The Story
OrganizerCharcha was conceived by Teamwork Arts in 2020 as an answer to a gap in India's public discourse infrastructure: there was no convening of sufficient scale and credibility that brought together government, civil society, and market actors specifically around the question of livelihood. The choice of the word Charcha, meaning conversation or discussion in Hindi and Urdu, signals the format's intention: not a conference of presentations but a gathering of genuine exchange. Over its editions since 2020, Charcha has grown into what Teamwork Arts describes as India's largest collaborative convening towards social good, drawing participants from across the spectrum of India's development sector alongside cultural and artistic voices. The cultural dimension, handled by the organisation that produces the Jaipur Literature Festival, is more than a backdrop: art and storytelling are positioned within Charcha as instruments of social change and community building, not as peripheral entertainment.
Charcha is unusual in the Atlas because it is not primarily a cultural festival but a social-sector convening with a significant cultural dimension. Its significance for the Atlas lies in Teamwork Arts' explicit positioning of culture as central to social good, and in the platform's demonstrated ability to bring civil society, government, and creative communities into genuine dialogue. As India's cultural sector increasingly engages with CSR, development, and social impact frameworks, Charcha provides a model for that engagement.
As CSR and cultural sector convergence accelerates in India, Charcha's model of placing culture at the centre of a social good convening offers a template for how arts organisations can operate at the intersection of creative programming and development impact.
