Project

The SAMEEKSHANAM – Be Calm, Be Compassionate program is an innovative initiative designed to address critical challenges faced by peacekeeping forces, including extreme stress, depression, gender stereotypes, violence, and high suicide rates. By focusing on mental health and sound decision-making, the program equips personnel with essential tools to manage these pressures. Centered on promoting a healthy mind, relationships, and family dynamics, SAMEEKSHANAM supports a crucial shift in the lives of peacekeepers and has redefined training approaches within these forces. 

A collaboration between the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and Amrita, the project launched in 2020 in Srinagar. The project now extends to CRPF in multiple locations and among the Telangana State Special Police.  

The program is built on four foundational pillars:  

1. Mental Health Awareness – Strengthening inner resilience, fostering emotional regulation, and addressing internal conflicts.  
2. Gender Sensitization – Challenging rigid gender norms and promoting inclusivity within peacekeeping forces.  
3. Work and Family Well-being – Enhancing work-life balance through shared responsibilities, mindful technology use, and healthy relationships.  
4. Financial Literacy – Encouraging shared financial decision-making as an essential component of gender sensitization.  

SAMEEKSHANAM has been implemented in multiple regions across India. With its scalable and structured model, the project is poised for nationwide implementation and has the potential for international adoption in countries facing similar mental health and gender sensitivity challenges in law enforcement.  

The key focus areas include:  

• Srinagar Sector- Kashmir: Initial implementation under “Love U Zindagi” with 27,000 CRPF personnel trained  
• Southern Sector- Hyderabad: Hyderabad (Southern Sector CRPF) – implementation under “Love U Zindagi” with 8,000 personnel  
• Telangana State Police (TGSP)- Telangana: Telangana State Police (TGSP) – Training 15,000 officers under the ‘Mitra: Share and Shine’ initiative  
• National Expansion: The program is set to be integrated into CRPF training colleges across 13 selected CRPF centers nationwide.  

Research Questions: 

1. How do gender norms (e.g., stigma around men’s emotional expression or women’s caregiving burdens) shape the long-term effectiveness of resilience-building interventions in reducing anxiety, depression, and internal conflicts?
   1. Uses longitudinal mixed methods to track gendered mental health trajectories. 
   2. Examines whether AI-driven well-being tools reduce diagnostic biases (e.g., under-recognizing women’s somatic symptoms or men’s emotional suppression). 
2. What are the systemic barrier,s and how can policy reforms address these gaps to achieve gender-equitable outcomes?
   1. Applies a socioecological lens to map barriers at individual, organizational, and societal levels. 
   2. Proposes scalable solutions informed by successes in gender-mainstreamed military programs (e.g., Canadian Armed Forces’ diversity initiatives). 
3. What standardized and culturally adaptive components of gender sensitization training most effectively dismantle harmful masculinities, promote allyship among male personnel, and improve mental health outcomes for marginalized genders in diverse forces?
   1. Compares outcomes using gender-transformative metrics (e.g., changes in sexist language or reporting rates of workplace harassment). 
   2. Integrates lessons from UN peacekeeping gender parity strategies and other inclusion frameworks.