Delhi to Launch Mental Wellbeing Policy for Students and Youth up to 25 on 19 November

The Delhi government will formally launch its Mental Well-being Policy on 19 November, a framework that will extend mental health support to students and young people up to the age of 25. Delhi Education Minister Ashish Sood reviewed the proposed policy on Thursday.

The framework will cover CM SHRI schools, government and government-aided schools, private institutions and higher education institutions, along with children with special needs. Its support is meant to reach young people up to 25, including those outside formal education.

Moving beyond stigma

The policy aims to move beyond the stigma around mental health and to encourage open conversations about emotional well-being. Responsibility for well-being is to extend beyond the classroom to the whole school environment.

"We must look at education beyond classrooms, textbooks and examination results. Every child deserves an environment where they feel safe, heard and understood. Mental well-being should not be a conversation that begins only when a child is facing a crisis," Sood said.

Assessments, handbooks and training

The review covered psychometric assessments of staff who work with children, including teaching and non-teaching staff and transport personnel.

It also covered dedicated handbooks with structured questions, practical exercises and activities designed to promote emotional awareness among students.

A whole school approach

Under the framework, well-being is treated as the responsibility of the entire school, not only of counsellors or teachers. The handbooks and assessments are meant to give every adult around a child a role in spotting distress early and responding to it.

The policy's reach beyond schools, to colleges and to young people outside formal education, sets it apart from the usual school-based programmes. Support for children with special needs is built into the framework rather than added as an afterthought.

Why the policy was drawn up

The development of the policy began after a student from a school in Lutyens' Delhi died by suicide in November last year. The incident sharpened the government's focus on early support and on making conversations about mental health a normal part of school life.

The formal launch on 19 November will set out how the policy will be put into practice across Delhi's schools and colleges, and how its impact will be tracked once it is under way.