Take care of your mental health in troubled times

Tarunima, Class XI, DC Montessori School, Manimajra

Stress has become a part of students’ academic life due to the various expectations from them. Adolescents are particularly vulnerable to the problems associated with academic stress as transitions occur at an individual as well as on a social level.

 Elementary schools, middle school, high school and college students across the country had to switch from face-to-face classes to all online in a blink of an eye because of the coronavirus outbreak. This coupled with the restrictions on omvement and lack of peer connect made things tough for youngsters. Mental health of the students is the topic of interest throughout the country.

The entire performance of a student depends on his mental health. Disturbance in the mental well being not only has a negative impact on a particular student, but also has serious impact on the community, as today’s student is the future of the country contributing to its development by serving various roles like teacher, engineers, doctors, etc.

Hence, the mental health of the students can not be ignored at any cost.

Till date there is no proven treatment to manage Covid pandemic. As the rate of spread is increasing day by day, the scare and fear regarding the disease is causing stress in youngsters. Moreover, no immediate end to the lockdowns is in sight and educational institutions are likely to remain closed for a few more months. This adds to the stress of students as they might end up losing a year. Many of educational institutes have launched online classes; but adapting to the new normal is not easy. This is true especially in case of the slow learners.

Here are a few tips on how to manage stress.

 Throttle your media consumption

Constantly tuning into the news increases stress and often draws attention to things that you have little control over. So keep your media exposure under check.

Go outside

Every time being around four walls sounds so boring. Go outside your house enjoy the nature, play with animals but be sure to follow all the social distancing guidelines. Take proper precautions, wear masks and gloves and you will be safe.

Stay active 

Physical activity can help relieve stress. Even short walks can help.

 Stay connected with people

Don’t isolate yourself from other people completely. The fear of spreading the disease may have stopped the people from connecting socially, but maintaining relationships gives you support and help to combat anxiety.

 In conclusion, to overcome the challenges created by this pandemic, what we need is our mental health. So let’s take good care of it.

Make In India-Success and Challenges

Keshav Devgan, Class VIII, Shivalik Public School, Sector 41, Chandigarh

India is the one of the largest economies and second most populated country in the world. Unemployment, illiteracy and poverty are the main problems here. In order to solve these people in India need more employment opportunities. ‘Make in India’ is one such initiative taken by the government to attract foreign investment for manufacturing goods in India.

The initiative will lead to creation of employment and help in eradication of poverty as well as tackling brain drain. It will also make the nation self-dependent. To achieve the goal of ‘Make in India’, a number of steps have already been taken to create a friendly environment for investment, development of modern and efficient infrastructure and opening up of new sectors for foreign investment. Rules and procedures are being simplified, single window clearance has been created to guide the investors and improve the ease of doing business in the country. Besides these, other initiatives have a crucial link with other initiatives like skill India development, startup India, digital India, etc.

Success story: The campaign has already made a considerable success as in automobile sector, ISUZU Motors, Suzuki Motors, Mercedes Benz and many others have inaugurated their manufacturing units in India. Further, various products manufactured in India like HAL Tejas Light combat aircraft by sourcing 95 per cent of the resources locally. Defence equipment is being exported to other countries. Further, a number of mobile manufacturing units have also been set up which have created huge employment.  India has jumped 23 ranks in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Index 2018 to 77 among 190 countries surveyed, making it the only country to rank among the top 10 improvers for the second consecutive year.

Challenges: Despite considerable success in many sectors, still there remain challenges which thwart the ‘Make in India’ campaign. Firstly, it is red-tapism which leads to corruption. Inadequacy of skills in workers is another hindrance in achieving the goals. Further, the complicated labour regulation also affects smooth working of manufacturing units. Power outages and electricity cost are much higher in India than in other countries. Further, the size of the industrial units is too small to attain economies of scale, investing in modern equipment and developing supply chains.

 Conclusion: Hence, India should make administrative machinery effective to combat red-tapism and corruption. A healthy business can be executed if India is able to create better procedural management and able to provide easier approval of projects. Further, more importance should be given to research and development in various sectors to compete with other countries and transform the nation into a manufacturing giant thereby improving its economy.