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Founder and Chairperson
Suman S. Aggarwal
Influenced by Swami Vivekananda from very young age, Suman worked for the betterment of the underprivileged and marginalized sections of the society during her two consecutive terms as President of the Rotaract Club (a part of Rotary International) in her college.
During her three decades in Public Service Broadcasting as a Producer, RJ, Anchor and Commentator, Suman never felt fully satisfied by whatever little value she was allowed to create in All India Radio & Doordarshan. She did experience exponential growth as a media professional, but her inner-core constantly urged her to strive for value-creation in the society.
It was when Corona hit the world, and all professionals were busy saving their life and livelihood, that Suman decided to quit her cushy government job in September 2021 to devote herself to helping vulnerable people and communities, sail through challenges they face in everyday life.
Suman is a versatile media professional having more than 30 years of experience. In collaboration with UNICEF, she was the Project In-charge for drafting and releasing ‘Guidelines for Gender Sensitive Programming for Doordarshan”. Doordarshan is the first and till date only media organization to have separate guidelines for producing gender sensitive programmes.
She is also credited with conducting Gender Equality workshops for staff in all major centres of Doordarshan across the length and breadth of the country.
Her initiation into studies of Gender Equality began with attending a workshop on the subject, conducted by Asia Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development (AIBD) of UNESCO.
While being Producer of the AIR’s Special Audience programme for Women, Suman became a pioneer in empowerment of women through Radio when she started a special Radio Helpline on financial, legal and career matters which challenged the stereotypes and myths in choices made by women and girls. For 6 years while approving commercial ads for Doordarshan, she ensured that code related to projection of women in media was strictly adhered to.
Her versatile personality is not limited to this only. She is a TV and stage anchor of repute having worked with top artistes and organisations of the country in the field of dance, drama and music. She is an actor having worked in many short films on social issues. She is also an accomplished RJ, non-sports Commentator and drama artiste of All India Radio. She was nominated as jury member for International Science Film Festival. She has been invited as a judge by many schools and colleges during their literary festivals. She has been a visiting faculty for many institutes including National Academy of Broadcasting and Multimedia.
Suman has received many accolades for her exemplary work in the field of media and her work has also been appreciated in print media quite a few times.