TAGORE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL, DELHI

Dr Hari Sen, the founder of the Tagore International Schools, was a woman ahead of her time. Highly intelligent and motivated as a student, she completed her BA in English from Bombay University in 1942 at the age of 19, and her MA in Sanskrit from Banaras Hindu University in 1947. After this, she sailed to the USA in 1947 to complete an MA-PhD in Education from the University of California, Berkeley.

After graduating from Berkeley in 1951, Dr Sen rejected several job offers from top companies and the newly-formed United Nations and returned to India to do something for her country. She traveled around India with her husband, a rising police officer, and was one of the first women to conduct family planning and women’s rights workshops in villages and small towns. She started her first school in Ahmedabad in 1959, but the family was transferred to Delhi a few years later.

The Tagore Education Society was established in 1964, with its first school in Defence Colony up to Class V. The school expanded up to Class VIII and shifted to a larger plot in Lajpat Nagar in 1966. Soon after, Dr Sen’s husband, JK Sen, donated personal land awarded to him by the government for Dr Sen to build a full school in East of Kailash. After many delays, that campus became operational in 1975. In the meantime, the Delhi Development Authority awarded Dr Sen land in Vasant Vihar for another school. This branch has been running since 1972.