The Centre on Tuesday launched an initiative to focus on the mental and emotional well being of students, teachers and parents as they navigate the situation presented by the Covid-19 outbreak.
The ‘Manodarpan’ platform, which comprises a national helpline – 8448446032 – and a special webpage, is aimed at providing psycho-social support to students through a group of experienced counselors, psychologists, and mental health professionals.
“There are emerging mental health concerns with a specific focus on children and adolescents that are often reported in situations such as a pandemic,” HRD Minister Ramesh Pohkriyal Nishank said launching the initiative.
This webpage of Manodarpan on the HRD Ministry website has advisories for students and teachers to follow during the lockdown including how to make use of the interactive online classes, peer learning, identifying professional support among others.
This is part of the Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in May to deal with the disruption caused by the Covid-19 outbreak.
The ministry also proposes to have an interactive application that can be used for online chat and counselling, host webinars, audio-visual resources and podcasts hosted on the platform for the students.
Also, this would be used as a part of the school curriculum to address the concerns of children.
Relevant research will also be disseminated through this portal so that there is an awareness building for mental health among students in India.
The launch of ‘Manodarpan' came a day after the HRD Ministry sought feedback from parents on the reopening of schools along with their expectations and suggestions on the changes they would like to see when the same happens.