One of the largest issues for many underprivileged women living in Kadapa is a lack of financial independence: traditionally, women work in the home and the men are the sole providers for the family, and thus, the head of the family. Women are entirely dependent on their husbands- financially and otherwise. They have to ask for money and permission from their husbands for even small purchases. This powerlessness within the home and the lack of respect for women perpetuates abandonment and education for girl children.

To address this problem, Aarti has created a series of livelihood programs to empower women and make the financially independent. They reason that when a woman has her own income, she has more power over herself and her family.

​About 20,000 women have been trained in various forms of income-generating skills through Aarti, including tailoring, fashion design, hand and machine embroidery, massage, and handicraft training such as toy making and block printing. In addition to hard skills, these programs give women a sense of purpose and self-confidence they did not previously posses.

Aarti started the Lalitha Fair Trade Cooperative, a registered charity, to support these women. Lalitha Cooperative is a fair trade self-help group and marketing collective which provides design and marking support to the women trained in various vocational skills.  Several designers from Hyderabad, Bangalore and Dehli have extended their support to provide this service to the cooperative.