After a long break following the coronavirus-triggered lockdown, Katrina Kaif had kept herself busy reading scripts and prepping for her upcoming films, including the horror comedy PhoneBhoot, featuring Siddhant Chaturvedi and Ishaan Khatter, as also her superhero film with Ali Abbas Zafar. She’s also in talks with Salman Khan and Maneesh Sharma to take the Tiger franchise forward. But it’s not just all work. The actress has also tied up with an NGO to champion the right to quality education and gender equality for young girls in rural India.

According to a source, over the last year, the actress has interacted with several young girls from the heartland to understand their aspirations and guide them in the right direction. “A lot of girls in the interiors don’t get to go to school and with the aim of changing these dismal statistics, Katrina is currently identifying villages where such gender discrimination is at its worst. Before the lockdown, she visited a remote village in Madhya Pradesh to acquaint herself with barriers to education in rural interiors and tribal regions,” adds the source.

According to Katrina, she’s embarked upon a sustainable programme based on the principles of community ownership and collaboration. “It involves families, village leaders, school authorities, and the local administration, who should jointly push for change,” she asserts, pointing out that it’s important today to bridge the gender and literacy gap. “The NGO I’m working for has helped enroll 7,50,000 girls in schools and improved learning outcomes for over 1.30 million children till date.” The actress will next be seen in Rohit Shetty’s cop drama Sooryavanshi, which marks her reunion with Akshay Kumar, a decade after Tees Maar Khan.