As a social media & digital content intern at KHUSHII, I recently had the opportunity to attend a teacher training session under the flagship programme Manobal. Before attending the session, I had read about the programme itself, and my interest was piqued as the approach was not only innovative but also grounded in reality. Manobal aims to psycho-educate 2,000 government school teachers and raise awareness about their own mental health as well as their students’. My assignment – recording videos, photos, and testimonials from participants – left me with a familiar mix of excitement and nervousness. I was excited to understand first-hand the lived experiences of KHUSHII’s beneficiaries – the main reason I joined this NGO.
On arriving at the venue, I was eagerly waiting for the event to start, because mental health is a topic that means a lot to me on a personal level. But I am also aware of its limitations in our contemporary times. Seventy per cent of children in India are enrolled in government schools (ASER survey, 2021), with most of them coming from underprivileged backgrounds and to a large extent, a person’s material condition determines their psychological condition. Sure, money can’t buy happiness, but it can buy therapy sessions, psychiatric treatment and medicines for mental illness. Money can also buy basic necessities – a clean home in a safe neighbourhood, nutritious meals and comfortable clothes – the absence of which leads to a higher risk of depression and anxiety. Add onto this the stigma and myths that envelope mental health in India, and one begins to understand why only 1 in 20 Indians with mental health concerns receive any treatment (Sagar et al., 2017). After all, how can we expect a construction worker or even an overworked government school teacher to have any time, energy, or awareness to tend to their mental health? And if teachers cannot take care of their own mental health, how can they take care of children?