New Delhi, June 20, 2026: Sesame Workshop India Trust brought Chhoti Badi Bhaavnaayein, its emotional wellbeing initiative supported globally by MetLife Foundation, to life through a first-of-its-kind immersive theatre experience designed to help children and caregivers explore empathy, kindness, cooperation, and social connection through interactive storytelling and participation.
Featuring beloved Sesame characters Chamki, Elmo, and Grover, the interactive experience transformed traditional event participation into a journey through stories, emotions, and everyday social situations. Audience members were invited to actively engage with characters and scenarios that demonstrated how children learn emotional and social skills through relationships, play, and shared experiences.
The immersive experience brought together an audience of over 100 participants, including children and their caregivers, representatives from Sesame Workshop India Trust, educators, practitioners, and partner organizations working across the fields of early childhood development, education, and child wellbeing. By convening families, practitioners, and sector leaders within the same interactive environment, the event demonstrated how emotional wellbeing can be nurtured through everyday relationships and shared experiences, encountered situations that encouraged them to understand different perspectives, work together, practice kindness, and navigate everyday challenges collaboratively.
The event marks the next chapter in Sesame Workshop and MetLife Foundation’s ongoing commitment to supporting children’s emotional wellbeing across multiple regions, including India, the United States, Brazil, Mexico, and the Middle East.
Rooted in Sesame Workshop’s evidence-based educational framework, Chhoti Badi Bhaavnaayein focuses on helping young children and the caring adults in their lives develop key social-emotional skills, including perspective-taking, cooperation, kindness, and social problem-solving. The initiative encourages children to pause, notice, and think about the feelings and experiences of others, while also helping caregivers create nurturing environments where emotional growth can flourish.
“Children learn some of life’s most important lessons not through instruction alone, but through everyday moments of connection with family, friends, caregivers, and the world around them. Whether it is taking a moment to understand how someone else feels, showing kindness through a small action, or working together to solve a problem, these experiences help children build empathy, cooperation, and a sense of belonging. Through Chhoti Badi Bhaavnaayein, we want to create opportunities for children and caregivers to pause, notice, and connect with one another in meaningful ways. This immersive experience brings those ideas to life, demonstrating that emotional wellbeing is not a separate part of childhood, it is woven into the relationships and interactions that shape children every day,” said Sonali Khan, Managing Trustee, Sesame Workshop India Trust.
The initiative builds upon Sesame Workshop’ s long-standing mission to help children grow smarter, stronger, and kinder. Through a combination of digital resources, community engagement, caregiver support, and character-led storytelling, Chhoti Badi Bhaavnaayein seeks to make emotional wellbeing approachable, relatable, and actionable for families and educators alike.
As part of the initiative, Sesame Workshop India Trust has also launched a dedicated resource hub featuring caregiver videos and social-emotional learning content. The resources are available in multiple languages and are designed to help children and caregivers continue building empathy, cooperation, emotional expression, and positive relationships beyond the event experience.
By bringing emotional wellbeing into everyday conversations and interactions, Chhoti Badi Bhaavnaayein aims to create more opportunities for children to feel understood, connected, and supported as they navigate the world around them. The immersive theatre experience served as a public celebration of Chhoti Badi Bhaavnaayein, extending the initiative’s emotional wellbeing messaging beyond digital resources and into a shared, lived experience for children, caregivers, educators, partners, and stakeholders.
