Creating Reader-Leaders With Katha

In November, I traveled to Govindpuri, India to meet with Parvinder Kauer, the executive director of Katha. Katha is a non profit organization based in Delhi who’s work spans the literacy to literature continuum. By seamlessly connecting grassroots work in education and urban resurgence, Katha brings children living in poverty into reading and quality education.

Govindpuri is one of the largest slums in Delhi. The streets are beige and crowded. A layer of fog and pollution hover above the fruit stands, but tucked away in this chaos is a school. In Govindpuri Katha’s school is a retreat. The walls are covered with beautiful drawings and credos that support Katha’s vision – uncommon creativities for a common good. This literary respite is not just a reality in Govindpuri, but now a possibility for anyone with a mobile phone.

Today, we are proud to announce a partnership with Katha. This partnership represents a union of content and distribution with an aligned vision – to create reader-leaders, bring books to all and enhance the joy of reading. We will be digitizing 100 of Katha’s books and bringing them to a wider audience via our mobile clients. Our readers will have access to an array of titles in Hindi and English, which are a part of Katha’s publishing program that bolsters the reading initiative by producing books that create space for culturally distinctive literature that celebrates the multiplicity that is India.

We are thrilled about this partnership and a big thanks to Katha and their president, Geeta, and Worldreader supporters Terry Atkinson and Kathy Taylor for making this possible!

Interested in our library of digital books? Learn more about our Worldreader collection of over 15,500 books.