new entrepreneurs to prioritize self-care, create a support system to fall back on during tough times, slow down whenever required, keep their vision intact, and be passionate about their goals.

 Journey as a Shaktipreneur

Chetna believes that Incubation Programmes help first-generation entrepreneurs understand the nitty-gritty of building an enterprise and develop the confidence to do things independently. 

 Chetna feels that empathetic support is crucial for entrepreneurs, as they have to put up a tough facade despite the challenges. 

“STEP was a safe space where I could share my vulnerabilities as an entrepreneur,” she adds.

Chetna was not confident about the delegation of work to volunteer members. This impeded the progress of Vartamaan. STEP mentorship helped her resolve the issue and address it rightly.

“The mentorship at STEP helped break rigid mental barriers that restricted me from utilizing my potential,” she says

Her favourite Tuesday session was the one on Storytelling. The session helped her understand and develop a strong elevator pitch.

 “Learning the principles of good storytelling and improvising our stories within minutes gave me a good adrenalin rush,” she adds.

She feels that a support system helped her deal with setbacks and challenges.

“The STEP community has been generous about sharing opportunities and resources with us. The journeys of my fellow cohort members are an inspiration for me,” she says.

The stories of the speakers at various events at STEP reinstated her belief in her goals.“I was at the top of the world when my name was on the list of grant winners,” she says excitedly.

Chetna,  The person 

Chetna loves simple things in life. Her Favourite Book is “The monk who sold his Ferrari”. She loves hills, and Shillong is her favourite holiday destination. Spicy Dhoklas are her most loved food. Mother Teresa and her philosophy inspire Chetna. A Quote that is the Mantra of her Life is ‘Give more than you take.’