VARANASI : Holistic development of students is one of the core objectives with which the iconic Banaras Hindu University was founded by visionary educationist, freedom fighter, and social reformer Bharat Ratna Mahamana Pt. Madan Mohan Malaviya Ji. A century on, the university continues to strive towards achieving it in order to ensure all round growth of students. In this regard, the Banaras Hindu University has come up with another new initiative in the form of Hostel Counseling Outreach Program. The program launched by the Student Wellness Cell of the varsity is being executed under the overall supervision of Dean of Students Prof. Anupam Kumar Nema. As part of the program, counseling sessions and activities on various themes like mindfulness, dealing with exam stress, self-care and mental health, etc. will be organized in hostels. The program will initially commence with one-to-one personal counseling, thereafter group counseling or sessions shall be planned as per the need. The program has been designed on the suggestion of Vice-Chancellor Prof. Sudhir Kumar Jain to enhance student outreach in terms of counseling facilities. Nityanand Tiwari, Student Counselor, and Commander (Retd.) S Sanyal, Advisor, Student Affairs, will be leading the activities to promote wellness among students. External experts and mentors will also be invited to these activities for the benefit of students. The university has 79 hostels in total, which provide accommodation to over 16000 students. These hostels have been divided into 28 clusters so as to cover all of them in a month and enable maximum number of students to be benefited. Vice-Chancellor Prof. Sudhir Kumar Jain has reiterated that the university must provide avenues for academic, physical, professional, emotional and mental development of students. In this connection, BHU has launched Student Well Being and Student Leadership Development initiatives. Hostel Counseling Outreach Program is another important step in that direction.