Bharati Dasgupta

Co-founder

Co-founder of Catalysts for Social Action

Bharati Dasgupta is the co-founder of Catalysts for Social Action [1], an Indian non-profit working on orphans & child care, women & children, education and livelihood from Mumbai.

Bharati Dasgupta is an Indian social entrepreneur and a co-founder of Catalysts for Social Action (CSA), an organisation working with children in institutional care in India.

She led CSA for a decade as its managing trustee and remains associated with it as a trustee and adviser.

Career

Dasgupta's background is in English literature and in organisation and methods, and her career spans both academia and the corporate sector. She worked in Executive Management Services at the Indian Banks' Association, leaving in 1987.

In 2002 she co-founded Catalysts for Social Action with Vipul Jain and Shibani Jain. The organisation works with children in need of care and protection, supporting child care institutions, promoting adoption and providing aftercare for young people leaving institutions. It operates across several Indian states and works with a network of child care institutions.

Dasgupta led CSA for ten years and stepped down as managing trustee in 2012, continuing as a trustee, adviser and mentor. She has contributed to the organisation's research on institutional care and deinstitutionalisation.[2][3][4]

Catalysts for Social Action

Catalysts for Social Action (CSA) partners with government-recognised child care institutions across several Indian states to improve care standards, education, health and nutrition for children living in them. It also runs an aftercare programme supporting young adults who leave institutional care, and works on family-based alternative care and adoption advocacy. CSA publishes annual reports and financial statements going back to 2012-13.

Catalysts for Social Action reports the following, on its own site:

CSA reports 16,000+ children supported and 156 partner child care institutions impacted.
CSA reports 2,900+ young adults enrolled into its aftercare programme.
CSA reports 1,300+ young adults successfully placed in jobs through its aftercare programme.