Haryana SAATH Project: Trained Counsellors in 200 Government Schools for Class 6 to 12 Students

Haryana will deploy trained counsellors and teachers in 200 government schools under its SAATH Project to support students of Classes 6 to 12, Additional Chief Secretary for Health and Family Welfare Dr Sumita Misra announced on Monday 2 November 2026. The school-based initiative is being run by the Health and Family Welfare Department in coordination with the School Education Department, and aims to build an integrated support system for adolescents facing emotional and psychological challenges.

Under the plan, 122 counsellors from the Health Department have been trained to anchor the professional support system in the selected schools. Each of the 200 schools will also identify two designated teachers, creating a network of around 400 trained teachers who will work alongside the counsellors. Together, they will help spot early signs of difficulty and make sure students who need professional help reach it in time.

The programme covers a wide range of everyday pressures that students face. These include examination stress and anxiety, bullying and peer rejection, social isolation, low self-confidence, difficulty communicating with parents, excessive screen use and digital addiction, as well as substance-use risks. The focus is on early identification, supportive conversations in school, and timely referral to specialised mental health services where needed, rather than leaving students to cope alone.

SAATH will use separate approaches for younger and older students, keeping their different needs in view. For Classes 6 to 8, the emphasis will be on emotional awareness, self-confidence, handling puberty-related changes, examination anxiety, bullying and building better communication at home. For Classes 9 to 12, the Health Department aims to reach students across all 200 identified schools within one year, with counsellors and teachers working as one coordinated team.

Training will be standardised so that support does not depend on which school a student attends. The Mental Health Department will prepare age-appropriate video training modules for teachers and counsellors, to be delivered through the ECHO platform and other official digital channels. School Education Department officials will facilitate the rollout by identifying the two teachers in each school and ensuring they take part in structured training.

For parents and students, the message of the programme is simple: help inside school should be easy to reach and free of stigma. By placing trained adults in the school itself, Haryana hopes that a student under stress will find someone to talk to early, before a small difficulty grows into a bigger one. The SAATH rollout adds a school-level support layer to the state’s wider effort to bring counselling and follow-up care closer to communities.