K . A . T . H . A



Katha, the profit-for-all voluntary organization, is looking for PEOPLE! We have been working with children and women since 1990 and have strong links with the 54 communities we work with.


Katha also works at the leading edge in culturelinking, literary translation and publishing. We see translation as a non-divisive tool for the country as a whole. Uncommon creativities for a common good is our motto.

katha is a registered nonprofit organization.
a3 sarvodaya enclave
new delhi 110 017
 
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Our initiative since 1990

THE KHAZANA COOPERATIVE : The women have formed their own cooperative. The Khazana Coop is a self-supporting unit. And the hope is that it will attract more women of the community to come into production, packaging and marketing activities. This includes --

  • Khazana Bakery : Gaining competence through regular training classes and workshops, the women's skills were further enhanced by training by the chefs of the five-star Taj Group of Hotels. Today, the women's e arnings are around Rs 2,700 per month/woman.
  • Khazana Rasoi : Sales in this particular department has gone uptomore than 2600 every month /member . The group grows well. And now, in addition to economical lunches, they are supplying executive lunches and South Indian thalis. They have started producing namkeen also.
  • The Masala Unit started recently is yet to catch the market in a large way . The women are now making a profit of around Rs 400 per month. And Food Processing for juices and pickles is in the stage of a vocational learning for the students.
  • Cutting & Tailoring: Started for women as a way of minimizing household expenditure, this initiative now has maximum trainees attending its designing and tailoring courses.

What we are looking for : Better cooking spaces and utensils; more marketing skills. Help to package the products more attractively so that they can face the competition in the marketplace. We also need to train our women in marketing. (This has been difficult since they come from traditional rural backgrounds and their families have not been supportive in allowing the women to go into marketing. Nevertheless, they are making their presence felt!)

The income-generation programme is totally run by the women, with support being slowly withdrawn as they become more self-reliant. When we started, the average family income here was Rs 600-800/month (according to a Delhi Government survey). Today, our women earn up to Rs 2500/month and are proud members of their own Khazana Women's Cooperative!

SACH is SOCIAL ACTION FOR CHANGE . This community programme is mandatory for all teachers in Katha. And their efforts have paid rich dividends. There are more than 650 members in the Maa Mandal. And the Bapu Mandal is also picking up.

Jatha members of the Maa Mandal are always concerned with the problems which affect the community. They talk to the concerned officials to get solutions for the problems. For instance, the community road has been in a bad condition. The women went on a procession and met the Chief Minister of Delhi to hand over an application for change. They also tried to get proper electricity connection for every family living in the slum cluster . Delhi Vidhyut Board has agreed to give power supply at the cost of Rs 1200 per family. Now these women are trying to convince the people in the community to pay so as to prevent corruption.

The women have started a Small Savings Scheme. The women are already on the way to full sustainability.

Ma Mandal , an active body of more than 650 women, mothers of the children who come to our centre, come together regularly to work towards a better future for their children.

Sat Sahelia   This wing works in the area of women's literacy and empowerment. It specializes in language development and looks at language from the point of view of working women who are unskilled and non/semi literate. We firmly believe that women's literacy paves the way for enough education for the child which in turn will mean proper career options, more income-generation skills, more satisfaction and hence more happiness for all.

We develop literacy and post-literacy materials, mainly in the form of books. One LitKit that started with water and sanitation has been brought to prototype stage, under an Action Aid grant.

Stree Katha, Stree Kahan i published in six Indian languages (Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Telugu and Urdu) both funded by the Royal Netherlands Embassy.

To date we have brought out twelve books for Government of India under a grants-in-aid programme. These are books that take stories by some of India's best writers like Rabindranath Tagore, Jai Shankar Prasad and O V Vijayan, to a neo-literate population through retellings and translations.

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