Mental Health World Conference 2026

Abstract

Youth mental health is a significant public health concern in India, where rising stress, anxiety, loneliness, academic pressure, digital dependency, and suicidal behaviour among young people coexist with deep-rooted stigma around emotional struggles. Suicide remains one of the leading causes of death among Indian youth, yet stigma and limited opportunities for open conversation continue to prevent many young people from seeking help at the right time. As India grapples with how to scale youth mental health support across a vast and diverse population, community based, culturally grounded, and youth friendly interventions offer a critical and replicable approach to creating safe spaces for dialogue and early support. Unfiltered was conceptualized to help young people move beyond the filtered, curated personas commonly projected on social media to appear likeable, creating instead a space for honest selfexpression, reduced stigma, and open conversations about mental health. Designed and implemented by Lets Live, a youth suicide prevention and mental health promotion organization based in Kerala, India, the initiative offers a grassroots Indian model that combines a non clinical, peer driven approach with structured institutional engagement, addressing both individual wellbeing and the systemic stigma that surrounds mental health across Indian educational settings.