WorldBeing Launches New Five-Year Initiative to Transform Youth Wellbeing in India

BALTIMORE - June 17, 2025—WorldBeing today announced the launch of InLight India, a groundbreaking five-year systems change initiative designed to make mental health and wellbeing a guaranteed component of youth education across India. Built in deep partnership with state and national education systems, the program is poised to directly impact more than 30 million students by 2030.

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“This initiative is about transforming the future for India’s youth,” said Nandita Bhatla, WorldBeing’s Vice President and Country Director in India. “Mental and emotional wellbeing are fundamental to learning and thriving, yet they’ve long been left out of the education system. InLight India will change that.”

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Over the course of five years, InLight India will train 150,000 teachers and embed mental, emotional, and social wellbeing programming into the curriculum of 30,000 government schools. Its broader vision is even more ambitious: to lay the foundation for sustainable, nationwide wellbeing integration that reaches 45 million upper primary students annually.

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“Despite great progress in education, healthcare, and gender equity, many of India’s young people—especially girls, those in rural areas, and those from marginalized communities—continue to struggle to thrive,” said Steve Leventhal, CEO of WorldBeing. “This initiative is about changing that reality at scale.”

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A Three-Pronged Approach to Systems Change

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Led by WorldBeing’s India-registered subsidiary, WorldBeing India Foundation, the InLight India initiative will pursue three key strategies:

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● Wellbeing Champion States: WorldBeing is partnering with five ‘champion’ states to model state-wide integration of mental health and wellbeing programs. The initiative will support state governments in embedding wellbeing into policies, teacher education colleges, classroom materials, and monitoring frameworks. Early partners include the Education Department, Bihar; the Department of Education, Meghalaya; the Office of the Development Commissioner, Meghalaya; the State Council of Educational Research and Training, Assam; and the Tribal Welfare Commissioner Office, Jharkhand. Additional states are in advanced discussions to join the initiative.

● Quality Wellbeing Programming: A robust, evidence-based wellbeing curriculum aligned with India’s National Curriculum Framework will guide student programming. This framework offers states a clear and scalable roadmap to foster youth mental and emotional development in classrooms nationwide.

● National and State-Level Advocacy: To ensure sustainability and scale, WorldBeing will convene state and national policymakers through dedicated advocacy platforms, including workshops and forums. These efforts aim to embed adolescent wellbeing as a priority in India’s education policies and programs.

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Building a Winning Coalition

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Backed by catalytic support from the Co-Impact Gender Equity Fund, ICONIQ Impact, and Echidna Giving, WorldBeing is actively building a coalition of governments, think tanks, NGOs, academic institutions, and funders to amplify the initiative’s reach.

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“We see InLight India as a bold, transformative effort, and one that cannot be achieved alone,” said Leventhal. “We invite new partners to join us through strategic guidance, collaborative implementation, and additional catalytic funding .”

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A Model for the World

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India has one of the largest adolescent populations in the world. With the potential to reach millions, InLight India provides a scalable blueprint for embedding wellbeing into education systems across India and offers a model that other countries can adapt as they work to support youth mental health through schools.