In 1990 after an in-depth evaluation of Ankur Kala's self-employment training and income generation programmes, it was decided to add a new aspect to Ankur Kala's training programme - providing training in social empowerment through regular inputs in functional literacy, leadership skills, social awareness and gender issues. Introducing this dimension of social empowerment has infused a new dynamism among the women trainees who have responded very positively to the various inputs provided during their training. It has been very encouraging to observe that most of the first come to Ankur Kala full of despair and insecurities and then slowly transform first into self-reliant persons and then grow into supervisors and leaders.

Networking- reaching out to others

In 1995, Ankur Kala decided to collaborate with other NGOs and institutions. In 1996 Ankur Kala in collaboration with Overseas Development Agency (ODA), a British agency and Calcutta Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) conducted a number of small enterprise management training programmes for bustle dwellers living in different areas of Calcutta. These programmes were very much appreciated by the participants and similar programmes were conducted again in 1997.

Thereafter, over the years a large number of small enterprise training programmes have been conducted for women groups of other NGOs.

In 2003 there was a major breakthrough when Ankur Kala began to network with various small artisans all over Kolkata an West Bengal and actively market their beautiful handicrafts – this continues to empower 500 women and assist their families.