THE CHANGE ENTREPRENEURS
The Inception
The one thing that would make it to every instance of a Mumbai cliché, along with the world renowned dabbawallas of course, would be our quintessential yellow and black auto rickshaw.
Rickshaws seem to have the alluring charm of affordability and simpler times, while offering a hint of open air romance. That is, before the Rickshawala manages to cut into your lane in an almost perfect and astonishing instance of daredevilry, leaving you in the middle of a slur of perfectly pronounced Hindi abuses.
So why do we adore the Rickshaw so much, yet abuse the Rickshawala? Why does the love for this integral part of our city extend to the auto rickshaw and not to the Mumbaikar driving it?
This irony of our love-hate relationship with the people behind the wheel of one of Mumbai’s most essential mode of transport was the birth of “The Rickshawala Project”
Your Average Rickshawala....
So we set out to:
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Empower rickshaw drivers to make healthy life decisions with access to awareness on mental illnesses like stress, anxiety and depression.
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Develop a model for easy and effective interventions via easily shareable content.
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Help them effectively tackle the inevitable stresses of daily life, with a focus on easy and effective interventions.
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Pave the way for calmer and relaxed rickshaw drivers , safer roads and better rides.
Our Solution
Step 1: Make them understand the basics of mental health and its importance.
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A dramatised video in Hindi with actual rickshaw drivers and relatable examples to create a connect.
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The 10 min video covers:
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Basics of mental health and its importance from recognised medical professionals
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Daily stressors and their effect on the rickshaw driver and their family.
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Given below is the link to the video with English subtitles
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Step 2: Cement the co-relation between their habits and their health
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We compared their mental health to the fuel in their rickshaw and the level of mental health was mapped on a fuel gauge.
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Against the level of mental health we also tracked the physical symptoms associated with them
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Stress inducing habits decrease mental fuel and lead to increasingly worse problems (amber to red region)
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Stress relieving activities increase mental fuel to give you a smooth care free ride (yellow to green region)
Step 3: Provide them with easy and effective interventions to help them tackle daily stress.
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Partnered up with The Yoga Institute, Santacruz (oldest institute for Yoga in the world) to design a set of Yoga aasanas specifically for rickshaw driver - by giving them handouts.
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These aasanas can be done in the comfort of their own rickshaw within 8-10 min.
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The aasanas focus on the main physical pain points for rickshaw drivers (wrist, neck and back) and incorporate relaxation techniques as well.
