On 21st July 2020, Union HRD Minister, Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ launched the Manodarpan initiative of HRD Ministry to provide psychosocial support to students for their Mental Health and Well-being.
Further, a Working Group, having experts from the fields of education, mental health and psychosocial issues as its members, has been set up to monitor and promote the mental health issues and concerns of students and to facilitate providing of support to address the mental health and psychosocial aspects during and after COVID-19 lockdown, through counselling services, online resources and helpline.
Salient Features of Manodarpan Initiative
Manodarpan will cover a wide range of activities to provide Psychosocial Support to students for their Mental Health & Well-being during the COVID outbreak and beyond. The initiative has been included in the Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan, as a part of strengthening human capital and increasing productivity and efficient reform and initiatives for the Education sector.
Components of Manodarpan Initiative
- Advisory Guidelines for students, teachers and faculty of School systems and Universities along with families.
- National level database and directory of counsellors at School and University level whose services can be offered voluntarily for Tele-Counselling Service on the National Helpline.
- Dedicated National Toll-free Helpline (8448440632) has been launched. This unique helpline shall be managed by a pool of experienced counselors/ Psychologists and other mental health professionals and will continue beyond the coronavirus pandemic situation. Through this helpline tele-counselling will be provided to the students to address their mental health and psychosocial issues.
- Launch of a special web page of Manodarpan on the portal of HRD Ministry. The Web-page contains advisory, practical tips, posters, podcasts, videos, doÂ’s and donts for psychosocial support, FAQs and online query system.
- Handbook on Psychosocial Support: Enriching Life skills & Wellbeing of StudentsÂ’ to be published online. The booklet will include FAQs, Facts & Myths and will also cover ways and means to manage emotional and behavioural concerns (from young children to college youth) during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.
- Interactive Online Chat Platform for contact, counselling and guidance by psychologists and other mental health professionals which will be available for students, teachers, and families during COVID-19 and beyond.
- Webinars, audio-visual resources including videos, posters, flyers, comics, and short films to be uploaded as additional resource materials on the webpage.
- Crowd sourcing from students all over the country will be encouraged as peer support.
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