Khoj - Society for People's Education started working with rural women in five villages of district Sheikhupura in collaboration with CIDA-WDPr in April 1999. In the second phase the operations expanded into ten villages in collaboration with CIDA-PAGE. A project was launched for children's education with a focus on girl children in collaboration with Save the Children-UK that has also entered into its second phase. At the moment, the organization has been active in 20 villages.

The villages are located 10-17 kilometers off Jarranwala Road on both sides of the districts of Sheikhupura and Nankana Saheb. The area is deprived of the most basic services. No village has access to roads. None of the villages have even a basic health unit. There were only three functional schools for boys and not a single functional school for girls when Khoj started its operations.

A single woman with a matriculation certificate could not be identified from the project area who could be appointed as a teacher.

The law and order situation is bleak; killing and dacoity is a way of life there.

Resultantly, there is an abundance of social problems.

In the program villages most of the population is either of the small landholders or of the landless. The absence of healthcare and education facilities, improper sanitation and drainage, no road access to the town and the centuries-old patriarchal system affects the people especially female population most drastically. They are active in all spheres of work but their contribution is not recognized. Instead, their movement is restricted in the name of tradition and religion, their access to education is discouraged as education is seen as a means to freedom and independence. Women and girls have access to lower quality and less quantity of food. The situation worsens when they have little knowledge of their bodies and how to keep them healthy. The culture assigns them the status of lesser human beings. Investing in girl children is seen of no consequence as they would leave the parents' family one day. After getting married her situation does not change a bit and she does not have space to make decisions about things most intimately related to her. As a result of the above, it seems a remote possibility that some facility of quality and higher education is provided to them. Ingrained cultural bias coupled with the lack of a safe and stable access to learning has meant that girls stay at home.  Girls learn income earning skills to contribute to the household income and prepare their dowry.

The situation demands that special attention should be paid to the education and development of children, especially girl children and their mothers. Need based, gender sensitive and socially responsive applied education is the only way to work towards that goal.