Pune's Literary Icon and Humanitarian Dr. Mayaa SH Receives Prestigious International Ambassador of Peace Award for Promoting Peace, Goodwill and Humanity...
In a proud moment for India and Maharashtra, Dr. Mayaa SH, the Pune-based acclaimed authoress, poetess, social activist and women empowerment championer, has been conferred with the prestigious "International Ambassador of Peace Award." The award recognises her outstanding contribution towards promoting peace, goodwill, humanity, brotherhood and social unity in the world and bringing about positive change in society.
Mayaa SH, a prominent women’s rights activist, author, and feminist philosopher, has extensively addressed domestic violence in her work, emphasizing its profound impact and the societal changes required to combat it . Her insights are deeply rooted in her experiences as a survivor and advocate, focusing on empowering women and challenging societal attitudes that blame victims.
With over many books and countless national awards, state awards and international accolades to her credit, Dr. Mayaa SH has emerged as a powerful voice for selfless service, gender equality, mental health awareness and human values. In an exclusive interview, she speaks about peace, purpose and power of words.
Interviewer: Heartiest Congratulations, Dr. Mayaa. How does it feel to be recognized as International Ambassador of Peace?
Dr. Mayaa SH: Thank you so much. I am deeply humbled and honoured. For me, peace is not just an award, it is a responsibility. When I received this certificate that says "Your contribution become a Source Of Inspiration for Humanity", I felt my Duty has doubled. This award belongs not to me alone, but to every woman, every student, every reader who has believed that kindness is still the strongest power in the world. I dedicate this to my motherland India, which has taught the world - Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, "The World is one Family." This International Ambassador of Peace Award is actually a tribute to that culture of inclusive growth. Peace cannot be established by one person. It needs a family, a sangha.
Interviewer: The citation mentions your contribution towards goodwill, brotherhood and social unity. What does peace mean to you in today's fragmented world?
Dr. Mayaa SH: For me, "Peace is not the absence of War." Peace is the presence of understanding. Today we have technology to connect, but hearts are disconnected. We have words, but we have lost conversation.
Peace begins at three levels. First - inner peace, peace within yourself. If your mind is full of jealousy, comparison and anger, you cannot give peace to the world. Second - peace in the family, in relationships. And third - peace in society. We are trying to build the third floor without building the first floor. My writing tries to build that first floor - self-love, self-worth, healing.
Real peace is when a girl can walk freely at night and feel safe. When a boy is allowed to cry without being called weak. When success is not measured only by jada dhan - gold and property - but by karma dhan - your good deeds. That is the philosophy I live by.
Interviewer: You are known as a Karma Yogi and have coined concepts like Jada Dhan, Chetan Dhan and Karma Dhan. How do these connect to world peace?
Dr. Mayaa SH: This is the core of my life's teaching. I always say, there are three types of wealth.
Jada Dhan - gold, silver, money, house, car. It is visible, but perishable. It can be stolen by thieves, burnt by fire, taxed by kings, divided in partition. It has five enemies.
Chetan Dhan - knowledge, intellect, fame, position. It is better than Jada Dhan, but it is unstable. It can be destroyed by ego. Like Ravana had immense Chetan Dhan - he knew the four Vedas, but ego destroyed him.
And the greatest - Karma Dhan - your good deeds, your sewa, your sacrifice, your kind word, your respectful behaviour, the platform you give to a newcomer. This wealth can never be stolen. Na chori hota hai, na aag jala sakti hai.
If every human invests in Karma Dhan, there will be no war. Because war happens for Jada Dhan - for land, for oil, for gold. Peace will come when we understand that Karma is the only currency that goes with our soul, that builds our next birth and ultimately gives us moksha.
Interviewer: From being a corporate professional to a full-time writer, Women Empowerment Champion - what drove this transformation?
Dr. Mayaa SH: Pain. Purpose. Prayer.
I saw many women around me who were educated but not empowered. They had degrees but not voice. They had everything but society had limited beliefs towards many. I felt I should use my pen as a sword to cut those shackles.
My father taught me - "If your words can heal one person, your life is successful." That became my mission. I started writing on women who break, who bend but don't break, on single mothers, on child abuse, on mental health, on love that is not filmy but real, forgiving and healing.
I wrote because I had to look at healing many hearts and minds and then I realised, if healing could heal others. That is how co authoring more than two hundred fifty books happened - not for record, but for resonance.
Interviewer: As International Ambassador of Peace, what is your message for the youth of India on this Dhanteras and coming Diwali?
Dr. Mayaa SH: My message is very simple. This Dhanteras, don't just clean your homes, clean your hearts. Don't just buy utensils, buy good thoughts.
Pray like this - Hey Kuber, Hey Dhanvantari, Hey Lakshmi, give us less gold and silver if you wish, but give us commitment in our karma, sweetness in our speech, and strength to maintain our relationships. Give us a family like Swarnim Darpan where karma is the only treasure.
Because at the end, gold will stay here, name will stay here, but karma will go with you. That karma will make your next birth, that karma will give you liberation.
To the youth I say - don't run behind viral fame. Run behind valuable karma. Your one encouraging comment on a new writer's post can be his Diwali. Your one respectful share can be someone's peace.
Interviewer: What's next? What projects are you working on?
Dr. Mayaa SH: Many things. My focus now is on three missions. First - Peace Education for children through stories. If we teach children about Karma Dhan from childhood, they will not become violent adults.
Second - Legal literacy and emotional literacy for women. Knowledge is Chetan Dhan, and it should be used with humility.
Third - Global anthologies on Peace and Humanity where writers from across borders write together. Because when India and Pakistan's poets write in the same book, that itself is peace.
And yes, my upcoming books "Satakshi" is dedicated to this award and to every soul who believes "Goodness Is still Fashionable...."
Dr. Mayaa SH: Thank you for loving my words. Keep investing in the wealth that never depletes - your good karma. Be the reason someone believes in humanity again. That is the real International Ambassador of Peace - not the certificate on the wall, but the compassion in your actions.
May your Inner Kuber treasure always remain full.
About Dr. Mayaa SH:
Dr Mayaa SH is one of contemporary India's most compelling voices at the intersection of literature, feminism, and mental health advocacy. Dr. Mayaa SH is a Pune-based author, poetess, social activist, and women empowerment icon. A recipient of numerous national,state and international awards, she has co authored over more than co two hundred and fifty books and more than fourteen solo books and is known for her work on human values, gender equality and mental health. She champions literary movement promoting inclusive literature, empowerment and selfless service.Her humanitarian whose work refuses to separate personal healing from social justice, and storytelling from survival. As of August 2026, she has been honoured with over numerous National Awards, along with multiple multinational, international and state-level awards for her literary and advocacy contributions. In November 2026, she was conferred the prestigious International Ambassador of Peace Award in recognition of her lifelong dedication to promoting peace, goodwill, humanity, brotherhood and social unity.
At the heart of her work is a simple, radical belief: Words heal where silence wounds. Empathy rebuilds the self. She is the author of Silent Shores and numerous other works that explore the psychological impact of patriarchy, systemic gender inequality, cultural silencing, and oppressive social norms. Her writing merges feminist theory with lived experience, offering not just critique, but a pathway to reclamation. Her early work documented how women internalize patriarchal narratives — how control, shaming and isolation create cycles of self-doubt, anxiety, depression, trauma, and intergenerational trauma. A survivor and advocate herself, she has extensively addressed domestic violence, arguing that violence is not just a physical injury, it is a psychological erosion. When a person is told repeatedly that he or she is the problem, she begins to internalize that narrative, and that internalization becomes anxiety, depression, trauma, and for many, thoughts of not wanting to live.
Beyond her writings, she urges public discourse on gender-based violence, encouraging community action through campaigns like #OrangeTheWorld and #GenerationEquality, challenging inappropriate behavior, advocating for government investment in data collection on gender-based violence, and calling on employers to create supportive workplace cultures where survivors can seek mental health support without fear of stigma or job loss. She believes employers are frontline responders and a supportive workplace culture can be a lifeline.
Her most significant contribution in recent years is her reframing of suicide prevention. In her exclusive conversation for World Mental Health Day, 10th October 2026 — From Transactional to Human: Changing The Conversation Around Suicide Prevention, she connects the dots between domestic violence, mental health, and suicide prevention. She argues we have made prevention transactional. We ask three questions, we tick boxes, we decide risk. But suicidal thoughts are not always imminent and linear. Often they are fluid, like a low hum in the background. People need space to talk about that grey area without fear of being judged or immediately locked into a system. For her, suicide prevention cannot be separated from gender justice. Our systems, she says, ask women to be resilient in environments designed to break them. We give them helplines but not housing. We give them risk assessments but not respectful listening. We ask them to leave but we do not make the world safe enough to leave into.
She explains that our discomfort in talking about death and dying teaches people to hide their pain until it becomes unbearable. When someone discloses, she says we usually do two things. We either minimize — everything will be fine, stay positive — or we maximize and hit the panic button. Both come from our own anxiety, not the person's need. Minimizing makes the person shut down. Panicking takes away their autonomy. In both, the person stops sharing.
Her framework is built on five pillars which she calls the Philosophy of Safety. First, safety is a felt sense. Safety is not just absence of danger. It is a felt sense — emotional, psychological, relational and somatic. It is felt in the body and nervous system before it is understood in the mind. It is the experience of being able to tell one's truth without the listener flinching, shaming, or rushing to fix. What makes someone feel safe, we cannot assume. We have to ask. And we have to listen to the answer without editing it. Second, curiosity over correction. Correction says — you should not feel this way. Curiosity says — tell me more about this feeling. She promotes questions like: What has helped you when you felt like this before? What feels heavy right now? What would feel supportive in this moment? You are not convincing them they are wrong. You are sitting with them in their pain and exploring together.
Third, body language matters more than words. When someone is at their lowest, they feel unworthy. They are scanning for rejection — a sigh, an eye roll, crossed arms, looking at the clock. Those small signals do untold harm. Safety is leaning slightly forward, uncrossed posture, soft eye contact, facing them directly, phone away. It tells them — you are worthy of my full attention. Fourth, life promotion versus prevention. Prevention asks, how do we keep someone alive? Life promotion asks, how do we help someone want to live, feel connected to purpose, culture, identity, joy? It draws on heritage, music, art, spirituality, community, land to build reasons for living, not just reasons not to die. We need both. And fifth, centering individual need. What makes one person feel safe may not work for another, especially in Indigenous communities, small communities, or communities with histories of trauma and discrimination. Safety must be personal, cultural, and contextual. So the most important question a provider or family member can ask is — What would make you feel safe? And allow the answer to be different from what you expect.
Her advocacy is organized around four interconnected themes. Empathy versus sympathy. Empathy is walking with someone. Sympathy is looking from the outside. She trains listeners to choose empathy — to sit with pain rather than distance themselves from it. Cycle of pain. Silence feeds psychological distress. Voice and support break it. Asking about suicide does not plant the idea; not asking plants isolation. Peer support. Clinical settings are by design busy and time-limited. Peer support — someone with lived experience — can sit without the clinical power dynamic. A referral to peer support is not dismissal, it is recognition that someone who gets it can offer what systems cannot. And social determinants. Housing, food security, access to libraries and community spaces, anti-racism and economic equity are suicide prevention. How can we ask someone to be well if they are hungry, without a home, without community? These are legs of the stool. If one leg is broken, the stool falls.
What distinguishes her is her refusal to pathologize pain. She rejects myths that frame suicide as cowardice, selfishness or moral failure, instead framing it as a moment when pain feels unendurable, and asks society to start curiosity long before crisis — How did we get here? What is hurting? Her safe first response begins with gratitude: Thank you for telling me. Thank you for trusting me with this. That one line calms the flood of shame after a disclosure. Then offer something human and simple — a cup of tea, water, a walk. When basic needs like food, rest and movement are met, intensity can reduce enough to think more clearly. For families scared to ask about suicide because they fear they might plant the idea, her message is clear: Asking does not plant the idea. Not asking plants isolation. When you ask gently and directly — Are you having thoughts of not wanting to live? — you open a door. And if the answer is yes, don't respond with guilt — how could you do this to us. Respond with — Thank you for telling me. I am here. We will figure this out together.
For healthcare providers who only have ten minutes, she says intention matters more than duration. Be honest about time. I have ten minutes right now, but you are worthy of as much time as you need. What I can do in these ten minutes is listen and connect you to support because you are worthy of help. Also explain why you are asking screening questions — these are not to judge your choices, they are to help me give you the right care. That reframes shame into care.
Her one simple question everyone should carry with them is: What do you need to feel safe right now? It is simple, it is respectful, it gives power back to the person. It moves us from assuming to listening. And sometimes, listening itself is the intervention. On World Mental Health Day, her call is to move from silence to dialogue, from stigma to empathy, from checklist to human connection — building a world where people don't have to reach a breaking point to be heard, where every story reclaimed is a step toward collective healing, where literature creates safe spaces to rebuild and renew.
टिप्पणियाँ
एक टिप्पणी भेजें