Chennai, November 14, 2026: The NextGen Forum, India’s first co-created conclave on youth safety and wellbeing, concluded in Chennai after two days (November 13-14) of conversations designed to bridge the generational divide. Over 200 students aged 11 to 17 from more than 20 schools took part, alongside 25+ experts and a wider audience of parents, educators, counsellors, mental health professionals, legal and law enforcement representatives, policymakers, youth advocates and young achievers.
The insights from the forum will feed into India’s first co-created White Paper on Youth Safety & Wellbeing, to be compiled by The Kindness Foundation. It will combine young people’s perspectives with the expertise of practitioners across 15 sectors, organised around five key pillars.
Ahead of the conclave, participating schools had the opportunity to run pre-conclave activities that encouraged students to reflect on safety and wellbeing in their own way. These included essay writing, film, “This Is My World” photography and safety poster-making, judged respectively by Dr. Namita Jacob, Shalini Ajith Kumar, Srivatsan Sankaran and Dr. Shekhar Seshadri.
The first day belonged entirely to students. At the NextGen Lab, they explored their feelings and strengths through art, clay modelling, mood cards and group activities. A Digital Safety session covered emerging cyber risks, phishing and the importance of two-factor authentication. In the Student Town Hall and Open Mic sessions, participants spoke candidly about what matters to them: personal privacy, freedom from stereotypes, and greater trust and independence from the adults in their lives. Young competitive sailor Shreya Krishna also spoke about balancing the demands of elite sport with the pressures of teenage life.
The second day brought around 250 participants together to examine the challenges young people face and the practical steps that can address them. Rather than relying on conventional speeches, the programme used interactive formats and real-life scenarios.
Case Files: The Missed Signal, a moderated mock tribunal explored how warning signs in a young person’s life so often go unnoticed. The panel featured Justice Prabha Sridevan, Dr. Saranya Jaikumar, Dr. Zirak Marker, Sankarraj Subramanian, Sunil Kumar, SBS Raman and Yash Chokhani.
Blind Spot, moderated by Ashwath Bharath with Ratheesh Krishnan, Antara Sarkar as well as Kaamya Karthikeyan , who is the youngest in the world to complete the 7 summits challenge, looked at youth interventions that work and the barriers to scaling them.
Other sessions went deeper into individual themes. In the Spotlight session Who Gets to Decide What’s Best for a Child? Dr. Saranya Jaikumar challenged assumptions about adult-youth relationships. Sunil Kumar, IPS (Retd.), spoke on the early behavioural signs of substance misuse and the opportunities for timely intervention. Actress Ekavali Khanna read ‘Unsent Letters’, a paired-reading session on what parents and children never say to each other. A fireside chat, “I’m Fine”: Listening for What Hasn’t Been Said, focused on hearing young people’s unspoken concerns.
The two-day conclave concluded with a keynote address by Dr. Shriram Nene titled “Before They Become Patients: Why Wellbeing Must Begin Young”. Drawing on his experience as a healthcare innovator and his recently launched book, 21 Days to Good Health, he emphasised preventive healthcare, emotional wellbeing and healthy habits from an early age, reinforcing the need to make prevention and everyday wellbeing central to nurturing the next generation. The session was moderated by acclaimed journalist Vasanthi Hariprakash.
The forum was led by Antara Pandit and Shefali Khatri who are closely involved in bringing this conclave together reinforcing the forum’s key themes and calls to action. Opening the forum, Mahima Poddar, Founder of The Kindness Foundation, said the event was built around meaningful conversation rather than a series of speeches. “The NextGen Forum aims to bridge the generational divide by bringing young people and adult changemakers together to discuss the challenges of growing up today,” she said and added, “The event is only the beginning. The insights and recommendations emerging from these discussions will feed into India’s first co-created White Paper on Youth Safety & Wellbeing