In a first for India, the Rajasthan government has launched ‘Khushishala’, a structured mental health and wellbeing programme for students of Classes 1 to 5 across nearly 1,500 government schools, aiming to make emotional wellbeing a core part of primary education alongside academics.
Implemented by the Rajasthan State Council of Educational Research and Training (RSCERT) in partnership with the Kshamtalaya Foundation, the initiative equips children with social-emotional and life skills through classroom activities while training teachers to identify and respond to students’ emotional needs.
The programme follows a successful 2024 pilot in Sirohi and Banswara districts, where officials reported a 53 per cent improvement in students’ socio-emotional skills and 69 per cent improvement among girls.
RSCERT Director Shweta Fagediya described Khushishala as India’s first structured mental wellbeing programme at the primary level, while the state now plans to expand it to more than 12,000 schools by training over 11,300 teachers and extending it to 649 PM SHRI schools.
Building Emotionally Strong Classrooms
For years, school education has largely been evaluated through examination scores, attendance and learning outcomes. Rajasthan’s new initiative seeks to broaden that definition by recognising emotional wellbeing as an essential ingredient of quality education.
Rather than functioning as a counselling programme that intervenes only when problems emerge, Khushishala adopts a preventive, classroom-based approach rooted in social-emotional learning (SEL).
Through structured activities, students are encouraged to identify and express emotions, develop empathy, strengthen communication, solve problems collaboratively, build healthy relationships and develop resilience from an early age.
Equally significant is the programme’s focus on teachers, acknowledging that educators are often the first adults to notice changes in a child’s emotional state. Participating teachers undergo a three-day intensive training programme, followed by a 21-day audio-based course covering emotional awareness, stress recognition, classroom wellbeing, relationship building and social-emotional learning strategies.
They are also provided with teacher handbooks, activity guides and mobile-based learning resources to help integrate wellbeing into everyday teaching. Explaining the vision behind the programme, RSCERT Director Shweta Fagediya said, “Khushishala has made Rajasthan the first state in India to implement a mental health and well-being programme at the primary education level.
The objective is to strengthen children’s emotional resilience and social-emotional skills while equipping teachers to better understand and support students’ emotional needs.” Officials believe that emotionally secure classrooms can not only improve children’s wellbeing but also strengthen learning outcomes, classroom participation and school communities.
Pilot Success Drives Statewide Expansion
The statewide rollout builds upon a pilot project conducted in 2024 across Sirohi and Banswara districts, where 120 teachers implemented structured wellbeing activities with primary school students. According to RSCERT, the pilot produced encouraging results, recording a 53 per cent improvement in children’s socio-emotional skills, with girls showing an improvement of 69 per cent.
Officials also reported stronger teacher-student relationships, improved emotional development and reduced academic stress among participating children. These findings prompted RSCERT and the Kshamtalaya Foundation, an organisation working in education and youth development, to expand the initiative across the state.
Currently operational in nearly 1,500 government schools, the next phase aims to train 11,305 teachers at the panchayat level and extend the programme to 649 PM SHRI schools. If implemented as planned, more than 12,000 schools across Rajasthan will eventually have at least one teacher trained to conduct Khushishala sessions.
The initiative also reflects a broader shift in education policy as conversations around children’s mental health have gained momentum in India following the COVID-19 pandemic, increasing academic pressures and growing awareness among educators and parents about the importance of emotional resilience.
While structured social-emotional learning programmes are common in several countries, they remain relatively rare in India’s public education system, making Rajasthan’s initiative a notable policy experiment.
Education experts, however, emphasise that its long-term success will depend on sustained teacher support, regular refresher training, effective monitoring and independent evaluation to ensure the programme delivers consistent outcomes across urban and rural schools alike.
The Logical Indian’s Perspective
Children spend a significant part of their formative years in classrooms, where they learn far more than mathematics or language they also develop confidence, relationships, empathy and a sense of belonging. Rajasthan’s decision to introduce structured emotional wellbeing into primary education is an important acknowledgement that academic success and mental wellbeing are deeply interconnected, not competing priorities.
By training teachers alongside students, the programme recognises that nurturing emotionally safe classrooms requires empowered educators as much as prepared children. At the same time, large-scale initiatives must be supported by transparent implementation, continuous evaluation and sustained investment to ensure that every child, regardless of geography or background, benefits equally.
