For the last 50 years, it is home to some 2,800 families of magicians, snake charmers, acrobats, singers, dancers, actors, traditional healers and musicians and especially puppeteers or kathputli-performers from Rajasthan.

[4] In the coming decades street performers of Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra also moved in.

The folk artists of Kathputli Colony have traveled to over 80 countries representing India with their art forms.

[1][6] In 2010, Government of Delhi initiated the redevelopment project of the colony on a public-private partnership basis.

[7] Amid protests by residents and controversy, in early 2014, ahead of the 1 April 2014 deadline, some of the 2,754 families started shifting to transit camps built at Anand Parbat area 2 km away by the developer Rahejas.