Gandhi Fellow Akansha Pandey, originally from Madhya Pradesh and a student of the Science stream, is currently working in Jammu & Kashmir to strengthen socio-emotional learning in schools. One of her most meaningful initiatives has been the creation of an Emotion Tree—a simple but powerful tool that welcomes every child before attendance, before academics, before discipline.

The concept is simple: children pause for a moment each morning, pick a leaf, and place it on the tree to express how they feel.
But the impact has been transformative.
Children who once stayed silent have begun to say:
“Aaj main nervous hoon… tired hoon… hurt feel kar raha/rahi hoon.”
They are naming emotions they experience daily but rarely get space to express.
While Akansha was making the tree, a group of students came forward and said,
“Ma’am, main kuch emotions add karu kya?”

They listed feelings like nervous, tired, weak, apologetic, hurt—reminding her that children carry emotional worlds that often go unseen in the rush of school routines.
This initiative reflects a simple truth:
Children don’t just need academics—they need permission to feel.
When schools make space for emotions, they make space for humans.
Through the Emotion Tree, Akansha is helping create classrooms where children feel heard, safe, and understood—laying the foundation for healthier, happier learning environments.