The Samhita mission is to work with poor households only. Samhita's microfinance program exclusively serves the woman of the household. The typical rural household served by Samhita lives in a one/two room mud-hut/house, owns no land or livestock, and works as daily wage labor on the farms of landlords or on construction projects. The urban poor mostly live in government-granted housing in slums, and are largely migrant population from rural areas. In urban areas, women are primarily employed as petty shop owners, in services industry, job works and domestic labor.
Samhita applies the Poverty Probability Index (PPI) to measure the poverty level of households. In addition to this, Samhita records socio-economic information on the household, including indicators on income, housing property, migration, and household education. Finally, Samhita also tracks indicators based on the Samhita Poverty Assessment Score (SPAS) mechanism, which has 3 components:
- Core: Covers access to safe drinking water, functioning toilet facility, girl-child education, participation of woman in key decision making, awareness of legal sanctions for violence against women & girls, and vulnerability to shocks
- Financial Services: Access to Credit services from MFIs or Banks, along with Savings, Pension and Insurance access
- Food: Captures elements of daily food consumption, such as roti & dal, green leafy vegetables, meat and seasonal fruits