Student-led mental health festival brought together over 19 schools across Mumbai, reached over 800 students and engaged over 290 student participants, building on ABWA’s commitment to embedding mental health awareness and emotional well-being from the formative years

National, 8 October 2026: In an age of social media comparison, constant digital stimulation, and growing pressures around academic performance, friendships, and identity, young people are navigating increasingly complex emotional challenges. According to the National Mental Health Survey of India, nearly 1 in 7 adolescents aged 13–17 years experience mental health issues, yet fewer than 10% receive adequate support.

It is against this backdrop that Aditya Birla World Academy (ABWA), founded by Mrs. Neerja Birla, hosted The Happy Place, India’s first student-led mental health festival supported by Mpower, bringing together students to explore and express different dimensions of mental health and emotional well-being through creative expression. The Chief Guest at the event, Ms. Mansi Zaveri, Founder, Kidsstoppress, left students with valuable lessons on resilience and perseverance, encouraging them to keep showing up and embrace setbacks as part of the journey. She also introduced students to the ‘Odyssey Plan’, encouraging them to keep a Plan A, B and C in life, so that when setbacks arise, there is always another path forward rather than allowing one setback to bring their journey to a halt. Drawing on the idea of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, she also emphasised the importance of building a strong foundation of well-being and self-awareness, and of living with the belief that life is always rigged in our favour; we just need to show up.

The latest edition, themed ‘The Messy Middle’, recognised that life does not always unfold as imagined and that uncertainty, setbacks, and self-doubt are natural parts of the human experience. Bringing together over 19 schools and engaging over 290 student participants from Grades 7 to 12, the festival used creative and engaging formats including Slam Poetry, AD Film Making, Stand-Up Comedy, Drama and Dance, giving students different platforms to explore and express their experiences of navigating life’s uncertainties. The competitions were judged on their relevance to the theme ‘The Messy Middle’, creativity and originality, and how effectively the entries captured and communicated the emotions, experiences and perspectives associated with navigating life’s uncertainties and setbacks. The festival reached out to over 1,000 students through its wider engagement.

Speaking on the event, Ms. Shalini John, Principal, Aditya Birla World Academy, said, “Mental health education needs to begin early because emotional well-being does not suddenly become relevant in adulthood. The school years are a critical phase when young people navigate significant developmental changes alongside growing academic, social and environmental pressures.

She further added ‘These formative years provide an important opportunity to equip students with preventive coping strategies, help them understand themselves and their emotions, build healthy relationships, and, most importantly, feel safe and confident in seeking help when they need it.

Through The Happy Place, India’s first school mental health festival, we aim to create a safe and supportive space where students can express themselves freely, explore their emotions through creative outlets, and recognise that conversations around mental health are a natural and essential part of growing up.”

At ABWA, mental health is not treated as a once-a-year conversation. It is woven into the everyday learning journey through Minds Matter, a mental health curriculum for students from Grades 1 to 12 that helps build the emotional and social skills needed to navigate life’s challenges.

Over the last eight years, The Happy Place, India’s first student-led mental health festival,  demonstrated how creative expression can make conversations around mental health more open and accessible to young people. By giving students different ways to explore emotions, challenges and perspectives, the festival has helped bring conversations that can often be difficult to articulate into forms that feel authentic, relatable and engaging.

About Aditya Birla World Academy

Aditya Birla World Academy (ABWA) is a leading international school in Mumbai, with a 15-year legacy of nurturing academically accomplished, emotionally resilient and socially conscious young individuals. The school offers the IGCSE, A Levels and IBDP pathways, complemented by a learning environment that places equal emphasis on academic excellence, character, leadership and holistic development. At the heart of ABWA’s approach is PRIME (Personalised Report on Impact, Mindset & Empathy), its proprietary framework that makes students’ growth in character, leadership and emotional intelligence visible and measurable, alongside their academic progress.

Beyond academics, ABWA provides students with opportunities to discover and pursue their interests across competitive sports, performing arts, technology, robotics and other experiential programmes. Through transformative learning, community engagement and real-world experiences, ABWA aims to develop curious thinkers, confident creators and compassionate leaders equipped to make a meaningful impact in a rapidly changing world.

About Mpower

Mpower, an initiative of Aditya Birla Education Trust, is one of South Asia’s largest private mental-health initiatives, with a distinctive focus on mental-health literacy, capacity building, community outreach and access to care. Through its work across awareness, advocacy, prevention, intervention and support, Mpower has touched over 7 million lives to date. Its work spans clinical services, mental-health awareness and outreach programmes, capacity building, and school, workplace and community interventions, with a focus on making mental-health support more accessible and creating greater openness around conversations on mental wellbeing.

Mpowered Voices is Mpower’s platform for lived experiences, creating spaces for individuals to share their personal journeys and perspectives around mental health, while encouraging empathy, reducing stigma and making conversations around mental wellbeing more relatable.