In the Language We Think, Dream and Belong
Building a Reading Culture in Every Child’s Language
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Speakers
Every child has the right to read stories that are both familiar and new in their own language. This panel discussion brings together three individuals, working at different levels, to make it a reality. The conversation spans creating books, empowering the creators, and building the last-mile infrastructure that brings books into children’s hands. What does it really take to enable all of India’s children to read, and by extension, dream?
This session is part of a two-part event on enabling children to read. The first session, Let’s Fall in Love with Reading, is an interactive storytelling session for children.
In collaboration with:
Speakers
Rohini Nilekani
Rohini Nilekani is an author and philanthropist who has strongly influenced the Indian social sector over three decades. She is Chairperson of Rohini Nilekani Philanthropies and Co-founder and Director of EkStep, a nonprofit education platform; she founded Arghyam, a water and sanitation foundation, and co-founded Pratham Books, a nonprofit children’s publisher. A former journalist, she has written for publications including The Times of India, India Today and Mint. Penguin Books India published her books Stillborn and Uncommon Ground, and she self-published Samaaj, Sarkaar, Bazaar, alongside ninteen children’s books, including the Sringeri Srinivas series.
Nagakarthik M P
Nagakarthik MP founded Sauramandala Foundation, a ground-up problem-solving organisation working with government systems across the Northeastern states. His favourite project is The Forgotten Folklore Project — sixty-six illustrated children’s books in Khasi, Garo, Pnar, and English, created with local authors, illustrators, village elders, and schoolkids from the Khasi, Jaintia, and Garo Hills, capturing living root bridges, forest folklore, local games, and community memory.
Uma Mahadevan Dasgupta
Uma Mahadevan Dasgupta currently serves as Additional Chief Secretary and Development Commissioner in the Government of Karnataka. She has over 34 years’ experience across state and central government sectors, including most recently skill development and livelihoods, rural development and panchayat raj, women and child development, and planning. She has served on Government of India taskforces on service delivery and local governance, and writes regularly on development issues.
Parul Bajaj
Dreaming & building quality educational ecosystems is what keeps Parul going. Making this a reality for all of India’s young requires collective action and facilitating that comes naturally to her. An alumnus of Delhi Institute of Technology and Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, she has worked with social enterprises, civil society organizations and philanthropy foundations to strengthen access and quality of education. She led Parag, a longstanding program of Tata Trusts to bolster the children’s books world through grant making and direct work. She is presently back to her alma-mater IIM Bangalore building institute’s foray into undergraduate education – IIMB-Dorabji Tata School of Undergraduate Studies
