Youth is the most important and dynamic segment of the population in any country. Youth is the backbone of a society and hence they determine the future of any country. It is believed that developing countries with large youth populations could see tremendous growth, provided they invest in young people's education, health and protect and guarantee their rights. Youth are the real assets of any country. WHO defines youth as the 15-24 year age group. 

Youth constitutes 18% of the global population. India has the largest youth population. The latest estimates show that around 27% of the total population of India in 2020 are youth. The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) endorsed the recommendation made by the World Conference of Ministers Responsible for Youth in 1999 that August 12 be declared as International Youth Day. The theme of International Youth Day 2021, “Transforming Food Systems: Youth Innovation for Human and Planetary Health.

Priyanka MB is a psychologist. She believes that unfulfilled childhood memories and dreams are the driving forces that shape our personality. Based on the psychodynamic behavior, humanitarian, existential theories, and approaches, she specializes in treating trauma and abuse, clinical conditions like depression, anxiety, and OCD. As a trainer, she has worked with numerous industry leaders

Journey and Contribution to the healthcare sector 

Priyanka says, “It's a long but sweet one, we're going to be hitting a decade this year, started off as young and very enthusiastic college student who kind of took our dreams way too seriously started off in 2000 level, where we knew that there was something that was missing amongst what we were all doing. From the beginning, we thought that we needed more answers, we needed to know who we were, where we're coming from, where we were headed to so understanding where we all were at, especially during college days, we needed more support in that. So stemming from there, Inspiron started off in 2011, a typical story of starting space in a garage. So we're one of those types, in the parking lot. But, we knew that we needed something bigger, a vision that could bring real change in people's lives. We needed support unconditionally. And that's when we started off working with a lot of students, teachers, parents, trying to understand behavior, personalities, what people are going through, and how we can come about certain standardized solutions towards mental health. So that's where we began. 

We knew that our country wasn't very prepared, wasn't very ready to seek something called counseling or psychotherapy, or mental health. It is so stigmatized, probably post-pandemic we see a little bit of change, but the amount of stigma that we had given rise and birth to literally Inspiron on with our concept called consult over a cup of coffee. So what we do here is make it very easy, convenient, accessible, that you can walk down in your PJs into our centers, and you will have a space filled with art, music, animal-assisted therapy as well. 

We knew that there were certain challenges in healthcare. We knew that mental health wasn't receiving the kind of potential that any other health care system received in our country, or even as a matter of fact, globally. Paying attention to this brought about a lot of promotion and awareness. We brought intervention techniques for the importance of mind and body connection. And that's where Inspiron is coming from.

We bought one chain one step at a time. All of these changes, a theme that arises from enthusiasts still staying here driven by our huge vision of actually bringing about 10 million lives in the next one to two years, is where we're at.”

Challenges in the health care sector 

Priyanka MB informs, “ Entrepreneurship by itself is a very standard journey. The graph is not up here, the graph is highs and lows and ups and downs. Now, especially when we look at mental health, it faces a lot of challenges, for example, stigma, lack of availability of experts, lack of knowledge, or even awareness about services. With that comes affordability, accessibility, who do you go to even when you have a concern or a problem. So, those are the kinds of challenges that we have been facing, but we have definitely been putting our best foot forward in creating awareness and campaigns over the last, say, five years, we've reached out to at least creating about 17, large lights so far. And we've done at least about 25,000 consultations with our captors of psychologists, counselors, art-based experts as well. 

For entrepreneurs, we kind of need things to be perfect. So that's one of the challenges, maybe. Now, when we look at it, when we step out of the world, when we go out and meet experts, they're all kind of gray hair, They look at us like oh, blood, I know you need a fight, but you need some gray hair out there which they are definitely referring to experience in our age. So that's where this journey of healthcare comes with. A lot of people will be competitive out there, you have big players there. And that is something that we got to upskill. We need to constantly learn, be resilient and that makes all the difference.”

Advice to youth from expert 

Priyanka says, “  Three things that we need- 

One is skill

Second, passion

Third, the zeal to never give up. 

When I refer to skill, it's about the knowledge that you have about your field, very, very important. 

Second, the passion which moves the idea behind it for a positive reason that you hold behind this particular idea. And third is the resilience to keep moving forward. It's a journey, it's about learning. It's a personal belief that I carry. It's not about how far you go. It's about the number of people that you've taken with you and that way they we're.” 

Rapid fire and wise words from an expert 

Priyanka says, “  

Success means her priority.  Life means to live it  Entrepreneurship means a journey to her Her team means to her as strength India means opportunity  Healthcare means vision to her “

(Edited by Dr.Rati Parwani)