Katha NGO

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Katha
Industry Publishing, community development, Child welfare, Education.
Founded 1988
Founder(s) Geeta Dharmarajan
Headquarters Delhi, India
Key people Abid Hussain (Chairman)
Products Books
Website Katha

Katha is a registered non-profit and non-governmental organization based in Delhi that works in the field of community development, child welfare, education and literature. It was founded by Geeta Dharmarajan in 1988. It connects grassroots work in education, urban resurgence and story. It calls itself a "profit for all" organisation that moves towards achieving social justice and curb poverty in urban India.[1][2][3][4] It also runs KITES (Katha Information Technology and E-commerce School) a non-conventional school, which providing information and communication skills to 3000 children in slum area of Govindpuri, Delhi.[5]

As a publisher Katha publishes books for children, which include stories from mostly Indian folklore and mythology, translating stories into English and Hindi from 21 regional Indian languages,[6][7] and today is a leading name in translation genre in Indian publishing,[8][9] and has "firmly put translation onto the Indian publishing agenda with the Katha Prize Stories Series"[10]

Mission

Katha's mission is given momentum by a solitary idea that children can bring positive change to their community if they are empowered through education.[11]

Work

Katha has set up around 96 schools in Delhi[12] and works with a large team of volunteer and intellectuals. Many of these schools are in urban slums, where over 7,000 underprivileged children gain access to education.[9]

It executes stories in identity building of the children and believes that there is a need to tell stories from India in order to create a new generation of children that would have a strong sense of rooted-ness to their culture.[13] This is Katha NGO's cultural resistance that is done through its publishing division Katha Books, that has been working in the area of translating Indian Literature since 1989.[14]

In 2001, it formed KITES (Katha Information Technology and E-commerce School) in Govindpuri, New Delhi, a non-conventional school, in a joint initiative with British telecom major British Telecom, providing information and communication skills to 3000 children from the poorest communities.[5][15][16]

In March 2009, Katha which also runs several income generation programs for women, by training skills like cooking, baking, tailoring and teaching at ots various community centres, gave away the `Dilli ki Shaan' (Pride of Delhi) Awards to 15 women community leaders; speaking on the occasion, the Chief Minister of Delhi, Sheila Dikshit said: "I think Katha is doing a better job than even the Delhi Government to bring under-privileged women to the forefront.[2][17][18]

References

  1. ↑ Let Me Know
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Sheila lauds NGO for work on women's uplift TNN, The Times of India, 26 March 2009.
  3. ↑ NGOs: Delhi: Katha Prfile IndiaNGOs.
  4. ↑ NGO Partnership System: Katha Profile Govt. of India website.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Literacy in communities - Slum haven UNESCO.
  6. ↑ Moontime and Mayil Ravana: Young readers and their parents are hungry for homespun stories Archana Venkat, The Hindu, Business Line, Aug 11, 2006.
  7. ↑ Katha Translating India, by Rita Kothari. Foundation Books, 2006. ISBN 8175963050.p. 102.
  8. ↑ Translation as reclamation: It is boom time for translation in India SUBASH JEYAN, The Hindu, Sep 04, 2005.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Gap years in India: discover a land of wondrous variety The Independent, 14 August 2006.
  10. ↑ A niche for Indian writing in France The Hindu, May 20, 2001.
  11. ↑ Early Childhood Development
  12. ↑ Early Childhood Dev elopement
  13. ↑ Katha Vilasam, Story Resource and Research Centre (MS Word File)
  14. ↑ Take Part Now
  15. ↑ Foreign firms give CSR a hearing: British Telecom gives back to Indian society BS Reporter/ New Delhi, Business Standard, September 18, 2007.
  16. ↑ How KITE changed these children's lives Rediff.com, October 08, 2005.
  17. ↑ Slum women add colour to Dilli ki Shaan Suraj Anand / CNN-IBN, Mar 26, 2009.
  18. ↑ Slum women spread wings Ananya Panda, Tribune News Service, The Tribune, March 9, 2009.

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