NAMASTE

Neurodevelopment and AutisM in South ASia Treatment and Evidence

An ongoing project (2022-2027).
 

The Aim of the Study:

The NAMASTE study aims to bridge the gap in early detection and delivery of evidence-based interventions to support young children with neurodevelopmental disabilities, especially autism. Led by Dr. Jonathan Green, and Dr. Gauri Divan, NAMASTE is designing, implementing and evaluating a detection and care pathway for children with autism in four districts in India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka.

The Background:

South Asia, like many low- and middle-income country regions, has high rates of neurodevelopmental disability, with a significant portion of children diagnosed with autistic spectrum disorder. Despite these high incidence rates, the region lacks community-based initiatives for the early identification and provision of evidence-informed interventions for young children with neurodevelopmental challenges, particularly autism.

The Project Plan:
 

Leveraging over a decade of collaborative efforts, NAMASTE aims to develop, implement, and evaluate a detection care pathway supported by lay -health and care workers. It introduces the PASS Plus intervention — a parent-led, non-specialist-driven approach, supported by a digital training and supervision platform, tailored to the South Asian context and culture. Additionally, it incorporates caregiver’s Skills Training (CST), a developmental disability group intervention developed by the World Health Organization (WHO).

NAMASTE is structured around four work streams:

1. Evaluating the feasibility and acceptability of a detection care pathway and its validity against independent clinical assessment.
2. Assessing intervention effectiveness on family outcomes and child development through a pre-post observational cohort design.
3. Conducting a mixed-methods evaluation of community and public engagement.
4. Testing the acceptability, effectiveness, and cost-effectiveness of a digital training platform at one site.
    

Additionally, NAMASTE will generate comprehensive economic data on pathways to care, which will enable resource modeling to estimate the cost of scaling up. This data will be presented as national policy briefs at the end of the program period.

Supporters and Project Duration:
 

NAMASTE is supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Research in the UK and is scheduled to run from 2022 to 2027. This ambitious project represents a concerted effort to address the critical need for accessible and effective care for children with neurodevelopmental disabilities in South Asia, with the hope of setting a precedent for global health systems to follow.

For more information, visit: NAMASTE | Sangath

Findings:

NAMASTE has established its detection and care pathway across four sites in India (North Goa and East Delhi), Nepal, and Sri Lanka, with active implementation of the detection, evaluation, and intervention workstreams underway. The team co-designed a community engagement toolkit through participatory research with caregivers, health workers, and autistic individuals to raise awareness of screening and care for neurodevelopmental disabilities, which was published in Mental Health and Prevention (2025). A scoping review examining how to engage people with lived experience of autism in building community awareness was also published in Neurodiversity (2026), marking the first review of its kind in this area.

Next Steps:

The team is continuing the implementation of its three workstreams across all four sites, with a focus on evaluating the effectiveness of the PASS Plus intervention and the detection care pathway. Comprehensive economic data are being collected to inform national policy briefs on scale-up costs ahead of the project's conclusion in 2027.

Publications:

• April 2026: Community engagement with individuals with lived experience of autism and intellectual disability to promote awareness and service utilisation for early identification and intervention: a scoping review. Neurodiversity.
• September 2025: Co-designing a community engagement toolkit to raise awareness of screening and care for neurodevelopmental delays and disabilities in India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. Mental Health and Prevention.