The pan-India initiative will provide counselling, screening, crisis support and a 24/7 multilingual helpline for NDRF personnel and families.
NEW DELHI (India CSR): The NDRF Wives Welfare Association (NWWA) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Mpower, a pan-India mental-health service provider founded by Mrs Neerja Birla under the Aditya Birla Education Trust (ABET), to establish Project Nirmal. The dedicated Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) initiative will extend structured care to National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel and their families across India.
Supporting Disaster Responders
NDRF personnel work in demanding, unpredictable circumstances. Rescue operations, sudden deployments and prolonged duty periods can place considerable pressure on personnel and their families. Project Nirmal is intended to make mental-health support a visible, routine and trusted part of the wider support system available to the force.
The initiative also seeks to reduce stigma around asking for help. At its heart, emotional well-being is treated with the same seriousness as physical readiness, particularly for people who help communities during moments of crisis.
Care Beyond Crisis
Project Nirmal will provide a continuum of services, including mental-health awareness sessions, routine psychological screening, individual and group counselling, tele-counselling, crisis intervention, suicide-prevention support and follow-up care. Hub-based teams will be established at key regional centres to make the initiative accessible across the country.
A dedicated 24/7 multilingual helpline, staffed by mental-health experts, will offer round-the-clock guidance to personnel and their family members. If needed, care can begin before crisis. By including families in the programme, the partnership recognises that the impact of high-pressure service can extend beyond the responder, and that a strong support network is an important part of resilience.
Smt Priti Anand, President, NWWA, said, “Prioritizing the emotional well-being of rescuers and their families is essential for maintaining force morale, readiness, and overall response effectiveness.”
Institutionalising Mental Health
Mrs Neerja Birla, Founder and Chairperson, Aditya Birla Education Trust and Mpower, said, “We deeply appreciate the NDRF for recognising that mental well-being is integral to the strength of the response system itself. Through Project Nirmal, Mpower is taking a pioneering step with The NDRF Wives Welfare Association to extend structured mental-health support to frontline workers and the NDRF families.”
“This partnership marks the beginning of a pan-India vision for Mpower to work towards systematically institutionalising mental-health care and building integrated mental-health support systems for those who are serving the nation around the clock,” she added.
Experience In Service
Mpower brings prior experience of working with uniformed and frontline services, including the Central Industrial Security Force, Central Reserve Police Force and police forces in Maharashtra. Its previous work has involved counselling and psychosocial support in high-stress settings.
Through Project Mann with the CISF, Mpower developed an approach that combines awareness, early identification, counselling, capacity building and access to professional help. Project Nirmal builds on that experience, with an emphasis on sustained support rather than assistance only during periods of visible distress.
The partnership can provide a dependable route to professional care for NDRF personnel and their families. At its core, Project Nirmal places mental well-being alongside preparedness, courage and service—values that are central to disaster response.
