Artist and Lawyer Challenges Traditional Gender Norms and Fights for Equality

A sports lawyer turned visual artist, Kruthika N.S. believes storytelling has the power to change lives and strengthen communities.

Using her vocal social media platform, The Workplace Doodler to speak out against injustice, Kruthika works closely with feminist funds, think tanks, and non-profits across the world. She provides social justice campaigns with the visual language to tell compelling stories. Her work has been showcased at art exhibits, in the news, and most interestingly, even at sports training facilities.

Despite constitutional guarantees and laws put in place to help ensure gender equality, Indian women experience rampant sexism enabled by a culture of silence — and Indian sportswomen are no different. Kruthika believes her work can help break that silence. Indian sport is undergoing a world of change, with more sportswomen breaking traditional norms to do what once seemed impossible to many before them. However, these stories are rarely acknowledged, let alone celebrated. How can such stories be amplified with empathy, care, and creativity to ensure the world pays attention? How can inclusive illustrations help society reimagine sport? What would a comic book about a queer feminist footballer mean for queer schoolchildren? These are just some of the questions Kruthika is addressing.

Kruthika hopes her GSMP experience will help her leverage the power of art, sport, and popular culture to shift outdated narratives and bring about sustainable change. She looks to create networks across the feminist sporting world to conceptualize art projects across borders, co-create educational toolkits for young sportspersons, and reimagine sport through art.