Connecting grassroots work with children
Geeta Dharmarajan is a writer, social entrepreneur, and educationist. An award-winning writer for children and adults, she has over 30 years of professional experience having served at the India Today Group of Companies, The University of Pennsylvania and INTACH, before Katha. Her deep interest in how children and communities learn led to her starting Katha in 1988. Her sense of organizational design and pro-poor innovations are the driving force at Katha, and she has to her credit the creation of, inter alia, Katha’s unique story pedagogy and earth-friendly curriculum that help make children families into leaders. She believes that translation is a counter-divisive force in India and has made Katha a respected name in literary translation.
She is honorary Chairperson of the National Bal Bhavan, Jawaharlal Nehru’s dream institution for children in India, across social and economic divides.
Geeta started Katha, a “profit for all” social organisation and has headed it since 1988. Katha is a unique model that seamlessly connects grassroots work with children living in underserved communities with books and reading for joy. Since 1990, she has driven Katha’s education model on a single powerful idea: Children can bring real, sustainable change to their communities and families when they have access to quality books and learning. The driving force behind Katha, she created StoryPedagogy that is an Active Story Based Learning for children and women who are from non-literate families. Katha’s work in publishing has won much admiration. Geeta was awarded the Padma Shri in 2012, the fourth highest recognition in India, for her work in literature and education. She was awarded as the Innovator of ‘I Love Reading’ by The Millennium Alliance, set up by the United States Agency for International Development(USAID) and the Government of India.