[1] As a teacher at St. Thomas's School, New Delhi, she developed methods using drama in education and language learning, both inside and outside the classroom.
[2] In children's drama, she developed techniques for creative improvisation, and in writing and production of documentary mime plays.
Her mother was a novelist and playwright who wrote in Tamil and English under the penname Krithika, while her father was an Indian civil servant and economist.
She was the chairman of the committee that studied development of the pre-school child that was set up by the Indian Central Advisory Board of Education in 1970.
[7][8] Swaminathan was a consultant to UNESCO on early childhood care and education, as well as to UNICEF when she undertook assignments in Vietnam and Kampuchea.
[citation needed] She was also part of the board of trustees in the non-profit M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu.
[9] Swaminathan was the author of several books on the subject of drama and child development and contributed articles to leading publications.