With the much-dreaded Board examinations less than a month away, both students as well as their parents are in for some stressful and anxious times. With sleepless nights becoming the order of the day, sometimes the stress and the pressure become too severe, causing students to take some harmful steps.

To take care of this problem, a pre-exam help line - ‘Disha’ – has being making efforts to help students cope with this pressure. Now in its ninth year, ‘Disha’ became functional this year on February 1 and will be available till March 2. Students and parents can ring up 65978181 from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day for free and confidential counseling services.

Trained persons will help the distressed students through telephonic and face-to-face counseling. The counselors work under the supervision of the Institute of Child and Adolescent Mental Health and Behavioral Sciences director Deepak Gupta and other psychologists.

An initiative of "Snehi", a non-profit, voluntary organization focusing on the mental health needs of the community, Disha attended 1,345 calls last year of which over 1000 callers were psychologically distressed and emotionally disturbed.