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Madurai is prominently known as the oldest continuously inhabited heritage city and the third largest town in Tamil Nadu. The city has more than 16 lakhs population in its corporation limits. The city’s population is growing day by day; likewise the number of the urban poor is also increasing. There are more than 25% urban poor in India. The number of slums in Madurai (urban poor habitat) is on an increasing trend from 36 in 1967 to 208 in 2001 to 331 in 2012.

DHAN Foundation is working in the city of Madurai since 1998. DHAN has more than two decades of engagement in the process of women empowerment through Kalanjiam Community Banking Programme. Kalanjiam Community Banking Programme basically focuses on promoting institutional structures namely Self-Help Groups and networking them as federations.

DHAN as EMPOWER-WomenStrong Madurai has partnered with WomenStrong International, a consortium of non-profit organisations in five nations to promote women-centric programmes on poverty eradication in line with the Millennium City Initiative. The Millennium City Initiative is an action research project of the Earth Institute at Columbia University to Make Cities and Human Settlements Inclusive, Safe, Resilient and Sustainable. The WomenStrong Madurai initiative has organised more than 17,000 families into 1126 groups as on September 2016 to address the core issue of urban poverty.