The early days
Seelampur is situated in the northeastern part of Delhi, the capital city of India. The eastern part of the city is characterised by low-income groups, high population density and poor civic amenities. Seelampur is inhabited primarily by Muslims. It has a high density of population and family incomes are low. The average monthly family income is 60 - 80 USD and the average family consists of eight members. Within Seelampur the area of Zaffarabad (having approximately 90% Muslim population) stands out as a pocket of extreme urban poverty and immensely poor living conditions. There the open drains are clogged with sewage, there are frequent power breakdowns, the houses are dilapidated and the people live in overcrowded lanes.

Lack of opportunities in terms of education and employment also marks life for the people here. Formal education has become quite common and thus enrolment is high but dropping out at different grades is a continuing problem. Without adequate education, the possibility of white-collar jobs remains a distant reality for most boys and girls. Common occupations are unskilled work in factories, handwork in cloth, etc. Most young women have not completed high school. Usually they drop out of the school after finishing Grade VIII. Datamation Foundation had recently initiated some work in the area particularly with women.

At this time, UNESCO launched a pilot initiative to innovate and research social and technological strategies to put ICTs in the hands of the poor. This seemed a good opportunity in the given context and an ICT centre was set up at Zaffarabad. The initiative seeks to deploy ICTs to address urban poverty and is designed to empower the women of Seelampur.