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Social Reform Through Creative Communication: An Interview With Geeta Dharmarajan Pratibha Kelapure Pratibha was born in India and has lived in the Bay area, California, for the past 22 years. She is a software engineer. She retains a child's naivete, curiosity and sense of wonder about the world around her. Kindness is her philosophy in life.

How does creative communication help underprivileged women and help children prosper? These are the women who have never gone to a formal school, the children are the first generation school goers. The children start going to school, but frequently drop out when there is need for workers in the field or the need to the care of the younger siblings. Sustaining the meager income for the family is the focus for these children. How can the social change take place under these circumstances? How does the cycle of poverty and illiteracy break?

This is where Katha organization comes into picture. Katha is a Delhi (India) based, deeply committed nonprofit organization working in the areas of creative communication and social development. Katha has been serving underprivileged women and children for the past 10 years. To help women to increase and realize their income potential, and free the children to attend school, that is the brilliant idea behind the Katha organization. After a survey of the Delhi market, women chose cooking, baking, tailoring, and embroidery and teaching as income generation activities of their choice. Geeta told me, that the women who used to earn Rs. 600-800 per month are now earning Rs. 3000-3500 per month after receiving the vocational training to become skilled workers.

Meet Geeta Dharmarajan, the woman behind Katha. She founded Katha twelve years ago. I had the privilege of talking to her on the phone recently, while she was visiting Austin, TX. It was a delight to speak with her. According to Geeta, Katha evolved from the children's magazine Tamasha! (The Activity Magazine for Spreading Holistic Awareness), which she started. It was initially perceived as a children's magazine on health. Today, Tamasha! is an exciting tool for "liberal education" of children who may not continue into college or have access to many means that will make their learning comprehensive. According to Geeta, "It's difficult to change habits in adults. However mothers in India do listen to their children, especially school-going ones. The child is one of the main and most powerful communicators in the village that is still mostly illiterate. Children need help to break down gender, social and cultural stereotypes. Print communication is still the cheapest way of reaching out to a rural audience."

Literacy and education through the simple regional stories written or translated into 'Saral', (Simple) Hindi, that is the story of the name "Katha" for the organization. Kathashala, a school where more than 1200 children from the Govindpuri slum, and adjoining areas of South Delhi receive day-care, education and vocational training. Katha Vilasam is Katha's story research and resource center. It attempts to span diverse regional narratives and its primary focus is on the short story. KATHA VILASAM strives for an optimum use of resources available in a multilingual country like India, with help from the Katha Catalogue network, which includes more than 4000 members across the country. Katha publications are known for the quality of their translations and production. Katha has instituted several awards to promote the cause of literature. These include the Katha Awards for Creative writing, the Katha Award for Translation, and the Katha Journal Award.

The education at Kathashala is based on the following principles,

• Relevant Education Curricula and syllabi for the various ability groups/ages groups
• Simple but intelligent teaching/learning materials that are fun for the child
• Proper and sustained teacher training; seeing the teacher as the center of community development
• Programs to enhance the participation of the family and the community in the child's future.

Fifty percent of the children in the 7-12 age group, are girls. This is a significant achievement in the rural area, since education of a girl is not a priority in these areas.

Kalpana Vilasam initiates and does research in educational methodology, curriculum development, and child development towards,

• Developing teaching/learning materials for use in nonformal education (NFE)
• Conducting in-service and pre-service training of teachers in NFE.

To keep the first-generation school-goer, interested in reading is a challenging task. Katha texts are in large point size letters; use simple words; fewer words to a page; avoid double column texts, break up large paragraphs into chewable bits, and have attractive layouts, and above all, an excellence in story-telling.

As some of Katha's children enter the institutes of higher learning, Katha is there for them. Universities in Mumbai (SNDT), Bangalore, Shilong, and Jaipur feature Katha Clubs, which adhere to the principles of Katha. Many of the formal schools also feature Katha clubs.

At this writing, Katha has 100 full time employees. Thirty percent of Katha's funding comes from the sales of Katha publications. The remaining funding comes from, Government of India, Local Government, Ford Foundation, British Counsel, and private sponsors.

When I expressed my admiration for her vision and tireless social work, Geeta was quick to point out that Katha has been lucky in gaining support from many important sources, and that it was a group effort.

For further details, visit Katha site - Katha.org