On Women's Day, Ira Khan opens up on gender bias, recalls her darkest depressive phase: "Nobody should ..."

Women's Day: Mental health goes beyond gender. However, women are usually more vocal about mental health than men. If ekincare's Wellbeing Index at India Inc is to be believed, women in corporates are three times more likely than men to seek mental health support.

On these lines, Ira Khan spoke to Livemint, as part of Mpower, a major mental health initiative in India. It highlights the growing engagement around mental well-being, with 415,733 women reached across major cities in the past year.

A social media personality and popularly known as Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan's daughter, Ira Khan, is the CEO of the Agatsu Foundation. Inspired by Masakatsu agatsu (正勝吾勝), a foundational Aikido philosophy, Agatsu means “self victory”, promoting better living and mental health.

Ira Khan revealed it was her husband, Nupur Shikhare who proposed the company name. “Popeye told me about it, and it fits so well with the concept,” she told us.

Ira Khan as entrepreneur

Agatsu Foundation completes 5 years in March, 2026. Looking back, Khan said, “So strange to think it's been 5 years. Sometimes it feels like it's been 10 years and sometimes it feels like 2 years. I think when I started, I wasn't able to focus on where to begin.”

Recalling the ups and downs, Khan explained the shortcoming. She revealed how depression affected her initiative initially. "There were many gaps. For the first 1–2 years, if you look into the company, you might feel like we didn't do much because internally we started and stopped things. I was trying to figure out what I should do. I was also going through a depressive episode at that time. Nobody should start a company while they are going through a depressive episode.

“Startups go through a lot of failings, startings and stoppings. In a depressive episode, you start feeling underconfident, indecisive, and you are not able to concentrate; they don’t go well together.”

The remarkable turnaround came when Ira Khan launched community centre - a warm and welcoming space in Mumbai where anyone can walk in for free activities, conversations and room to simply sit.

Ira Khan: I had the worst depressive episode ever

The 29-year-old chuckled, “Then we started the community centre. From there it originally grew in terms of what comes next. It's been interesting that while I made some decisions, some of them came (organically) to me.” But, everything lived only for a short time when Ira Khan had a depressive episode, pushing her to take a months-long break from work.

“Immediately after a week of opening our community centre, I had the worst depressive episode ever. I actually stepped down and took a 6-month break from Agatsu. This is when the community centre was launched in September 2022, and I came back to work in December 2022.”

What changed after she returned to work? She shared, “When I came back in December, I didn't know anyone at the community centre. I was so happy because I was like, these are the random people who are coming here because they want to be here and not just coming here to make me feel good. Seeing the impact that it has had on people is one of the things that keeps you going when you are feeling tired or when there's so many things you are still figuring out.”

Ira Khan shared her biggest lesson from her break-- to take regular break from time to time.

“Since then, I am far more mindful about taking my breaks and balancing my work. My new rule is if I want to take on more work, then I have to take my self-care far more seriously. If I manage to do that, then I am allowed to do more work.”

Self care tips and tricks

So, what does self care look like for Ira Khan? She revealed that self care is all about small things like adequate rest and work out that helps her in everyday life. She also listed out pointers that instantly uplifts her mood.

“I have to get more sleep at night. If I don’t get enough sleep, then it affects me badly. I have to work out.

“Certain things that help me when I’m not feeling good—showers and journaling. Talking to Popeye helps a lot.” Ira Khan also suggests that doing something between work and home is helpful to break the mindspace. “I think games also help. Popeye and I play a card game,” she quipped.

Ira Khan on privilege, gender discrimination: No ‘I am allowed this and Junaid's allowed that

As the conversion shifted towards mental wellbeing, Ira Khan opened up about her privileges in terms of gender discrimination in today's world.

Young women often face a double burden of managing their inner struggles while maintaining an outward composure for family, work, and society, making the acceptance of help essential rather than optional. Reflecting on this, Khan said, “I think societal pressure is on everybody."

"There will be women who have to take care of work and the house—an impossible ask. But some of them will work to feel liberated and empowered. Some of them like doing both things. There is pressure to maintain composure for men also. They are not allowed to break down and show any weakness. I think that society, in general, has these set notions for everyone; there are things set for women and men.”

"Each category has their own things that they have to fit into, and it’s stressful for each. For me, I know that I have a lot of privilege when it comes to my gender as well. I have never been forced into a box by my family while growing up. There was no gender discrimination. There was no ‘I am allowed this and Junaid's allowed that,’ or ‘I have to do these because I am a woman.’ I know that is not the case for everyone else. I know there's gender stereotyping. I didn’t have any. I do wish we didn’t have those.”