In 2013, when Rohit Kumar started Apni Shala to promote mental health in municipal schools, little did he know that five years down the line, it would be the need of the hour. Last month, a 13-year-old girl from the civic-run KD Gaikwad School, Sion, committed suicide in her house in Central Mumbai after she was allegedly humiliated by her teacher in school. The incident put the spotlight on the need for counsellors in BMC schools. In fact, the education department of the BMC now plans to appoint counsellors in schools for the mental well-being of students.

Apni Shala, it turns out, is one of the few organisations that is helping children acquire skills necessary to understand and manage their own emotions. "Mental health cannot be taught using textbooks alone. It has to be a dialogical and collaborative process," says Kumar, who aims to promote social and emotional learning (SEL) among children. The organisation currently has 15 municipal schools on board, where each programme extends from Std 4 up to Std 9. As a rule, volunteers stick to the bottom-up approach, where they first get parents, teachers and principals on board and then go about tackling issues among children.