‘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 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 of equality, social justice, gender sensitivity, and secularism.
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 are Lt. Smt Shanta Gandhi (freedom fighter, noted theater person and educationist honoured with Padma Shree for her contribution to theatre and education), Shri. Prasanta Sanyal (freedom fighter, advertising professional, publisher’s editor, journalist), Dr. Malvika Chari (medical professional engaged in school health), Dr. Mani Kamerkar (Former Head of History Department, Bombay University), Advocate Kalyanmal Singhvi (noted legal expert awarded by the President of India in 1998 for his work with orphaned Adivasi children), Smt. Anasooya Godiwala (freedom fighter and corporate professional), Ms. Chandita Mukherjee (documentary film-maker and media educator, Director of the Comet Media Foundation, Bombay.)
The Founding Managing Committee of the organization also consisted of a group of talented and eminent persons, recognized for their contributions in their respective fields - Dr. Mulk Raj Anand (writer and social commentator; honored by the Sahitya Academy for his pioneering contribution to Indian literature in English) Shri. N.V.K. Murthy (noted cameraman, freedom fighter, Dadasaheb Phalke Awardee), Dr. Saroj Jha (medical professional, who has worked with WHO), Dr. Anjali Monteiro (documentary film-maker and media educator, currently 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
Chair Professor, School of Public Health, D Y Patil University, Navi Mumbai, since 3 Jan 2024.
Retired from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, India, on 28th February 2023.
Dr. Lakshmi Lingam is a well-known gender expert, teacher, trainer, researcher and mentor. She has carried out several research projects funded by international and national agencies. She is on the Boards of NGOs and academic institutions. Dr. Lakshmi presented research papers at conferences and published extensively in Indian and international journals.
Ms. Preeti Bhat
Executive Committee member of Centre for Education and Development since 2015, CED is involved in research, documentation and networking on development issues and human rights.
Worked with women’s groups (Annapurna Mahila Mandal, Self Employed Women’s association) and Child rights (CHILDLINE India Foundation) and Comet Media Foundation. She has also been involved in research documentation and evaluation work with a number of NGOs, government and donor agencies as a freelancer in the above issues as well as disaster response activities.
Dr. Ms. Anjali Monteiro
Dr. Anjali Monteiro is a documentary filmmaker, media researcher and teacher. Jointly with Dr. K.P. Jayasankar, she has made over 40 documentary films, winning thirty-three 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 from the School of Media and Cultural Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. She has been visiting faculty at media and design institutions and universities across the world and received a Lifetime Achievement Award for Outstanding Contribution to Film Education, from the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, India. More about her work at www.monteiro-jayasankar.com.
Ms. Simantini Dhuru
Director of Avehi Abacus Project. Documentary film-maker with national and international awards to credit. She began working with the Avehi Abacus Project in 1990, has worked on the three path-breaking curriculum modules with the core-team and has given direction to the mainstreaming of the modules through wide implementation in the field, and through integration in policy. She has represented the organisation as member-consultant on National and State education curriculum and policy-making bodies. She is also a visiting faculty teaching social science education at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai; has taught at the Michigan University, Ann Arbor, and as a guest faculty at Macalester College, USA. She has published papers in academic journals and a book on Social Science Education by Routledge, Taylor and Francis, (2025).
Dr. K Subramaniam
Professor (Retd.), Centre Director (2016-2021), Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research; Researcher in mathematics education with many research articles published; Coordinator for Teacher Professional Development programmes; Member of Curriculum, Syllabus and Textbook committees in school mathematics at National and State level; Former member of National Council of Teacher Education.
Dr. Nasreen Fazalbhoy
Dr. Fazalbhoy has a PhD in Sociology from the Dept of Sociology, Delhi School of Economics. She was a faculty member of the Unit for Women’s Studies 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, on the sociology of religion, and on popular culture and mass media. She has published papers on topics connected to gender and on Muslims in India, with specific focus on rituals, law, inheritance. Since her retirement she has worked with different NGOs helping them organise workshops, teaching programmes, lectures, with the idea of promoting critical thinking and raising awareness of social issues among students and young people.
Ms. Nayantara Sabavala
Ms. Sabavala holds a B.Sc. in Microbiology and Chemistry and transitioned to the development sector in the late 1980s. Following a decade in advertising 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 programs. A seasoned leader in governance, she has served on the Governing Boards of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) and the NCPA as a Tata Trusts nominee. She currently serves as a member of the Center Advisory Council at the Center of Excellence in Teacher Education (TISS) and is a member of the Governing Board at PRADAN.