The National Education Policy 2020 puts greater emphasis on holistic and multidisciplinary education so as to develop all capacities of individuals. It aims to ensure that students possess critical 21st century capacities in various fields of academics and profession as well as the required soft skills to prepare them for life and career challenges. The policy calls for efforts to be taken by educational institutions to not only make available to students professional academic and career counseling but also ensure their physical, psychological, and emotional well-being.

Striving to achieve the goals of NEP implementation, Banaras Hindu University has made many leaps in that direction. The university has set up dedicated “Student Leadership and Life Skills Development Initiative” and “Student Well-Being Initiative” for its various institutes and faculties in order to realize the student centric vision as envisaged in the historic policy. 

The latest in the series are the Student Well Being and Leadership Initiative committees for the Faculty of Visual Arts, Faculty of Education, Institute of Management, and Faculty of Sanskrit Vidya Dharma Vigyan. The committees set up by Vice-Chancellor Prof. Sudhir Kumar Jain will help students navigate life challenges, resolve psychological concerns, and develop a life-long orientation towards resilience and mental wellness, besides developing strategies and implementing activities to develop soft skills, social skills, and personal and professional skills in the students.

The members of the Student Leadership and Life Skills Development Initiative will engage with students to help them develop activities aimed at achieving their personal and professional goals. They will also liaison with external and internal resource persons, facilitators, or mentors for conducting workshops, talks, and activities on various aspects of leadership, emotional intelligence, resilience, professional skills, life skills, and other key soft skills.

The Student Well-Being Initiative has been mandated to work on strategies and activities to enhance physical and mental health, and overall well-being for students requiring help. It will network with external and internal resource persons for conducting events on various aspects of wellbeing. The committee members will ensure availability to the students when need arises and facilitate their access to various available services at the university level.

Vice-Chancellor Prof. Sudhir Kumar Jain has time and again reiterated that the holistic development of students is the topmost priority of Banaras Hindu University and funds will never be an obstacle in that course. He feels that the students of the varsity should be provided ample opportunities for growing professionally, individually as well as academically. The Vice-Chancellor has also stressed on outdoor and outreach activities involving students and not confining them to classrooms only, so as to train them for social engagement and help them grow as leaders and citizens.

The three member committee on Student Well Being Initiative for the Faculty of Visual Arts is chaired by Dr. Anish Kumar Gupta while the Leadership and Life Skills Development Initiative is headed by Sh. Suresh K. Nair. The committee on Student Well-Being for Faculty of Education is led by Prof. Sanjay Sonkar while Dr. Yogendra Pandey is heading the team for Leadership and Life Skills Development. For the Faculty of SVDV, Prof. Srikrishna Tripathi is the chairman of the Student Well-Being Initiative, whereas Prof. Dhananjay Kumar Pandey is heading the initiative on Leadership and Life Skills Development. Dr. Shashi Srivastava is leading the team on Well-Being initiative for the Institute of Management.

The university had already set up similar initiatives for several other Faculties and Mahila Mahavidyalaya, which have been doing great work since their coming into existence. All the necessary infrastructure and financial aid is being provided for the initiatives. A large number of students have been taking part in the activities and events being organized under the initiatives and have been benefiting immensely. These activities include mentoring lectures, sessions on dealing with mental stress and enhancing mental health, workshops on digital communication skills, developing leadership skills, facing interviews, personality development activities, Yoga, art, performance workshops, interactive sessions with experts and industry leaders etc.