the katha story
Katha is a "profit for all" social charitable organization. It was started in 1988 to enhance the joy of reading and the love of books amongst children and adults.
THE BEGINNING
THE BEGINNING
Katha was started in 1988 by Geeta Dharmarajan, who was our Founding Executive Director till 2014)) with a language, culture and translation initiative called Katha Vilasam, the Story research and Resource Centre.
Today, it is led by Ms Parvinder Kaur, who started off at Katha as a volunteer, in 2000. A dedicated leader and people-person, she leads all programmes at Katha. Geeta continues to lead KADL
THE STORY CENTRE
KATHA VILASAM
We started with the Katha Prize Stories ("A unique and special moment in Indian publishing history," The Economic Times)
And Tamasha!, a Story, Health and Environment magazine for 1st Gen schoolgoing children, from underserved communities of India.
Since 1992, we have built a quality publishing programme with books and ebooks for our children; cross-subsidizing our efforts with a dual pricing -- books in English public=shed for the general child readership in India and abroad.
Katha’s work spans the literacy to literature continuum. We believe that Story is the building block of all knowledge and hence teaching for meaning starts not with the letter or word, but with story. (See Literature to Literacy White Paper)
Archival material. http://www.fictionindia.com/
SOME WHITE PAPERS
SETTING STANDARDS FOR ALTERNATE PUBLISHING |
This speech was delivered at the First National Conference of Alternate Publishers of India. At Bangalore, India. © Geeta Dharmarajan, 1998
ON THE POLITICS OF TRANSLATION, CANONIZATION AND PEDAGOGY
... We have a long way to go. And Katha hopes to follow this important initiative with a national hands-on proactive workshop on canonization. The excitement has started! We invite you to join the adventure in identifying, producing, using and encouraging the use of the tools, resources and skills needed to read/teach/ enjoy Indian literature in translation.
A KIND OF STYLESHEET by Geeta Dharmarajan
(Beware typos:))
AN INTRODUCTION TO ADVAITA VEDANTA by D. Krishna Ayyar
This paper has been prepared during a visit to Denver, U.S.A. by one ( D. Krishna Ayyar) who has been listening for a decade and half to Swami Paramarthananda who is teaching Advaita Vedanta at Chennai, India. Not being equipped with translations of all the original texts and authoritative commentaries required for a good dissertation, he has had to rely mainly on memory aided by very few books available in the Denver Public libray. There may be mistakes or gaps or both on account of the writer’s inadequate grasp and deficient memory.
WHAT WE DO
WHAT WE DO
Since our inception, we have striven to establish a code of excellence in all that we do, to enhance the quality of life in every project we have attempted. Katha means story in most Indian languages. We in Katha use story creatively to extend the frontiers of our work!
Katha works with equal dedication and commitment through well-defined programmes in the areas of education – in the primary to higher education continuum within both the formal and nonformal systems, through Katha Vilasam and Kalpavriksham, our two hubs/Centres, started in 1990. and in publishing – in the literacy-literature spectrum.
THE DESCHOOLING CENTRE
AT THE OTHER END OF OUR QUALITY FOR EVERY CHILD SPECTRUM we seamlessly connect our culture rich content, translated from 21 Indian languages, with our grassroots work in education and urban resurgence.
Katha brings children living in poverty into reading and quality education. Over the past three decades, through its many programmes, Katha has helped over one million children help themselves out of poverty.
Katha has several programmes in place to help reduce poverty across the country. (The 300 Million Citizen's Challenge)
KATHA LAB SCHOOL is our flagship "deschool" that was started in 1990. It has won much recognition for its path-breaking work in the education of children living in underserved communities.
THE KATHA MAGIC LABS. A strong of "model deschools" are being set up in Tamil Nadu, specifically focussed on the education of children from India's most oppressed families and communities -- the Adivasi, Dalit and Muslim families.
KATHA SCHOOL OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP was started in 1995 as a first of its kind programme in our slums. Since 1995, we have trained Children (pre-entrepreneurship to O and A Levels of certification, linked to primary, secondary and higher secondary respectively). For students of all ages; youth from our community; women.
KATHA ENGLISH ACADEMY (KENGA) was started in 2001 taking forward the grand vision of Savitribai Phule, Dr Ambedkar and other visionaries who said that India can break the stranglehold of caste and class, only when the Adivasis and Dalits are comfortable in English.
KATHA INFO TECH & ECOM SCHOOL (KITES) was started in 2001, as an "IIM for children in poverty." Starting with BT, UK, in 2001, KITES, has continued to get the patronage of BT through these years. We have trained Children (pre-IT to O and A Levels of certification, linked to primary, secondary and higher secondary respectively). For students of all ages; youth from our community; women. (See here for more
THE SEARCH FOR EXCELLENCE. We started this initiative in 1990 with the Katha Awards, and we continue this search for excellence with school students (katha.org/sfe-2022/)
KATHA ADIVASI & DALIT LEARNING LABS. Fir the last 70+ years, India has given scant attention or respect to
HOLISTIC LEARNING or PURNA SIKSHA. Katha’s I Love Reading (ILR) Campaign, started in 2004 in 22 slums has now spread its wings to become the tool of choice for the million Citizen's Challenge (2017).
KADL
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KADL is our latest adventure in story, StoryPedagogy and story in education, started off by the Pandemic.
This whole website is about our work with children from the Adivasi, Dalit, and Muslim families and communities living in poverty, in Tamil Nadu's Tiruvallur District. (www.kadl.org)