Richa Gupta, co-founder and CEO of Labhya, leads an India-based education nonprofit that partners with state governments to integrate daily wellbeing classes into the public school system. A former teacher, Gupta was inspired to found Labhya after witnessing the stress and trauma that prevented children in low-income classrooms from learning effectively. The organization now impacts millions of students across India through a program that positions wellbeing as a fundamental part of education rather than an add-on.

Gupta notes that while everyone wants children to be happy and successful, “the ‘how’ is not clear for everyone.” To address this, Labhya continues to work with governments to strengthen evidence, expand reach, and normalize wellbeing as a daily part of learning.

Each day, children in participating states attend a daily wellbeing class, facilitated by public school teachers. The program is localized to each state, and co-created in partnership with teachers who help design contextualized, age-appropriate curricula in their own languages. Gupta explains that the approach builds both learning and emotional resilience: “When children feel less anxious, they tend to learn better.”

Labhya’s work includes:

• Partnering with state governments to make wellbeing classes part of the daily school timetable.
• Training teachers through a cascading model of master trainers to ensure continuity across districts.
• Conducting the world’s largest study on children’s mental health and wellbeing, involving 30,000 children, with J-PAL (an MIT-based research lab) and the government of Tripura state.
• Running a learning lab to test and refine new approaches based on feedback from teachers and students.

The program has impacted 2.4 million children across three states. Early findings show reduced anxiety and stronger agency, particularly among rural girls, as well as improved peer relationships and motivation to stay in school. Teachers report greater empathy and understanding of students’ home lives, which helps them create safer, more engaging classrooms.

Challenges remain in building large-scale evidence and shifting attitudes toward mental health in a context where the term itself is often taboo.