Sujata Khandekar

Dr. Sujata Khandekar is one of the co-founders of the Committee of Resource Organizations for Literacy, now known as CORO India. When founded in 1989, CORO's initial purpose was to promote adult literacy in Mumbai's urban low-income communities. The founder's vision, which was influenced by feminisms, Freirean ideas of critical consciousness, and participatory values, was to evolve the organization that had been led by outsiders to an organization led completely by the marginalized grassroots community members that it was initially serving.

As the founding director of CORO, Sujata was actually trained initially as a professional engineer. She earned a Master of Arts in Gender, Education and International Development from the University of London, and she engaged eight co-researchers in a Feminist Cooperative Inquiry Project that was part of her PhD work. She was a fellow in the MacArthur Foundation, India Leadership Development Program.

Interview:
Vora, Rachita and Shreya Adhikari. (December 2021). Learning from the grassroots: Sujata Khandekar. India Development Review (IDR) https://idronline.org/article/ecosystem-development/womens-empowerment-grassroots-knowledge-and-social-change/

Bradbury, Hilary. Welcoming Sujata Khandekar, Founding Director, CORO to AR+
https://actionresearchplus.com/welcoming-sujata-khandekar-founding-director-coro-to-ar/

Select Publications

Khandekar, Sujata. (2001). Women's Movement emerging out of literacy campaign in a Mumbai slum: Analysis of actions and reactions. Doctoral dissertation.

Khandekar, Sujata. (2004). 12' Literacy brought us to the forefront - Literacy and empowering processes for Dalit community women in a Mumbai slum. Women, Literacy, and Development: Alternative Perspectives 1: 206.

Khandekar, Sujata, Mahendra Rokade, Vilas Sarmalkar, R. Verma, Vaishali Mahendra, and Julie Pulerwitz. (2008). Engaging the community to promote gender equity among young men: Experiences from ‘Yari Dosti’in Mumbai." Gender equality, HIV, and AIDS: a challenge for the education sector: 184-201.

Khandekar, Sujata, Vinaya Ghewde, Anita Kamble, Anwari Khan, Pallavi Palav, Dwarka Pawar, Sheela Pawar, Mumtaz Shaikh, and Lakshmi Lingam. (2020). Feminist cooperative inquiry: Grassroots women define and deepen empowerment through dialogue. Action Research, 0(0): 1-21. 1476750320960807.

Khandekar, Sujata. (2021). Paulo Freirean Ideas at the grassroots: From problem posing education to critical consciousness." The International Journal of Community and Social Development 3, no. 1: 30-44.