Volunteer for India - Workshop that seeded an organisation of volunteers across India.

Katradi has worked in 30 countries across 5 continents - Ranomafana, Madagascar

Bridging the Gaps (BTG) Youth Camps - Ahmedabad, India

Enabling People with Disabilities Workshop - São Paulo, Brazil

Community-based Conservation Workshop - Spiti Valley, India

Gender equality through Ultimate Frisbee

Lifeskills Development - Yangon Photo Festival, Mynamar

Disc Trail annual program - Northeast India, 2016

Be Shameless Child Sex Abuse module - Sikkim, India

Wind Dancers Trust - Katradi Initiative is a pioneering organisation that uses the arts to ignite powerful social transformation, addressing vital issues including climate collapse, deepening social polarisation, structural injustice and systems under strain.

Through sustained, field-tested practice across India and over 35 countries, Katradi has worked across diverse sectors and landscapes, reaching over one million people through workshops, trainings, immersive camps, facilitated modules and performance-based engagements. These processes are co-created with communities, particularly those that are marginalised, at risk and entrenched in generational injustice, ensuring that lived experience shapes the work itself.

The Katradi Method of empathy-based social transformation is globally recognised for its innovative, practice-based approach that positions the arts not merely as entertainment or cultural programming, but as a rigorous and time-tested methodology for strengthening human connection, amplifying diverse voices, and catalysing meaningful individual and collective action towards deep-rooted social change.

Impact at a Glance

Geographic reach

35
countries across
the world

22
States in India

Systems Engaged:

Environment & Climate
Disaster Response & Humanitarian Aid
Institutional & Civic Engagement
Carceral Systems
Cultural & Traditional Knowledge / Legacy

Total reach across all work

1 Million+
people engaged

Environment & Climate
Disaster Response & Humanitarian Aid
Institutional & Civic Engagement
Carceral Systems
Cultural & Traditional Knowledge / Legacy

Beyond Technical Solutions

Artists are rarely embedded within policy design, institutional reform, or long-term community processes, even though they have a proven capacity to work with generational injustice, conflict and social fragmentation through embodied, human-centred approaches.

Katradi breaks the mould by bringing artists and arts-based approaches into sectors where technical solutions alone are often not enough. This includes health, education, conflict transformation, disaster response, environmental justice, and carceral and containment contexts.

Founded by Sangeeta Isvaran, whose decades-long research and practice span performance, pedagogy and social engagement across global contexts, Katradi draws from South Asian traditional arts to develop structured approaches to social transformation. These performing arts are embodied knowledge systems that have evolved over centuries, offering powerful ways of engaging attention, emotion, imagination and human connection. Katradi leverages these pedagogical strengths to create transformative experiences that nurture empathy, encourage critical reflection, and support collective responses to social challenges.

Pathways of Engagement

Grassroots, community-led initiatives

Engagements across 20+ states in India, including rural, peri-urban, urban, conflict-affected and remote contexts
Formats ranging from one-time workshops to immersion camps and fellowships

Advocacy and awareness

Lorry Lolakku: Mobile Theatre for Social Justice reaching 50,000+ people across 80+ locations
Co-creation of performances with communities on social justice themes, enabling public dialogue and contributing to systemic social change

Capacity building and training

Training programmes for NGOs, institutions, government bodies and civil society organisations
Large-scale cascade training models, in partnership with organisations, reaching diverse stakeholders, enabling outreach to large populations, extending up to a million people

Policy and institutional engagement

Engagement through research, fellowships, conferences and sector dialogues, enabling public dialogue and contributing to systemic social change
Collaboration with government and institutional stakeholders, contributing to curriculum development, programme design and institutional processes

Flagship Initiatives

Alongside its collaborations with partners across sectors and contexts, Katradi has developed a set of flagship initiatives that address critical social and environmental issues through empathy, participation and collective action.

Bridging the Gaps Camps (BTG):

Immersive youth leadership experiences that use the arts, sports, dialogue and shared living to bridge gaps of gender, caste, poverty and more.

She Matters:

A radical leadership initiative that supports grassroots women to recognise violence, reclaim agency and emerge as confident leaders within their communities.

Veeranganai Fellowship:

A transformative fellowship that recognises grassroots women as experts in their own realities and equips them to design and implement community-led responses to the issues they know best.

Lorry Lolakku - Mobile Theatre for Social Justice:

A travelling theatre initiative that uses performances co-created with communities to bring conversations on social justice into public spaces, engaging with issues that are often silenced, stigmatised or misunderstood.

Besharam - Be Shameless:

A groundbreaking initiative that uses arts-based processes to dismantle shame and silence around gender, sex, puberty, consent and relationships, creating much-needed spaces for conversations that are often stigmatised.

Manvāsanai - Earth Activism:

Arts-based environmental initiatives that nurture ecological awareness, strengthen community stewardship and inspire collective action towards more sustainable futures.

Embracing Legacy, Empowering Traditional Arts:

An ongoing commitment to preserving, revitalising and reimagining traditional arts as living knowledge systems that continue to shape identity, community and social transformation.

Who We Are

Katradi's core team is shaped by diverse journeys, perspectives and forms of expertise. Together, they bring creativity, compassion and deep commitment to the work of building more just and connected communities.