At the dawn of the 21st Century, a bunch of drama enthusiasts of Chennai decided to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of Kerala Peoples Arts Club (more famously known as K P A C) by conducting a Drama Festival. Buoyed by the tremendous success of the drama festival, this group of persons, comprising people who had held and who were also holding responsible positions in different socio-cultural organizations in Chennai, decided to take this movement forward. Recognising that it would be possible to create a space for itself despite the proliferation of innumerable Socio-Cultural Organisations in Chennai, it was decided to form a unique multi dimensional Socio-Cultural cum Charitable organization distinct from all the others as a one-of-its-kind association without any barriers of caste, creed, language or religion. Thus was born Dakshinaa which began to operate as an unregistered body and continued as such for a couple of years.
Dakshinaa commenced its activities on New Year’s Day 2006 with a debate with well-known thinker Mr.C.R.Parameswaran as the Lead Speaker. Other activities followed in quick succession and these have been detailed elsewhere in this website. With a view to formalizing the organization and making it a distinct legal entity, Dakshinaa was converted into a Society on 14th October,2007 and was granted registration under Tamilnadu Societies Registration Act on 12-03-2008. Dakshinaa has also been granted registration as a Public Charitable Trust under Section 12 AA of the Income Tax Act 1961 with effect from 14th January, 2011. Donations to Dakshinaa are entitled to deduction under Section 80(G) of the Income Tax Act 1961.
Dakshinaa now has a Chapter at Thiruvananthapuram and is looking to broaden its horizons by expanding on a pan India scale.