A six month community organizing training programme  for socially committed  young graduates was started in Dharavi in the middle of 1979 by the Christian Institute for the Study of Religion and Society(CISRS) and it’s main objectives were two-fold; 

1. To train young graduates how to work with poor grass-root communities through an issue-solving process.
2.  In the process to learn how to build-up community based secular and democratic people’s organizations.

As a result,  People’s Responsible Organisation of United Dharavi(PROUD) was established in Dharavi by the end of  1979  to work for the betterment of people in Dharavi with a vision to address the pressing civic issues faced by the residents of Dharavi.

From its inception, PROUD has been dedicated to  socio- political empowerment, focusing on ensuring access to basic civic amenities such as drinking water, sanitation, protecting from forced evictions etc.