An older man and a younger woman talking on a bench.

A checked list

Free and low-cost mental health support in Mumbai

Helplines, government hospital clinics and student services that cost nothing or very little. Every entry below was checked against the service's own website before this page went up.

In short

Start with Tele-MANAS

Free mental health support in Mumbai includes Tele-MANAS, other helplines and government hospital psychiatry clinics. Tele-MANAS offers counselling by phone, 24 hours every day, on 14416 or 1800-891-4416. Both numbers are toll-free. This page lists each service's hours and access details, checked on 28 August 2026.

  • It is free, it is open 24 hours a day, every day, and it runs through a centre in every state and union territory, so you can ask for support in more than one language. Counsellors listen, help you think through what is happening, and can point you towards further care where that is needed.
  • Dial 14416, or 1800-891-4416. Both numbers are toll-free.
  • If the line is busy, or the hours do not suit, the other free helplines on this page are listed with their numbers, their hours and who runs them. Government hospital psychiatry clinics in Mumbai and the wider public system are further down.
  • Every entry was checked against the service's own website on 28 August 2026.
Three people of different ages sitting on chairs in a loose half circle, one speaking and two listening.

Checked on 28 August 2026

Helplines you can call

Every line below is free to the caller. The number, the hours and the cost were taken from each service's own website on that date.

Tele-MANAS

14416 or 1800-891-4416. Counselling by phone, with links to further care. Open 24 hours, every day. Free and toll-free. Run by the Government of India.

Vandrevala Foundation

9999 666 555. Counselling by phone or WhatsApp on the same number. Open 24 hours, every day, all year. Free.

AASRA

022 2754 6669. Crisis listening by trained volunteers, in English and Hindi. Open 24 hours, 7 days a week. Free and confidential.

Samaritans Mumbai

84229 84528, 84229 84529, 84229 84530. Emotional support by phone, 5 PM to 8 PM, all days. Free. Free appointments with a counsellor are booked on 84229 84527, 10 AM to 4 PM, Monday to Friday.

iCall

9152987821. Counselling by phone, and by email at icall@tiss.ac.in. Monday to Saturday, 10 AM to 8 PM. Free. Run by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences.

Mpower 1on1

1800-120-820050. Counselling by phone for people over 18. Open 24 hours. Free and toll-free. Run with the BMC and the Maharashtra government.

Manodarpan

8448440632. Counselling by phone for students, parents and teachers, on a national toll-free line. Free. Run by the Ministry of Education.

One thing to know about Mpower

Mpower's own page says plainly that this is not a crisis line, and that its counsellors will guide a caller to the nearest hospital if emergency help is needed.

If it cannot wait

Call 112 if someone is in immediate danger. The emergency help page sets out what to say and what to do while you wait.

Government clinics

Government hospital psychiatry clinics

Government medical colleges and municipal hospitals in Mumbai run psychiatry outpatient clinics, and they publish their days and timings. Two of the larger ones:

KEM Hospital, Parel

Seth G.S.M.C. and K.E.M. Hospital, Dr. E. Moses Road, Parel, Mumbai 400012. The Department of Psychiatry has run outpatient services since 1947 and is one of the largest teaching departments in the country.

KEM psychiatry OPD

The hospital's published OPD list shows a psychiatric OPD from Monday to Saturday, 8:00 AM to 10:30 AM, in the old building, first floor, OPD 112.

Sir J. J. Hospital, Byculla

Grant Government Medical College and Sir J. J. Group of Hospitals, established 1845.

J. J. psychiatry OPD

The hospital's published OPD information lists a psychiatry OPD from Monday to Saturday, on the second floor.

How a government OPD visit usually goes

  • Check the day first. Both hospitals publish their OPD lists online, and days and timings do change.
  • Go early. Registration opens before the clinic starts, and the queue builds quickly.
  • Register at the counter and take a case paper. That is the hospital's record of your visit. Carry it every time you come back.
  • Ask what it costs at the counter. Charges are set by the hospital, so ask what the visit costs rather than assuming an amount.
  • A referral letter is not named as a requirement on either hospital's published OPD information. If you are unsure, ask at the registration counter.
  • Carry what you have: old prescriptions, reports, a list of the medicines you take, and some water. Mornings can be long.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation keeps a public directory of Mumbai's municipal hospitals, peripheral hospitals and dispensaries at bmchealth.in.

The public system

Care through the public system

The district programme

The District Mental Health Programme was added to India's National Mental Health Programme in 1996. It is designed to bring mental health care to the district level rather than keeping it inside a few big city hospitals.

Who is on a district team

A district team is meant to include a psychiatrist, a clinical psychologist, a psychiatric social worker and a psychiatric or community nurse. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare records 767 districts as approved under the programme.

If you are outside Mumbai

If you are back in your home district, it is worth asking at the district hospital what mental health services run there.

If you are a student

Manodarpan, from the Ministry of Education, runs a national toll-free helpline on 8448440632. It offers counselling by phone to students in schools, colleges and universities, and to their parents and teachers.

Your own college

Many colleges also have a counsellor of their own. The student welfare office or the students' section usually knows who that is and how to book, and it normally costs nothing.

Before you go

What free care is really like

It helps to know the shape of it before you go, so the first visit is not a surprise.

  • There are queues. A helpline can be busy at times, and an OPD can take a whole morning.
  • Some services offer a set number of sessions rather than open-ended therapy.
  • Government clinic appointments are often short, because a great many people are seen in one morning.
  • You may see a different doctor on a different day, especially in a teaching hospital.

None of that makes these lesser doors. Government psychiatry departments in Mumbai carry decades of clinical experience and teach the next generation of psychiatrists. Helplines are answered by trained people. Starting somewhere is better than waiting.

A free service that you actually use is worth more than a paid one you keep postponing.

Choosing who to see

Working out which kind of help you need

Who is who

If you are trying to work out which kind of professional you need, or how to check that someone is qualified, the guide to finding a good therapist in Mumbai covers the two official registers and the questions worth asking first.