‘Avehi’ means to know.
The AVEHI Public Charitable (Educational) Trust was set up in 1981 to promote empowerment through education. It was founded by individuals from various fields, committed to using the potential of audio-visual media to facilitate rational thinking, social awareness, and constructive social change.
The Avehi Resource Centre with a fully functioning library was launched to facilitate community access to relevant media resources, particularly from the alternative media for widening horizons and for promoting values enshrined in our Constitution.
In 1990, Avehi initiated the AVEHI ABACUS PROJECT with the aim of developing a supplementary curriculum for formal schools in order to strengthen the quality and content of education.
Avehi Founding Members:
The AVEHI ABACUS PROJECT has a strong tradition of organization building initiated by persons with unique achievements in their respective fields. The AVEHI founding members came together to actualize their shared vision for a society, as most of them were active during the Indian freedom struggle.
The AVEHI trust was set up by persons of eminence from different fields, having eclectic interests and skill-sets, to further the cause of social transformation through media education. The founding trustees of Avehi were:
- Late Smt. Shanta Gandhi – freedom fighter, noted theatre personality, and educationist, honoured with the Padma Shri for her contribution to theatre and education.
- Late Shri Prasanta Sanyal – freedom fighter, advertising professional, publisher’s editor, and journalist.
- Late Dr. Malvika Chari – medical professional engaged in school health.
- Late Dr. Mani Kamerkar – former Head of the Department of History, University of Bombay.
- Late Advocate Kalyanmal Singhvi – noted legal expert, honoured by the President of India in 1998 for his work with orphaned Adivasi children.
- Late Smt. Anasooya Godiwala – freedom fighter and corporate professional.
- Late Ms. Chandita Mukherjee – documentary filmmaker and media educator, and Director of the Comet Media Foundation, Bombay.
Founding Managing Committee
The Founding Managing Committee of the organization also comprised a group of talented and eminent individuals who were recognized for their contributions in their respective fields. They included:
- Dr. Mulk Raj Anand – writer and social commentator, honoured by the Sahitya Akademi for his pioneering contribution to Indian literature in English.
- Shri N. V. K. Murthy – noted cameraman, freedom fighter, and recipient of the Dadasaheb Phalke Award.
- Dr. Saroj Jha – medical professional who worked with the World Health Organization (WHO).
- Dr. Anjali Monteiro – documentary filmmaker and media educator, who retired as Professor and Dean of the School of Media and Cultural Studies at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.
For more information: www.avehi.org.in
Trustees of Avehi Public Charitable (Educational) Trust
Dr. Lakshmi Lingam
Dr. Lakshmi Lingam has been Chair Professor at the School of Public Health, D. Y. Patil University, Navi Mumbai, since 3 January 2024. She retired from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai, India, on 28 February 2023.
Dr. Lakshmi Lingam is a well-known gender expert, teacher, trainer, researcher, and mentor. She has undertaken several research projects funded by national and international agencies. She serves on the Boards of NGOs and academic institutions. Dr. Lingam has presented research papers at national and international conferences and has published extensively in Indian and international journals.
Ms. Preeti Bhat
Ms. Preeti Bhat has been an Executive Committee member of the Centre for Education and Development (CED) since 2015. CED is involved in research, documentation, and networking on development issues and human rights.
She has worked with women’s organizations, including Annapurna Mahila Mandal and the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), as well as with child rights organizations such as CHILDLINE India Foundation and the Comet Media Foundation. She has also undertaken research, documentation, and evaluation assignments with a number of NGOs, government agencies, and donor organizations as a freelancer, covering the above-mentioned areas as well as disaster response activities.
Dr. Anjali Monteiro
Dr. Anjali Monteiro is a documentary filmmaker, media researcher, and teacher. In collaboration with Dr. K. P. Jayasankar, she has made more than 40 documentary films, which have received 33 national and international awards. She has co-authored the national award-winning book A Fly in the Curry: Independent Documentary Film in India (Sage, 2016).
She retired as Professor and Dean of the School of Media and Cultural Studies at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. She has been visiting faculty at media and design institutions and universities across the world. She has also received a Lifetime Achievement Award for Outstanding Contribution to Film Education from the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, India.
Ms. Simantini Dhuru
Ms. Simantini Dhuru is the Director of the Avehi Abacus Project. She is a documentary filmmaker with several national and international awards to her credit.
She began working with the Avehi Abacus Project in 1990 and has worked with the core team on its three path-breaking curriculum modules. She has played a key role in mainstreaming these modules through their wide implementation in the field and their integration into educational policy.
She has represented the organization as a member and consultant on national and state-level education curriculum and policy-making bodies. She is also a visiting faculty member teaching social science education at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. She has taught at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and has been a guest faculty member at Macalester College, USA.
She has published papers in academic journals and authored a book on Social Science Education, published by Routledge, Taylor & Francis, in 2025.
Dr. K. Subramaniam
Dr. K. Subramaniam is Professor (Retd.) and served as Centre Director from 2016 to 2021 at the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research.
He is a researcher in mathematics education and has published numerous research articles in the field. He has coordinated teacher professional development programmes and has served as a member of curriculum, syllabus, and textbook committees for school mathematics at the national and state levels. He is also a former member of the National Council for Teacher Education.
Dr. Nasreen Fazalbhoy
Dr. Nasreen Fazalbhoy holds a PhD in Sociology from the Department of Sociology, Delhi School of Economics. She was a faculty member of the Unit for Women’s Studies at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences and later at the Department of Sociology, University of Mumbai, from where she retired in 2007.
She taught courses on gender, popular culture, and mass media and has published papers in her areas of expertise in reputed journals.
Since her retirement, she has worked with various NGOs, helping them organize workshops, teaching programmes, and lectures aimed at promoting critical thinking and raising awareness of social issues among students and young people.
Ms. Nayantara Sabavala
Ms. Nayantara Sabavala holds a B.Sc. in Microbiology and Chemistry and transitioned to the development sector in the late 1980s. Following a decade in advertising, where she focused on public service communication, she worked with prominent organizations such as CRY and Concern India.
In 1996, she joined the Tata Trusts, where she spearheaded major strategic plans and led the design of multi-sectoral programmes. A seasoned leader in governance, she has served on the Governing Boards of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) and the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) as a Tata Trusts nominee.
She currently serves as a member of the Centre Advisory Council at the Centre of Excellence in Teacher Education (TISS) and is a member of the Governing Board of PRADAN.