Asha was registered as a public charitable trust in Delhi, India, to start its vital work on child empowerment on 8th March 2002. When literally translated from Hindi CHETNA means “creating awareness” and stands for “Childhood Enhancement through Training and Action”.

We strongly believe in the active participation of children, and thus started working with them from 2002 onwards to address key child rights issues such as survival, protection, development and participation.

Asha has grown to become a pioneering organisation in raising child protection issues with a team of experienced social workers and professionals. Some members of our team were themselves street and working children, who with the help of Asha worked their way to a better life.

Since the beginning, the Asha team and children have worked together to tailor a range of programs and activities to fit their needs. At Asha we live our values, so participation underpins our whole organisation in the form of Badhte Kadam, a unique federation of street and working children. Badhte Kadam run their own fully operational newspaper called Balaknama; the first of its kind in the world.