Ratnaboli Ray

Ratnaboli Ray learnt early that people with mental illnesses were treated differently. This inspired her journey as a mental health advocate. She studied Clinical Psychology and trained in Human Rights and Health at Harvard School of Public Health and Hygiene.

In 1999, she started Anjali to advocate for the inclusion of mental illness within the mainstream health paradigm of India and speaks up for marginalised populations and their right to professional, inclusive care. She received an Ashoka Fellowship for the pathbreaking initiative. Today the work spans social inclusion, capacity-building and livelihoods programmes in 4 government mental hospitals among other programmes.

A trainer on gender, sexuality, disability and mental health issues, Ratnaboli has been an invitee member in the drafting of the Mental Health Care Act of 2017, is part of the Rules Framing Committee of the Govt of West Bengal and is now deeply invested in a national campaign called Bridge The Care Gap which advocates for the inclusion of mental health as a health and development priority of all political parties in the country. She was the first Indian woman to receive the Alison Des Forges Award in 2016 for Extraordinary Activism from Human Rights Watch, USA, in 2016.