MHT was founded in 1994 by the Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), a union of poor, self-employed women workers, to facilitate better housing and infrastructure for its members in the state of Gujarat.  MHT first started working in the water and sanitation sector in 1995 with the Parivartan Slum Networking Programme (SNP), which initiated a unique partnership between slum communities, AMC, MHT, SEWA Bank private sector to extend a package of 7 essential services in Ahmedabad slums. In 10 years, the SNP program expanded to reach 35,500 slum dwellers in Ahmedabad. Recognizing that access to electricity was also a major demand of poor women, MHT initiated a program to provide legal electric connections in slums in 2001. Our energy program has since then expanded to include promoting the use of energy-efficient & renewable products and building resilience capacities against climate risks. Since 2005, MHT has also played a significant role in connecting poor communities to public housing programs by creating awareness, mobilizing them to access finance, assisting them in the application & construction processes, and training communities to manage and monitor common infrastructure and services. Ensuring land rights for the poor is also a key aspect of our housing program.

Today, MHT is working in 17 cities across 8 states in India and collaborating with partners in Bangladesh and Nepal. It is a leading advocacy organization with expertise in policy development, grassroots organizing, community development, and technical know-how in land tenure, construction, management and oversight of infrastructure projects.

• 25 years of track record of delivering sustainable & impactful results
• Presence across 7 states & 34 cities in India
• Sectorial expertise – Women Empowerment, Water & Sanitation, Energy, Housing, Land Rights, Climate Change, Participatory Governance & Non-Traditional Livelihood
• More than 1000 trained Community Action Group (CAG) across India
• Expertise in developing social capital and amplifying voices of poor women to improve city governance
• Track record of successfully mobilizing resources from the international foundation, CSR, government & local donors
• Work recognized by various international and national organization through awards. For example – 2019 Recipients of the United Nations Sasakawa Award for Disaster Risk Reduction & 2019 Recipients of the United Nations Global Climate Action Award for Women’s Action Towards Climate Resilience for Urban Poor in South Asia

MHT has a proven track record of 25 years of delivering sustainable solutions across 7 states & 34 cities in India. MHT has formed more than 1000 Community Based organizations (CBOs) across India represented by more than 15000 women leaders. MHT engages these women leaders in delivering services to the most disadvantaged people. Engaging local leaders ensure that solutions designed are relevant to the local context and sustainable. Also, the cost of operations are low as most of the work is undertaken by these community leaders. This unique strength of MHT helps it to deliver solutions at the lowest cost which are contextualized to local needs and so sustainable and owned by the community.

MHT believes that the most effective way of ensuring access to services and legal rights in project areas is through mobilizing women to exercise their civic rights and empowering them with the knowledge to actively interface with the government and take charge of their habitat improvement process.

MHT has a three-pronged approach:

1. Support disenfranchised communities to build social capital and empower them with technical knowledge to affect change.

2. Facilitate last-mile delivery of habitat services by enabling access to finance and carrying out building of infrastructure where necessary.

3. Built on its grassroots experience to bring about policy and regulatory changes toward more inclusive planning and service delivery processes.

MHT mainly focuses on three thematic areas:

1. Habitat Development – Empower poor women to work with government and service providers to access water, sanitation, affordable energy, decent housing and land rights.

2. Climate Change Resilience – Build capacities of poor communities, especially women to work in tandem with technical experts to devise and implement locally relevant climate-resilient solutions

3. Promoting Participatory Planning – Promote participation of grassroots women in the community and city-level planning and decision-making processes.

MHT has a strong track record of delivering sustainable solutions in the given timeline with a range of corporates partners over the last two decades. These proven results, a network of community-based organizations, strong partnerships with local government and technical expertise on board are few of the strongest results for any corporate to partner with MHT.