Geeta Dharmarajan

Dharmarajan was born Geeta Krishnaswamy on 19 September 1948 in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Her father, N. Krishnaswamy, was a doctor and allergist and her mother, Kalyani Krishnaswamy, composed Carnatic music. She learned Bharatanatyam and Carnatic music from the age of seven, attended Holy Angels' High School and read English literature at Stella Maris College.

Dharmarajan began her editorial career on the children's magazine Target, published by the India Today group, and later worked on The Pennsylvania Gazette at the University of Pennsylvania. She also worked with the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage before founding Katha.

She started Katha in 1988 with a magazine of stories for children from poor communities; the organisation was registered in Delhi in 1989. In 1990 she opened the Katha Lab School with five children in the Govindpuri slum of Delhi. Katha's programmes came to include the Katha Lab School, the Slum Resurgence Initiative, the Katha English Academy, the Katha School of Entrepreneurship and the I Love Reading campaign, and the organisation says it has worked with more than a million children.

As editor-in-chief of Katha Books she has published translated fiction from more than 300 Indian writers working in 21 Indian languages, and she has argued that translation acts as a cohesive force in India. She has written more than thirty children's books and published over 450 pieces in newspapers and magazines. She has also served as honorary chairperson of the National Bal Bhavan in Delhi.

Dharmarajan received the Stockholm Challenge award in 2001, was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India in 2012 for her contribution to literature and education, and received the Millennium Alliance Innovator Award in 2013. Katha has received the ICICI India Inclusive Award in 2012 and was North India winner of the India NGO Awards in 2009, and was nominated for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award in 2011 and in several subsequent years.[2][3][4]