Childhood and adolescence are critical windows for mental health and development. World Health Organisation (WHO) notes that early experiences – at home, in school or online – shape a child’s lifelong well-being. Yet today “8% of children and 15% of adolescents experience a mental disorder” globally. Half of all adult mental illnesses begin by age 14–18. In other words, half of life-long mental health conditions start by late adolescence. Left unaddressed, these issues undermine emotional growth and academic learning. A supportive school climate with caring teachers and peers can cut depression and anxiety and boost academic performance. But when thousands of children enter classrooms already struggling with stress, anxiety or trauma, schools must become sites of early intervention.
A silent crisis in India’s schools
In India’s vast school system, the challenge is enormous. Recent studies estimate tens of millions of young Indians have diagnosable mental health issues. In fact, epidemiologists calculate “nearly 50 million Indian children suffer from mental disorders” at any given time. Community surveys in Lucknow, Bangalore and elsewhere find prevalence rates around 10–12% for child and adolescent disorders. The National Mental Health Survey (2016) reported a 7.3% prevalence among 13–17 year-olds (over 9.8 million adolescents).
In schools, some local studies find even higher rates – one meta-analysis found ~23% of Indian students met criteria for a psychiatric disorder. These numbers are comparable to other developing countries: for example, a Lancet study found 12.1% of Kenyan and 5.5% of Indonesian adolescents had a mental disorder in the past year. Brazil’s youth face similar burdens; a recent systematic review found point prevalence of 11–20% for any mental disorder among Brazilian children. In short, schoolchildren across the Global South are far from immune to mental illness.
Importantly, these mental health challenges directly harm education. Multiple reviews show that children in nurturing, mentally healthy school environments earn better grades and stay in school longer. In India, a systematic review reported that classrooms with positive teacher-student relationships and peer support saw lower student depression and improved academic performance.
By contrast, stress, stigma or bullying in schools contribute to absenteeism, dropout and even self-harm. One UNICEF analysis warns: India has one of the world’s worst teen suicide rates, with a student dying by suicide every hour. Mental health is thus not a side issue – it is integral to learning, equity and our demographic “dividend.”
School-based solutions: Mental health workshops and training
Early, school-based intervention works. Structured workshops and programmes in schools teach coping, emotional literacy and resilience. In India, the Smile Foundation’s Child-for-Child programme is one promising model. Smile notes that about 1 in 5 children face mental health challenges, and it empowers teachers to be “first responders.” In three-hour experiential trainings (with refreshers every few months), teachers learn to recognize stress and depression, weave mental-health awareness into class time, and guide students toward help. Smile’s initiative includes pre- and post-training assessments and resource guides, aiming to “shift teacher mindsets” and build caring classrooms.
Smile Foundation has recognised that a school cannot be a place of learning if it is not also a place of care. Our initiative-in-making “Schools Show the Way” offers a compelling model. As an extension of Smile’s larger Child for Child and Mission Education frameworks, this programme aims to create mental health-responsive education institutions by capacitating teachers and engaging students through interactive tools—workshops, films, dialogues.
The approach will be two-fold:
- Teacher Empowerment: Through intensive mental health workshops, teachers will be trained as first responders—able to identify signs of stress, anxiety, or trauma, and either provide first-line emotional support or connect students to formal care pathways, including helplines or local counsellors. Teachers will learn to distinguish between behavioural and psychological issues, manage classroom triggers, and foster emotionally safe learning environments.
- Student Engagement: Smile’s workshops with students will use “good cinema”—curated films on adolescent issues—as a pedagogical tool to open up difficult conversations around bullying, anxiety, peer pressure, and identity. These sessions will help students understand mental health as a spectrum, develop self-awareness, and build resilience. Crucially, these are designed to demystify mental health and reduce stigma through lived experiences.
The interventions will be backed by monitoring frameworks, assessments, and referral linkages, ensuring not just awareness—but continuity of care.
What about other countries? Are they conducting mental health workshops too?
Internationally, there are comparable success stories. In Indonesia, the NGO Sehat Jiwa Bahagia developed a school curriculum on mental well-being in 2018. By 2022 it had reached ~7,000 students in ten schools, teaching stress management, emotional regulation and healthy relationships. Rigorous follow-up showed 90% of student participants gained skills to manage their mental health, and all teachers said the programme helped them understand their students’ emotional needs.
In Brazil, UNICEF partnered with the government to train educators on psychosocial support. When schools reopened after COVID-19, a cross-sector strategy was launched: technical guidance and teacher training were delivered so schools could address students’ “learning, mental health and protection needs”. This kind of whole-school approach – building safe, supportive environments – is key.
Embedding mental health workshops into schools can take many forms: from dedicated “life skills” modules in the curriculum, to after-school support groups, to simple classroom activities on stress and empathy. A compilation of Brazilian evidence notes that educating teachers and school staff in mental health can cascade to benefits for students.
In India, too, even pilot programmes show promise. For example, the NIMHANS “NIMHANS Seva Sahayog” model trains non-specialist mentors in schools to identify at-risk children and refer them to care. Early lessons from such pilots suggest that even brief, focused workshops can reduce stigma and increase referrals. Importantly, these programmes not only aid students in crisis but also teach skills like concentration and emotional regulation that boost learning for all.
Barriers: Stigma, resources and policy gaps
Despite clear need, barriers are formidable. First is stigma. In India only 41% of young people believe it is “good” to seek help for mental health issues. Many children suffer in silence – afraid of being labeled or disciplined. Parents and teachers often dismiss anxiety or depression as mere bad behaviour.
Another obstacle is workforce shortages. Although CBSE guidelines mandate a counsellor in every secondary school, in practice less than 3% of Delhi-NCR private schools actually employ one. Nationwide, the ratio of child psychologists per student is alarmingly low. A school counselor, where present, is often misused for non-therapy tasks. Simply put, Indian schools lack trained personnel to run workshops or provide individual help.
Policy gaps compound the problem. India has yet to adopt a comprehensive child-mental-health policy. Experts note there is “no evidence-based, integrated whole-school mental health approach” in the country. Initiatives exist – the Ministry of Education’s Manodarpan programme (launched in 2020) provides COVID-era counselling support – but they remain fragmented and underfunded.
In many places mental health education is not even on the timetable. As a result, families bear the burden of arranging private counseling, which few can afford. The system simply hasn’t scaled proven interventions to reach most children.
- Stigma and culture: Over 60% of Indian youth wrongly believe seeking help is bad. Social taboos and lack of awareness prevent early intervention.
- Shortage of professionals: Even though CBSE requires school counselors, most schools lack them. Child psychiatrists and psychologists are concentrated in cities, leaving rural schools completely underserved.
- Lack of policy framework: Experts emphasise that India currently has no unified school mental health policy. Programmes (if any) are piecemeal and often short-term.
Integrate and invest
The solution is urgent and clear: systemic reform. First, mental health must be integrated into school curricula and culture. Policymakers should adopt a national school mental health programme as part of education policy (much as there is a school nutrition programme). This would include mandatory life-skills and social-emotional learning modules, regular screening for depression and anxiety, and sensitivity training for all teachers. As India’s Health Minister highlighted at the 2021 launch of UNICEF’s “On My Mind” report, teacher training must explicitly cover mental health, since teachers are “pillars of support for children”.
Second, staffing and funding need a major boost. Governments must ensure every secondary school has at least one full-time counsellor or psychologist on staff. This can be phased by tying funding to teacher-student ratios (as CBSE suggests). State medical and teacher training colleges should offer specialisations in child counselling, and provide attractive incentives to work in schools or rural areas.
Meanwhile, the private sector and development organisations can help fill the gap: corporate CSR programmes and partnerships (like those between Smile Foundation and local schools) can train hundreds of teachers each year. Public-private collaborations can also finance helplines and tele-counselling for remote students.
Third, we need robust monitoring and research. WHO and UNICEF repeatedly emphasise the lack of data as a stumbling block. Governments should commission regular school-based mental health surveys, like the National Adolescent Mental Health Survey (NAMHS) that revealed the 12% rate in Kenya. With solid evidence of where problems cluster (by region, age, gender), interventions can be targeted smarter. Evaluation of pilot programmes (e.g. Smile’s workshops or Sehat Jiwa’s curriculum) should be published to build the local evidence base. Civil society can advocate for these reforms by framing mental health as crucial not only to individual well-being but also to educational outcomes and economic productivity.
Conclusion: Educating the whole child
Mental health is as fundamental as literacy or nutrition in a child’s development. Early interventions – like structured school workshops – pay lifelong dividends in human potential. An Indian child who learns coping skills and feels supported in school is likelier to stay in class, focus better, and grow into a healthy adult contributor. Our country’s human capital is at stake: ignoring 10–20% of our youth who suffer in silence is a risk we cannot afford.
By investing in mental health workshops and systemic reforms, India can not only improve academic success and reduce dropout, but also break cycles of poverty and illness. Policymakers and educators must act in concert now: incorporate emotional learning into education policy, fund counsellors as standard school staff, and partner with NGOs and families to nurture resilience. As WHO reminds us, half of mental illness starts in childhood – the time to act is now.
Sources: Global and Indian data from WHO and UNICEF reports; India-specific surveys; peer-reviewed studies and UNICEF updates on school programmes.
