NCERT Solutions Curiosity Chapter 6 Interdisciplinary projects — Exploratory Projects

Whom to look for. The school counsellor, the psychologist or psychiatrist at the district hospital or a Primary Health Centre, the RKSK peer educators and the Adolescent Friendly Health Clinic in your block, an NGO or a helpline that works on youth mental health, a yoga or sports coach, and the local anganwadi worker or ASHA. Take your teacher's permission, go in a group, and carry a notebook.

Sample answer — five questions for the interview:

1. What kinds of mental health problems do you see most often among adolescents in our area, and at what age do they usually begin?
2. What are the early signs that a student is under stress — the signs a friend or teacher can notice?
3. What kind of help do you provide, and how can a student or parent reach you? Is it free and confidential?
4. What can a school do — in the classroom, the playground and the assembly — to support students' mental health?
5. What advice would you give an adolescent who feels low, anxious or alone but is afraid to speak to anyone?

Two more you can add: How does the stigma around mental health affect people coming to you for help? What role do sleep, exercise, screen time and diet play in an adolescent's mental well-being?

How to plan the role play. Five to seven students, about eight minutes, four short scenes. Characters: Sunita (13), her parents, her class teacher, a friend, an ASHA worker or anganwadi worker, and a Child Marriage Prohibition Officer or police officer.

1. Scene 1 — The decision. Relatives persuade Sunita's parents to fix her marriage. Sunita is topping her class and wants to keep studying.
2. Scene 2 — What it costs. Sunita's friend and her teacher list what she stands to lose: school, play, friends and childhood itself.
3. Scene 3 — The health facts. The ASHA worker explains, in simple words, why marriage before 18 harms a girl's health.
4. Scene 4 — The law and the change of mind. The officer explains that child marriage is a punishable offence under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act (legal age 18 for girls, 21 for boys), and mentions Childline 1098. The parents change their decision; Sunita goes back to school.

The points your dialogue must bring out:

• Health of the girl: her body is still growing during adolescence. Early marriage usually means early pregnancy, when the body is not ready — a higher risk of anaemia, malnutrition, complications during pregnancy and childbirth, and a weak, underweight baby.
• Education: school stops, and with it every career the girl might have had.
• Emotional well-being: adult responsibility at 13 or 14, cut off from friends, with no say in her own life — stress, fear and isolation.
• The whole family and society: poverty continues into the next generation; boys married early also lose their studies and childhood.
• What we can do: stay in school, inform a teacher or Childline 1098 if a classmate's marriage is being arranged, and speak up in our own homes.

Planning the camp. Fix the date (21 June or the nearest school day), get permission, choose an open, clean, level place, and ask everyone to bring a mat or a durrie. Start early morning on an empty stomach. Invite a yoga teacher or a trained PT instructor to lead. Put up posters a week before and keep a register of participants.

A 45-minute programme you can follow: