Human Library (On World Mental Health Day 2026, honouring the official theme and tagline 'Lived Experiences Heard: Real Voices, Real Change', in association with Human Library Organisation Denmark & Unnat Bharat Abhiyan Regional Coordinating Institute)
"An unnarrated life is not worth living"
Stories are windows to the ecology of mind, but are seldom given due importance, even in institutional contexts. For example, complaints/ grievances that are stories of suffering are nipped in the bud by illegitimate power-wielding authority groups, paving the way for a biased, singular story to emerge, leading to a seismic collapse of fundamental rights, meaning, mental health and life itself for the victims. Mental health research and Constitutional Court rulings in India foreground the imperative of listening to stories seriously. Stories help build empathy by releasing oxytocin in the brain, deepening human connection and prompting remedial action, neuropsychological research reveals. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has recognised the power of storytelling in achieving public health outcomes.
On World Mental Health Day 2026, honouring the official theme and tagline Lived Experiences Heard: Real Voices, Real Change, we invite you to flip through the pages of fifteen human books at Human Library. IIT Palakkad is the host institute for the Human Library, held in association with Human Library Organisation, Denmark, and Unnat Bharat Abhiyan Regional Coordinating Institute, IITPKD.
In deep reverence for the official theme of World Mental Health Day centering Lived Experiences, the initiative aims to help learn to appreciate individual differences, diverse social locations and understand the dynamics of social and institutional barriers, stigma and discrimination that are powerful determinants of mental distress, including deaths by suicide.
I am happy to share a message for the Human Library event, which has been endorsed by Dr Nikita Hari, Head of the Teaching, Research Design and Support Group in the Department of Engineering Science at the University of Oxford. She holds a PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of Cambridge and was a Schlumberger Faculty for the Future Fellow at Oxford.
Dr Nikita Hari is an award-winning engineer, educator and entrepreneur. She completed her B.Tech at Government Cooperative Engineering College, Vatakara (Kozhikode), and an M.Tech at SRM University, Chennai. She is a Senior Fellow of Higher Education Academy, Honorary Associate Professor at University College London (UCL), and an inaugural Google Higher Education AI Fellow.
Named among the UK’s Top 50 Women in Engineering and leading many global cross-sector initiatives, Nikita’s leadership work spans engineering education, institutional innovation, entrepreneurship and the responsible use of AI in higher education. Watch the video message here.
Registration (Open only to IITPKD community)
The Human Library will be held in two 1-hour slots (Slot I: 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. & Slot II: 3:30 to 4:30 p.m.), allowing a reader to read up to two books (one in each slot). If you are interested in being a reader of any of these books, please fill out the Google Forms for Slot 1 and Slot 2 by signing in to Google.
Only the first five 5 registrants will be allowed to read a book in addition to a Human Library Volunteer Librarian. If the first 5 registered participants don't show up, entry will be granted based on registration timestamps. The small number of readers is quite intentional: the heart of the Human Library is dialogue and conversation, rather than the Human Books answering questions from a large group. With more people, it can quickly feel more like a Q&A or a presentation, which changes the nature of the experience.
Human Library Featured in: CNN | Shareable | Forbes | BBC
Alt Text for the poster
An official event flyer titled "HUMAN LIBRARY: unjudge someone."
- Header: Features logos for IIT Palakkad and Unnat Bharat Abhiyan in the top right corner. On the left, a stylized star graphic sits next to the large text "HUMAN LIBRARY" with the tagline "unjudge someone" underneath.
- Body Text Quote: "An unnarrated life is not worth living." Stories are windows to the ecology of mind, but are seldom given due importance... The text discusses the importance of listening to stories of suffering to combat biased narratives, protect fundamental rights, and support mental health.
- Event Invitation: Invites the IITPKD community on World Mental Health Day 2026 to "flip through the pages of fifteen human books" honoring the tagline "Lived Experiences Heard: Real Voices, Real Change."
- Event Details: Placed in a central stylized brown box resembling torn paper with icons for a calendar, map pin, and clock:
- Date: October 10, 2026 (Saturday)
- Venue: Saraswathi Block, IITPKD
- Time: 2:30 P.M. to 4:30 P.M.
- Registration Section: Headed by "ENTRY BY REGISTRATION" with two functional QR codes:
- Slot I QR Code: 2:30 to 3:30 p.m.
- Slot II QR Code: 3:30 to 4:30 p.m.
- Footer: Specifies "(Open only to IITPKD community)". The background shows faint, minimalistic gray silhouettes of people walking.
