Kitty Shiva Rao

Kitty Shiva Rao (12 December 1903 – 9 February 1980) was a Montessori teacher and theosophist from Austria who, by India's independence, had led a committee of women to draft an Indian Women's Charter of Rights and Duties for the new constitution of India. She studied child education and served on several women's movement and education boards including the All India Women's Conference (AIWC), All India Handicrafts Board, Indian Council for Child Welfare and Delhi University Board.

Born into an upper middle-class Jewish family, Shiva Rao spent her early career at the Vienna House of Children. In 1925, she attended the Theosophical Society at Adyar, India, and decided to stay and head a Montessori school in Varanasi, before then establishing a Montessori in Allahabad. In 1929, she married the journalist and Congress politician Benegal Shiva Rao.

In 1947, with Fori Nehru, she helped set up the Refugee Handicrafts employment campaign in Delhi for refugee women in the camps following the partition of India. Later, she co-founded a national programme for the development of handicrafts and handloom products, and continued to promote Indian made crafts later in her career.

Early life Kitty Verständig was born in 1903 to Abraham Verständig and Jenny Lowy, an upper middle-class Jewish family. She studied Montessori education. In her early career she taught at the Vienna House of Children, a Montessori school, and attended the Theosophical Society.

1940s-50s

Shiva Rao studied child education in depth and served on several education boards and committees, including the Delhi University Board and the All-India Education Fund Association. She was highly critical of authoritarian types of teaching and believed that the needs of children should be identified and met, along with better laws for women. By 1946, she had become an important member of the AIWC, which made decisions that could be ratified by then new Constituent Assembly and which revealed contradictions in the proposed Hindu code bills. In creating the Hindu code bills, after agreeing that men and women should have equal rights, the AIWC questioned why a debate was needed on whether a daughter could inherit equally with her brother. By India's independence, she had led women to draft an Indian Women's Charter of Rights and Duties for the new constitution. Other members included Lakshmi N. Menon, Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay, Renuka Ray and Hannah Sen.

Along with Fori Nehru and Prem Bery, she helped set up an employment campaign, 'Refugee Handicrafts', for refugee women in the 1947 Delhi camps following partition. After 1947 she pioneered the Indian Council for Child Welfare. In July 1948, Shiva Rao reported that the AIWC was urging a swift passing of the Hindu code bills by lobbying ministers and the prime minister. It was generally understood by the AIWC that public campaigns were not enough to make change for women's rights; women were reported to object to the Hindu code bill in public, but secretly revealed that that was really the view of their households. She also became vice president of the All India Handicrafts Board.

Later in her life, she spent time in the US when her husband was posted to work with the United Nations.

Publications