Ms. Shanta Gandhi contributed immensely to the formation of IWSA with the other eleven members. Ms. Gandhi was the sister of Ms. Dina Pathak, a popular actor.

She completed BSc., T.D.  A.D.B. (London) and was the Director, Bal Bhavan, New Delhi.  Ms. Shanta Gandhi was a stage actor, writer, and dancer. She was born in Amreli, a tribal part of Gujarat.  She explored ways of teaching children through music, theatre, dance, and story-telling. She did research at the B.M. Institute of Child Psychology and Development at Ahmedabad.  She pioneered the use of folk theatre forms and wrote several plays drawing on folk theatre. She developed her work on street theatre producing Mukhada Dekho Darpan Mein (See your face in the mirror).  In the late 1950s she became Professor of Ancient Indian Drama at the National School of Drama and helped to set up the Asian Theatre Institute Her specialization was in Folk theatre and research on ancient Indian drama.  Ms. Gandhi then became Director of Bal Bhavan and the National Children’s Museum, New Delhi. She was also a founder member, Central Ballet Group, I.P.T.A.  She received Soviet land Nehru award for literature. She was awarded the Padma Shri in 1984 and the Sangeet Natak Academy Award in 2001.

Ms. Gandhi contributed immensely to the formation of the Indian Women Scientists’ Association along with the other eleven founder members and actively supported its development over the years from the very beginning.