Pawan Kumar Gupta, an engineer with more than 12 years of experience running his own business in the chemical industry, found his calling in facilitating basic education to children in the remote, mountainous villages of India. This led to the founding of SIDH in 1989. Since then, he has run around 35 schools across various mountain villages, providing education to hundreds of children and transforming many lives in the process.

Pawan has also researched the unspoken assumptions and cultural beliefs that shape education, resulting in significant shifts in both curriculum and pedagogy. He has also organised seminars, workshops and conferences to explore the deeper links between education, culture and lived experience.

For over a decade, he has been writing a weekly newspaper column and has published a book based on those writings. His ongoing work includes mentoring schools, giving talks and conducting reflective retreats centred on education, cultural roots and traditional knowledge systems.