New Delhi, April 26, 2025 : A high-impact
panel discussion on “Strengthening Mental
Health Systems for Youth: Prevention, Support, and Policy Action” was held
today at the World Health Summit
Regional Meeting at Bharat Mandapam,
Pragati Maidan, New Delhi. Organized by ETI Services and the Policymaker’s
Forum on Mental Health, the session brought together parliamentarians,
mental health professionals, policy advocates, and youth leaders to chart a
roadmap for more inclusive, accessible, and youth-led mental health systems in
India.
Opening
the session, Dr. Dalbir Singh,
President of the Policymaker’s Forum for Mental Health, emphasized that, “The alarming rise in mental health
conditions among young people is a reflection of the rapidly changing, often
overwhelming nature of the world today — we must act now, because the youth are
not just the future of this country, they are its present, and their well-being
is our collective responsibility.” The panel addressed critical gaps in
India’s mental health system, particularly in institutions of higher education,
and stressed the need for early intervention, community-based support models,
and inclusive approaches that center the voices of young people.
Parliamentarians
and practitioners on the panel highlighted how systemic challenges continue to
marginalize young people—especially those from rural areas, marginalized
genders, and underserved communities. Sh.
Manoj Kumar, Hon. MP, Lok Sabha, emphasized the importance of supporting
youth populations in underserved areas, “Coming
from a rural background where we grew up in acute poverty and faced caste-based
discrimination, conversations about mental health were largely absent. Today,
with the alarming rise in student suicides, substance abuse, and mental health
struggles, it has become a key issue and the critical need is awareness, no
matter how small the start.”
Dr. Rajdeep Roy, a senior parliamentarian, pointed to the gap between awareness and
institutional readiness: “Educational
institutions are ecosystems where students are nurtured — with shifting family
structures and growing systemic pressures, youth mental health must be made
central through structured, evidence-based policy interventions in campus
spaces.”
Emphasising
on the need for such platforms, Dr
Sukriti Chauhan, CEO, ETI Services, stated,
“In a world where the mental
health of young people is too often overlooked, this session stands as a vital
platform — a space to not just listen, but to truly center their voices, honour
their lived experiences, and ignite a collective movement towards empathetic,
inclusive, and youth-driven change.”
Practitioners
brought critical insight from the field. Dr.
Aqsa Sheikh, public health expert and national suicide prevention in
educational institutions task force member, called for structural reform as
well as increased awareness: “Mental
health is a silent pandemic, we must name the stigma, acknowledge the crisis,
and address the treatment gaps, through policy interventions especially for
vulnerable identities across age, gender, class, and sexuality. We must empower
our young people to understand that it’s okay to speak out, and we must learn
to truly listen.” Counseling psychologist and Founder, The Coping Central, Utkarsha Jagga echoed the need for
systems that reflect young people’s contemporary realities: “In a world that celebrates constant
productivity, young people today are lonely, exhausted, and lack psycho-social
support. We need to strengthen our
systems with focus on decolonized therapy that honours India’s generational
trauma and gives youth the power, agency, and space they deserve. Ask youth
what we want and centre-stage our voices at the forums that matter.” The
urgency of youth-led approaches was brought into sharp focus by Anoushka Sinha, youth advocate and
Forbes 30 under 30, who said: “Youth feel
invisibilized when policies are made for them without understanding their needs
— mental health responses, must be co-created, youth-led, and rooted in lived
realities, shifting from top-down models to truly intersectional, inclusive
frameworks.”
Adding
a powerful dimension to the session, Gauri
Gupta, a young disability rights activist shared her experience navigating
educational spaces and mental health care as a person with a disability.
Bringing the systemic inaccessibility and ableism that continues to shape
mental health services, she highlighted the urgent need for institutions to
ensure accountability, respect, and equity for disabled youth.
The
session closed with a resounding call to action: to translate insights into replicable, scalable frameworks at both
state and national levels, anchored in prevention, inclusion, and youth
leadership. As part of the World Health Summit’s broader theme of “Scaling Access to Ensure Health Equity,”
the discussion affirmed that youth mental health must be recognized as a
national priority—one that demands responsive, intersectional, and
community-rooted solutions.
Media Contact:
Stephy Stephen
Senior Research Analyst, ETI Services
stephys@etiservices.org