The school opened in Chandigarh in February 2006 with 153 students and was inaugurated by the first 5 children admitted to the school. The school has now grown to 800 students. An additional 80 students in the age group of 16-25 yrs are in the youth entrepreneurship programme.

Admission to Sikhya is without any other criterion except that the families are the poorest of the poor, who are normally not able to afford an education.