Society should prepare children to face formative years of their lives with confidence: Sisodia

Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi Manish Sisodia on Wednesday asserted that it is the collective responsibility of the society to prepare children to face the most crucial formative years of their lives with confidence. Addressing a webinar on "Unlocking Minds: Keys to the locker room", Sisodia talked about issues faced by adolescents and steps taken by his government to address them.

"The society as a whole should take the responsibility for shaping young minds. A girl told me about the discrimination that she faces on a daily basis as her brother is given preference over her in literally all matters at home. He is served nice meals while she is expected to adjust as she is a girl. She also told me that due to happiness class, she is able to maintain a cool mindset and is able to focus on her studies well," he said.

"One out of four children is a victim of depression and every hour one student commits suicide in our country. The constant pressure to excel in academics is what is making the child go to such extremes. Teenage years are formative years of a person's life. Teenagers face a lot of challenges in terms of hormonal changes, academic expectations, peer pressure," the minister added.

Sisodia, who is also the Education Minister, explained the two major programmes of his government to address these issues impacting the young students - the Happiness Curriculum which involves mindfulness classes for Class Nursery to 8 and the Entrepreneurship Mindset Curriculum that focuses on empowering students to take risks, venture out and evolve as well-rounded professionals.

"Teenage kids share their experiences with teachers and peers through the opportunity given by the Happiness curriculum. In one such incident, the mother of a young student (hailing from an underprivileged background) told me that her son has become more sensitive because of the mindfulness class. He now asks her if she has eaten and checks in the kitchen if there is any food left for her before he starts eating," he said.

"Such is the impact of the Happiness class," the deputy chief minister added.