Dr Namrata Bagaria is the Mumbai-based founder and managing director of PHealth Solutions Pvt. Ltd (estb. 2012), a newly-promoted holistic living and wellness consulting company that draws upon best practices in medicine, nutrition, physiotherapy, Ayurveda, naturopathy, public health, psychology and spiritualism.

Newspeg. For the past year, the company has been working with 30 municipal and 12 night schools in Mumbai to test its in-school, online and holistic programmes designed for students, teachers and parents. In January its school wellness programme was launched in private schools, along with its Preparing Parents for School online programme which counsels young parents about dealing with admissions-related stress.

History. An MBBS graduate of the Mahatma Gandhi Mission Medical College, Mumbai, while interning at Seth G.S. Medical College and K.E.M Hospital, Bagaria began counselling and advising patients on medication and treatments. “I realised there’s a wide information gap between physicians and patients and decided to sign up for the Masters in public health programme of Harvard University’s School of Public Health,” she recalls. Returning to India in 2010, Bagaria worked in a number of anganwadis — early childhood care and nutrition centres established countrywide —  in Bihar. Returning to Mumbai, she began promoting preventive care in deprived urban habitats before setting up PHealth Solutions last year, which employs three psychologists and two homoeopathy practitioners.

Direct talk. “In India, little attention is paid to the holistic development of children with the great majority of parents unaware, or in denial of their emotional needs. They tend to be obsessed with grades and career progression. Therefore based on the concept of child-friendly schools as defined by Unicef, PHealth offers a variety of school programmes including anti-bullying, nutrition and learning policies apart from teacher training for differing age-groups,” says Bagaria. PHealth Solutions’ whole school health and wellness packages are priced between Rs.30,000-90,000 per month.

Future plans. Bagaria believes her children’s health education mission which requires the participation of parents and teachers, has just begun. “We have set ourselves the ambitious goal of initiating a policy shift in the way children are educated. Every school has to develop a child-friendly and wholesome development environment. A healthy and emotionally strong child will build a strong foundation for career progression and responsible citizenry. But to create such learning environments, the willing cooperation and participation of parents and teachers is vitally important. Bringing a mindset change in these communities is our mission,” says Bagaria.

Right on, Sister!

Praveer Sinha (Mumbai)

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