The Parivartan scheme was started in February 1993. It was initially introduced to bring women together to meet as groups and to discuss issues related to their problems. To begin with, CSR started these Samitis in Jaunpur, which have gradually extended to eight more districts of Uttar Pradesh (in all its project intervention areas) and Delhi.

Parivartan Mahila Swavalamban Samiti (PMSS) Samiti is a base for the CSR’s development model. In the present scenario socio-economic norms of the society are impediments in the ways of women’s progress. Hence, a change (Parivartan) in the social economic structure is very much needed for any kind of improvement in the condition of women.
CSR recognises and emphasizes the triple roles - reproductive, productive and community management played by women and believed that woman's subordination and subjugation can be removed only through organised efforts of strengthening women's organisations at the grassroots levels. An important strategy followed in this regard was the formation of women's collectives known as the "Parivartan Mahila Swalamban Samitis" for gender solidarity, empowerment and community participation.

Each village has village level committees who elect their own convener and these convenors constitute the team at the project level. They are the ones who work with the project coordinator. These collectives organise monthly village level meetings and provide a platform to women for sharing their views on local issues and problems. Important issues such as health, employment, legal rights etc are discussed from time to time and then developed into action-based programs. The members meet regularly to discuss and work out solution to their problems collectively.

CSR had selected villages in two different districts of Uttar Pradesh: Etawah and Jaunpur. These districts are economically and socially backward. They are dominated by traditional agriculture as the main source of livelihood, except a few strips where cash crops are produced. What was envisaged as the action wing of CSR, "PARIVARTAN" grew into a full- fledged development section of CSR with two rural units active in Jaunpur, Etawah and four urban units in Kanpur, Mirzapur, Varanasi and Delhi with three-fold program of organising the unorganised, conscientising the organised and empowering the conscientised. Rural women, urban poor, kisans, unemployed youth, dalits and adivasis are our partners in the action programs. This action wing shall soon complete two very eventful decades in about two years from now.

As a follow - up to 'Rural Female headed households" study, our first parivartan unit started in Jaunpur district. The first phase of the study began in 1982 in four villages of Gahani, Madhaipur, Seura and Malsil with an aim to break the vicious circle of underdevelopment and poverty through community building, income generating activities and improving the status of women.

The second phase began in 1986 where the prominent activities were goat rearing, rope making, snack and cereal making, community center for rural women. Alongside this, drudgery-reducing mechanisms were introduced for women's collective efforts for income generation. During these phases, it was sponsored by International Labour Organisation(ILO)

Following the second phase, in fifteen villages, a rural women's empowerment program under the name" A Step Towards Self Reliance" commenced for employment generation and supportive activities like healthcare, child care and crèche, saving and credit facilities, counselling etc., so as to provide a holistic thrust to the program. The employment generating activities included rope making, small animal rearing, snack and cereal making besides the emphasis on drudgery reducing technologies, like smokeless stoves, handpumps, bicycles etc. The target group for employment generating activities were women of women headed households and other poor women. The project period spans four years beginning January 1993 and was supported by Dutch Development Corporation.

Parivartan Jaunpur started off in one block covering four villages and then spread to two blocks covering forty five villages. Out of these forty five villages, in thirty villages the non-formal primary education centres for personality and skill development of rural girls by the name of 'Parivartan Kishori Vikas Pariyojana' were run. This program underwent three phases beginning September 1990 where in the first phase it was supported by NORAD and then by Oxfam-America. This project closed in 1997

But this project not only reached out to direct beneficiaries but covered the entire community indirectly.

For last two decades CSR is engaged in delivering individual services to women victims of violence in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar, Haryana Rajasthan (the Northern States of India). We could provide help in getting justice to families as well victims of dowry deaths, rape, child rape victims, marital discord, alcoholism, domestic violence, maintenance, wife battering. So far CSR has helped 50,000 such victims through our centres, which are, based in the local community and villages and through network partners .In our effort we seek help from team of lawyers, doctors, psychiatrics, police. This wide-ranging experience of delivering justice to women victims of violence exposed the loopholes and lacunae not only in our law enforcing agencies but also in our laws itself. So far our do not have law to protect women against domestic violence. CSR has extensively lobbied and advocated for the need to have a law to be passed by Indian Parliament. Finally, we along with other organizations have succeeded in getting the Domestic Violence (prevention) Bill to be introduced in the current session of Parliament date2003. We have developed a national network on violence against women.

Our approach is to help women get rightful place in the family. However, in many occasions the families inflict so much injustice and indignity on woman’s body and mind that it becomes impossible. In such cases we help women to learn skill for self-reliance and we also equip them with information on legal, economic, political and social provisions to help them fight for their own rights.