Ravi Ramaswamy has ten years of work experience in rights based development organizations and since 2011 has been a Theatre of the Oppressed practitioner, trainer and Trustee at the Centre for Community Dialogue and Change (CCDC). He has conducted workshops for children, youth, women, LGBTQIA+, medical professionals, prison inmates and young farmers. Some of the issues that he has worked with are diversity and privilege, masculinity and violence, social justice, gender and sexuality, mental wellbeing, harassment-free campuses, social inclusion through sustainable development, environment and waste management. A major focus of Ravi’s work has been workshops in Medical Humanities and Mental Health. Using Theatre of the Oppressed to encourage medical faculty and students to reflect on the need for humanizing healthcare is one of CCDC’s pioneering activities. He has co-authored a chapter on the use of Theatre of the Oppressed in Medical Education in the Routledge Handbook of the Medical Humanities, published in September 2019. Ravi has taught courses in “Pedagogy and TO”, “Development Communication” and “Social Psychology” to students of Mount Carmel College, Jyoti Nivas College and Jain University, Bangalore and a Credit Course on Life Skills and Sexuality with Christ University and Enfold. In probably the first initiative of its kind in the country, the Department of Prisons, Government of Karnataka with the NGO Peacemakers, invited Ravi to lead a week long workshop for inmates of Bangalore Central Jail, focusing on their emotional and psychological wellbeing.

Besides facilitating workshops, Ravi has also been offering beginners’ and advanced level trainings in Theatre of the Oppressed, in Bangalore, Mumbai and Pune. As part of CCDC’s continued learning initiative, Ravi has been mentoring people in furthering their TO practice.

Ravi also conducts Drum jams for children and youth where they make music with everyday objects. Ravi uses the concepts of rhythms and Synchronicity to promote community building, listening and emotional wellbeing.