Overview
- The Health Department, which opened the draft for public comment Wednesday, set an April 15 deadline for feedback from students, parents, and the wider public.
- The proposal directs each school to set its own digital-use rules with a recommended cap of one hour a day for recreational screen time and clear steps for cyber misconduct and access to counseling.
- The framework integrates digital wellness into life skills and ICT classes and calls for teacher training to spot early signs of digital distress.
- Schools would create Digital Wellness Committees, build monitoring systems to track digital distress, and link referrals to Tele-MANAS, a government mental-health helpline.
- Officials cite research that about one in four adolescents show problematic internet use, and the draft developed with NIMHANS remains a proposal as the state also weighs a separate idea to limit social media access for under‑16s.