Ten Talks Launch - Meet the panellists!

We are launching the Ten Talks series on 30 March 2012 with a panel discussion about 'emotional safety' in schools. The question for discussion would be "Do Schools Care ?" This is in line with our continuing and deepening interest in the need to nurture the affective domain in schools. We have piloted a whole-school intervention called Safe and Sensitive Schools, with the support from Wipro Applying Thoughts in Schools. It was a 2 and a half year project, across 11 schools in Bangalore, with the main objective of 'making schools gentler spaces'. This and in the light of the recent incidents of violence on students by teachers and vice-versa in the school context, we 'kick start' Ten Talks on with "Do Schools Care ?"

We would like to introduce the panellists:

Dr. Shekhar Seshadri


Dr. Shekhar Seshadri is a graduate of Maulana Azad Medical College,Delhi and a post-graduate in Psychiatry from NIMHANS,Bangalore. He is the recipient of the DLN Murthy Rao Medal for maximum marks in DPM and the NIMHANS Silver Jubilee Medal for best outgoing student in MD. He is currently  Professor, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore. Besides working with child and adolescent mental health including developmental disabilities, he is actively involved in working with areas of gender, sexualities, masculinities, violence/trauma and abuse, children in difficult circumstances, juvenile justice, experiential methodologies, school programmes/teacher training in life skills education, school mental health programmes, forum theatre and qualitative research.

Ms. Hansa Vithani


Vithani was brought up with the idea of being a house wife, with a career and a profession no where in the horizon, though her mother was herself a teacher. She started her teaching career as a substitute teacher for 2 months, and then continued in the profession by teaching  for 5 years in Loreto House, Calcutta and 3 years in Notredame Academy, Patna. She started the Vidya Niketan School as a Nursery  school in 1981 with just a handful of children, with a dream of having at least 25 – 30 children. She believes she was destined to be working in the education space, and is extremely thankful for it. Mrs. Vithani also believes that “we need to teach with love and work with Joy and with zero irritation to parents”. The focus of their school vision is  co-operation over competition.

Ms. Geeta Viswanathan


Geeta has been a teacher with Sishu Griha for the past 16 years, prior to which she was working as a dietician in Chennai for about 9 years, and before that taught at an Arts and Science college in Coimbatore. She has undergone the 2-day training in Whole School Quality Circle Time, conducted by The Teacher Foundation, and has been an active and involved participant in the Safe and Sensitive Schools project at her school. She was recognised as a Distinguished Wipro Applying Thought Teacher in 2002, for using creative strategies in the classroom and was also awarded the All India First Prize for Science in the Question Making Competition 2004, conducted for teachers by Educational Initiatives.

Dr. Radha Ramaswamy


Radha has over 25 years of English teaching experience at the undergraduate and post graduate level across cities like Mumbai, Bangalore, and Pune, and also the UK, to students of different nationalities, language competencies and ages ranging from 16-60 years. She has done over 15 years of theatre research, with special focus on contemporary Indian theatre in English, which was also the topic for her PhD in English. She has also behind her 8 years of voluntary work, followed by 2 years of full time consultancy, with rights-based, not-for-profit organizations, in the area of designing and facilitating research projects and out reach programs. About a year back Radha founded the Centre for Community Dialogue and Change, an organisation dedicated to the promotion of Theatre of the Oppressed in India, particularly in the field of education, and is currently a full time practitioner of Theatre of the Oppressed.

Click here to read the precursor to the panel discussion