Astitva began with
one teacher's idea.

Pooja Govindrao Kadam is a Science Graduate Teacher with the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) School, an author, and a social innovator driven by a deep commitment to education, equality and inclusive development.

For her, education was never something that stopped at the classroom door — it is a way to build awareness, question social barriers, and give people the confidence to claim what is rightfully theirs.

Through her years of teaching she has consistently worked beyond conventional lessons, encouraging critical thinking, empathy and social responsibility in her students — because knowledge should empower a person, not simply be memorised by them.

That same instinct shaped her writing. Her interest in understanding social inequality led her to the often-overlooked question of unpaid household work and its economic value. The research became her book, The Economics of Housework — Unveiling Gender Inequality through the Economics of Housework, which brings the invisible labour of the home into plain view and opens an honest conversation about gender equality.

To build a reading culture among her students, she created a programme where children read, reflected and expressed their thoughts in their own words. She guided, edited and compiled their reviews into a student-authored book, PustakanChi Sair — turning young readers into published contributors.

Her belief in dignity and equal opportunity eventually turned her attention to the transgender community. Through conversations, listening and research, she found the same problem again and again: the help exists — identity documents, healthcare, schemes, jobs, legal rights, community support — but it is scattered, hard to find, and rarely available in a form or a language that reaches the people who need it most.

Astitva is her answer to that gap: one trustworthy place where all of it lives together, free and private, on your own phone. Today it offers guidance on identity documentation, healthcare services, education, employment opportunities, government welfare schemes, legal rights and community support — built on the belief that access to the right information lets a person make informed decisions and live with dignity, confidence and independence.

For Pooja, Astitva is more than a mobile application — it is a social commitment. It represents her vision of a society where every individual, regardless of gender identity, has equal access to opportunity, respect and the support needed to thrive. Through education, writing, research and community-focused work, she continues to build towards a more compassionate and inclusive future.