India is facing a significant youth mental health challenge. Across the 11–25 age group — in schools, colleges, coaching centres, and early work life — distress is common, often persistent, and largely unmet. Young people are dealing with multiple, compounding pressures: academic and career expectations, economic uncertainty, digital exposure, adverse childhood experiences, and structural inequalities that shape everyday life.
Yet the ecosystem of support remains critically inadequate. The interventions today remain concentrated on curative solutions like counselling (both private and govt), rather than promotion and prevention. There is limited focus on destigmatisation, upstream risk factors, or recovery. Government programmes such as NMHP and Tele-MANAS exist, but face some challenges in execution. India's mental health budget stands at ~1.5% of health spend against a global average of 3–4%.
About Aikyam Foundation
Founded in 2024 by Manisha Dhawan, Founding Trustee of The Convergence Foundation (TCF), Aikyam Foundation is a not-for-profit that seeks to build resilient young Indians by strengthening system design for youth mental wellbeing (ages 11-24) in India across government, educational institutions, and civil society. In its current phase, the organisation is focused on defining its strategic direction, identifying and operationalising high-impact intervention areas, and building early models in partnership with government and ecosystem actors. These include efforts to drive destigmatisation and mental health literacy, strengthen the supply and scale of effective solutions, enable public systems (e.g., through initiatives like Tele-MANAS and national measurement frameworks), and build system-level platforms and toolkits that can be adopted at scale.
Aikyam is also a founding partner of the India Mental Health Alliance (IMHA). It is actively exploring partnership with state governments to co-design and support state-led youth mental health systems as replicable, evidence-based models for national adoption.
Aikyam is a sister organisation to The Convergence Foundation
Aikyam is a sister organisation to The Convergence Foundation (TCF). TCF, The Convergence Foundation is an Indian philanthropic foundation dedicated to catalysing rapid and sustained economic growth to enhance the lives of all Indians. Established by Ashish and Manisha Dhawan in April 2021, TCF builds on their legacy of impactful philanthropy, including the founding of transformative institutions like Ashoka University and the Central Square Foundation.
In each area, TCF works on:
Building pioneering institutions to address India's most complex socio-economic challenges.
Shaping the larger ecosystem and sharing knowledge, insights and learning with other philanthropists, governments and key stakeholders
The TCF Network includes 20+ organisations, each committed to addressing specific areas of India's socio-economic development, from school education and governance to women's economic empowerment and export competitiveness.
Role Overview
The Project Lead will drive Aikyam’s core work, translating its long-term vision into clear priorities, structured execution, and measurable outcomes. Working closely with the Project Director, the role will anchor day-to-day delivery across research, policy engagement, stakeholder partnerships, and ecosystem-building efforts.
The role requires strong structured thinking, program management, and the ability to operationalise system-level ambitions across multiple stakeholders.
The Project Lead will report directly to the Project Director, Aikyam Foundation.
Key Responsibilities
Strategy & Program Execution
Translate Aikyam’s North Star into clear annual priorities, near-term workplans, and measurable outcomes
Identify and prioritise core intervention areas, and translate them into actionable pilots and execution plans across:
Supply strengthening (scaling and supporting proven solutions)
Systems enablers (e.g., strengthening Tele-MANAS, shaping national metrics)
Platform / operator role (building system-level toolkits and implementation models)
Drive program execution through structured roadmaps, review cadences & progress tracking
Ensure coherence across research, pilots, government engagement, and ecosystem efforts
Translate insights into actionable models and recommendations for adoption within public systems and institutions
Contribute to defining measurement approaches and success metrics for youth mental wellbeing in India
Support Government & Institutional Engagement
Manage engagement with state and central government stakeholders to enable adoption of Aikyam’s approaches
Anchor early state partnerships (e.g., Odisha Tele-MANAS) as demonstration models for scalable system reform
Provide structured inputs to inform policy and institutional strengthening efforts
Translate pilots and models into pathways for integration within public systems
Ecosystem & Stakeholder Engagements
Convene and manage partnerships across philanthropy, academia, non-profits, and practitioners
Drive cross-sector collaboration (health, education, community systems) to address upstream risk factors (e.g., exam stress, workforce capacity, community-based support)
Anchor multi-stakeholder forums, working groups, and consultations
Helphape public and policy discourse to position youth mental wellbeing as a national priority and Aikyam as a credible thought partner
Institution & Team Building
Support building internal systems, processes, and operating rhythms
Contribute to team building and coordination across functions
Track budgets, resource allocation, and program progress
Provide regular updates, insights, and reporting to leadership and key stakeholders
Candidate Profile
Experience
6-10 years of overall professional experience in non-profits (education, health), public systems, philanthropy, or program management
Experience working with government or multi-stakeholder initiatives preferred
Familiarity with mental health, public health, or adjacent social sectors is a plus
Proven senior leadership experience in institution-building, large-scale change efforts from strategy to execution
Experience operating in complex, multi-stakeholder environments
Demonstrated ability to build organisations, programmes, or platforms from early stage through scale, including setting up teams, systems, and governance
Skills & Competencies
Strong program management and execution across complex, multi-stakeholder environments
Ability to translate strategy into structured plans and deliverables
Excellent problem-solving, synthesis, and communication skills
Strong stakeholder management and relationship-building capabilities
Personal Attributes
High ownership and comfort operating in ambiguity
Structured, detail-oriented, and execution-driven
Collaborative and credible with diverse stakeholders
Willingness to travel as required
Compensation: Remuneration will be competitive with Indian philanthropic pay scales
Why This Role
This is a rare opportunity to:
Work on one of India’s most critical and under-addressed challenges
Play a key role in shaping the early direction of a new, high-potential organisation
Engage closely with government, philanthropy, and ecosystem leaders
Build scalable solutions that can impact millions of young people