Feeling blue and suicidal? This Karnataka online counselling platform can be YourDost

A Bengaluru startup is working its way towards eliminating student suicides one youngster at a time. This online counselling platform is virtually saving lives 
The YourDost team aims to spread a little calmness and comfort to those feeling like giving up
The YourDost team aims to spread a little calmness and comfort to those feeling like giving up

An engineering student in a premier institution commits suicide ahead of campus recruitments fearing failure of securing a job. The student was good at stdies but  just the fear of failuredrove her to tae the extreme step. 

The student was friend of  entrepreneur Richa Singh, an IIT Guwahati alumnus, and this triggered her to start an initiative 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 also provides affordable mental health care.

Your Dost has raised two rounds of funds till now; the angel round and the seed round and 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. 

“Richa’s friend committed suicide, anticipating that she would not get placed and this was even before 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 told Express.

The company, started online counselling 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,” Puneet Manuja, Co-founder, YourDost

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 the water.  

Since it’s an online session and provides the user an option to choose any user name, it also provides them anonymity. 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 per cent of their users are from urban areas while the rest belong to tier 2 and tier 3 cities. While 65 per cent users are working professionals, the rest are students. The majority are aged between 18 and 35. 

Major categories of issues are 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 the 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 and 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. 

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