Kirthi Jayakumar, the founder of ‘The Red Elephant Foundation’, is an Indian women’s rights activist, a social entrepreneur, a peace activist, lawyer, writer and an artist. The Foundation was an initiative that was built on storytelling, peace building and gender equality.
She has addressed the audience at several reputed platforms like TEDx in Chennai and National Edu start-up conference in Pune, on how Peace Education could be a sustainable solution to creating well rounded citizens and to put an end to bullying. Kirthi has also spoken in great lengths about being a social entrepreneur in the Gender Equality Space and about the myths and realities surrounding Women empowerment.
Kirthi is the recipient of the US Presidential Services Medal (2012) for her services as a volunteer to Delta Women NGO, from President Barack Obama. She is the two-time recipient of the UN Online Volunteer of the Year Award (2012, 2013). Her work has been published in The Guardian and the TIME Magazine. She was recognized by EuropeAid on the "200 Women in the World of Development Wall of Fame in 2016." She received the Digital Women Award for Social Impact in 2017, from SheThePeople, Person of the Year Award, 2017 (Brew Magazine) and the Yuva Samman in 2018 (MOP Vaishnav College).
The Doodler of Dimashq, The Dove’s Lament, and the Stories of Hope are some of her most recently published fiction work. She has also ventured into Non-Fiction with works like Public International Law and Essays on Gender in Peace and Conflict. In addition, Kirthi has developed several theories that apply to different facets of the society, as a whole. For instance, the version of the ‘Bechdel test’ to evaluate Indian Cinema, built on the value of intersectionality in gender equality requires a series of questions to be asked and answered, for a fiction to be accepted as a piece of work that is not discriminatory.
Declared as one of the "eleven of India's feminist bloggers who are making a difference to women's lives", it is safe to say that the young and tenacious Kirthi Jayakumar is going places.
Blog By Sunandini N
