In 1990, Katha started a small community school, a ‘de-school’ called Katha Khazana, in Govindpuri, one of Delhi’s largest slum clusters. Only five children came. The reason: The others were working.

Our solution: When women earn, children learn. 
In 1990, our aim was to train the women in the community so that they earned at least Rs 800 per month (the average family income in the community). In 2006-07, 13 more locations were added. Today, we help bring positive change in the lives of more than 7,000 children and 250,000 adults living in 74 street and slum communities across Delhi and Arunachal Pradesh. Today, salaries of women trained at Katha are up to Rs 20,000/month!

1990-2008 
84,400: Women who have participated in Katha community revitalisation and economic resurgence initiatives.
Rs 14 million: Total sales of our Income Generation Group.
Rs 31.6 million: Total earnings of community women trained at Katha.
Rs 10, 06, 924: Annual income of women in Katha Shakti. In the year 2008, 72 new teachers were trained, 294 lesson plans and 378 teaching modules prepared.
1,800 women have certifications from KALP, the Katha Adult Literacy Programme. They are teachers today, and more!
1,200 determined women make up our 58 self-help groups, about 20 to a group; 65 welfare societies look after health, sanitation and water in Govindpuri.
810 members  in the Working Women’s Forum
15 members in the Mahila Panchayat. Target by end 2009: 1,500
2,000 girls are certificate holders of the adolescent girls' group at Katha’s Balika Mandal.
8,700 mothers are part of the Maa Mandal group who meet regularly to realise their dreams and those of their children.
 
Sanjha Prayas
Under the Bhagidari Scheme, this year, the Delhi Government has also joined hands with our women to ensure health and sanitation in Govindpuri!

SHE squared! 
The SHE[2] initiative ensures access to Safe Water & Sanitation, Health & Housing, Education & Economic Resurgence. Through 65 welfare societies, Katha initiated a unique process of empowerment with women as community leaders, focusing on democratic decision-making within the community. 

Empowered  
With IT training for about 100 women every year since 1990, diverse income generation activities, adult education programmes, self-help groups, welfare committees, our women have been able to fight for rights usually denied to those in poverty. Empowering their lives through literacy and independent incomes, they have facilitated their own and their families’ well-being – ensuring better education, better health and brighter futures for their children. Because when women earn, children learn!

Way forward  
Work is on to spread awareness to the 50 slums we are working in, and to get more women to join the movement for better.

International recognitions:
•    The ‘Social Enterprise Laboratory Award’ by Digital Partners
•    The NASDAQ Stock Market Education Award 2002 from the Tech Museum of Innovation.
•    Katha was the Stockholm Challenge 2002 finalist.

 “The name (Katha-Khazana) could not have been more apt as the endeavour has contributed to stories of women’s empowerment, stories of would-have-been school dropouts becoming school toppers, and now the story of how despite being housed in a dirty slum, a wonderfully clean bakery churns out delightfully tasty biscuits … It is also a story of struggle waged by women such as Manjula and Urmila to cast away the veil that shrouded their existence and step out of their homes to establish their worth, not just to the outside world, but also to themselves … Katha is an epicentre of activities that have transformed the Govindpuri Basti.”