Padma Shri to Dr Chandrashekar: 'People's Psychiatrist' who adopted villages, went to doorsteps to treat patients

Padma Shri award winner: Dr. Chandrashekar Channapatna Rajannachar is a well-known psychiatrist and philanthropist in Karnataka. He is fondly called a "People's Psychiatrist". His yeoman services have earned him the prestigious Padma Shri award in 2024.

During his career, he had adopted villages around Bangalore and went to individual houses to treat patients and create awareness. He has been a consultant to UNICEF, many NGOs and government agencies.

Dr. Chandrashekar was born to Jeweller B.M. Rajannachar in Channapatna town. After early education at Channapatna, he joined the Government Medical College at Bangalore and completed a degree in Medicine in 1973.

Then he earned a Diploma in Medicine and an M.D. (Psychology) in 1978. Later, he joined NIMHANS as Resident Doctor and worked there until his retirement in 2013. Dr. Chandrashekar was a pioneer in designing training programmes for counsellors at the grassroots level.

He started the Samadhana Counselling Trust Centre on February 9, 2007, to provide free counselling for people going through mental health problems. The 75-year-old veteran psychiatrist is providing free mental health treatment to 50,000 patients and trained 20,000 professionals.

He has been involved in training doctors, health workers, school and college teachers, NGOs, and volunteers, in mental health work. He is also involved in the implementation of the National Mental Health Programme in India.

He is the editor of more than 100 books on health. Dr. Chandrashekar encouraged many medical professionals to write medical literature in Kannada and contributed to the development of popular medical literature in Kannada and English. He is the founder member of Kannada Vaidya Sahitya Parishat. He authored more than 280 books in Kannada and more than 30 books in English.