Vandana Gopikumar, then still a Master’s student of Social Work, came across a half-naked, mentally ill homeless woman in absolute distress on the road in front of her college. Nobody else seemed even to notice her. With the help of a close friend, Vaishnavi Jayakumar, she tried to find shelter for the woman. Mental health institutions and NGOs were reluctant to admit the woman in desperate need of medical and psychiatric attention. Several more such encounters over the next few months left the idealistic duo disillusioned and the idea was born that they should do something about the problem themselves.

The girls started growing the seeds of The Banyan in 1993, after Vandana finished her Master’s in Medical and Psychiatric Social Work and Vaishnavi dropped out of her MBA to join her. They were 22 then. The Banyan started off as a shelter and transit home for homeless women for mental illness who had wandered from their homes across the country and ended up in the streets of Chennai. One of the duo’s core beliefs was that the women needed to receive timely treatment and to be rehabilitated in mainstream society. Twelve years later, after reaching out to over 1500 women, and successfully rehabilitating over 700, their beliefs have been vindicated.

Growing up
With little more than the firm belief that nothing is impossible and that every human being on this planet is entitled to a life of dignity, The Banyan was registered as a Trust in 1993. Adaikalam (Tamil for ‘home’), a rented three-bedroom building, became a care and rehabilitation centre. Eventually over 100 women would call Adaikalam home, finding it a safe, comforting place where their wounds would be healed. Days of no money and hungry mouths to feed were not uncommon. As desperate as was the struggle was the importance of the work. 1994 saw The Banyan’s first rehabilitation, the beginning of more happy reunions and fairy tale endings than anyone could ever imagine.