Area: Youth, Student & Community Mental Health
Stage: In Progress (2026)
Initiated by: Reform for India’s Mental Health Advocacy

India's schools are the single largest institutional touchpoint in an adolescent's life. Yet the school system as it currently operates was not designed to support the psychological and social dimensions of development. The structures within most Indian schools leave young people navigating the most formative questions of their lives without framework, language, or support. RIHA's School-Based Adolescent Psychosocial Development Programme works with school ecosystems to build the conditions, the capacity, and the structured developmental programme that adolescents require and that schools are currently unable to provide. The programme addresses four foundational dimensions of adolescent development: self-concept and identity formation; decision-making and agency; social navigation and relational capacity; and emotional literacy. These components provide comprehensive framework that determines how a young person learns, relates, chooses, and functions. The programme operates across students, teachers, and parents simultaneously. It involves rigorous field research,structured co-design with school communities, and the development of an evidence base that documents both the problem and the intervention.