Mahila Housing Trust

Mahila Housing Trust (MHT) is a grassroots development organization in India that believes women are the leaders in driving progress toward more sustainable and gender-inclusive cities. MHT helps develop women's grassroots institutions and builds their knowledge and capacities to engage with decision-making on issues that concern their communities and cities. The organisation also brings technical expertise in construction, technology, and urban governance to help design and deliver pro-poor services and programs.

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This socio-technical nature makes MHT uniquely positioned to act as a bridge between grassroots communities and mainstream public and private sector institutions, advancing action on responsible urban development. MHT began its work in Gujarat in 1994 with the Slum Networking Programme, and has since expanded to more than 34 cities across India.

Head Office: Ahmedabad, Gujarat.

Major Areas of Work

• Equitable Access to Water and Sanitation: Improving access to safe water, sanitation, and hygiene for urban low-income communities.

• Building Climate Resilience and Energy Efficiency: Promoting technical innovations, cool roofs, solar energy, and heat action plans to help vulnerable communities withstand climate stressors.

• Securing Women's Rights to Land and Housing: Facilitating formal housing and land tenure rights for women, along with broader women's empowerment.

• Microlending for Habitat Improvement: Connecting women to microfinance for individual toilets, legal water connections, and home construction.

• Advancing Participation in Governance and Planning: Training women leaders to engage directly with local government officials and participate in city planning.

• Livelihoods in Construction: Training women as skilled construction workers (Karmika programme) to improve their professional and financial growth.

• Improving Community Infrastructure and Public Spaces: Upgrading drainage, roads, and public infrastructure in informal settlements.

• Disaster Response and Recovery: Building community resilience and response capacity for natural disasters and extreme weather events.

Major Initiatives & Programmes

• Heat Action Plans (Jaipur, Varanasi, Churu, Jodhpur, Ahmedabad): Locally rooted, science-backed plans developed with municipal governments and partners like NRDC and IIPHG to protect communities from extreme heat, including India's first "Cool Bus Stop" in Ahmedabad.

• Karmika Programme: A construction skills training programme that has helped women transition from daily wage work to skilled roles like "Rani Mistry," significantly increasing their income and confidence.

• Community Action Groups (CAGs): A network of over 18,000 women leaders trained to work directly with government officials to resolve habitat and infrastructure issues in their communities.

• Sustainable Sanitation and Behaviour Change (Uttar Pradesh): A programme supported by HCL Foundation focused on water testing, open defecation-free advocacy, and menstrual hygiene awareness.

Impact

MHT has positively influenced the lives of over 5 million people, with 18,097 Community Action Group (CAG) leaders trained, 2,74,911 households benefited from water management interventions, and 31,803 women securing formal houses or land tenure rights. The organisation has trained 16,256 women as climate resilient specialists and 21,124 construction workers, while helping poor women access $59.0 million worth of public resources. MHT has partnered with local governments in more than 34 cities across Gujarat, Rajasthan, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, and Karnataka, and was recognised with the Prince Talal International Prize for Human Development in 2021.

Mahila Housing Trust is an excellent fit for professionals passionate about urban development, climate resilience, women's empowerment, and participatory governance who want to contribute to large-scale, women-led systemic change in India's cities.