S M Sehgal Foundation is a 20-year-old public charitable trust established under the Registration Act 1908, that addresses need of rural communities in the critical areas of water security, food security and good governance. The Foundation's team of over 280 members works across 890 villages of Bihar, Haryana, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka.

S M Sehgal Foundation works with the following objectives -

• Empower villagers, especially women and build capacities of village level institutions to play a leading role in village development.

• Increase crop yields and improve soil fertility by training marginal and smallholder farmers on improved agricultural practices 

• Mitigate water scarcity and water-related health concerns by applying appropriate technologies to sustain local water supplies for household and agricultural purposes

• Maximize impact of poverty alleviation initiatives for rural communities through using participatory research and impact assessment

Sehgal Foundation works on five thematic programs namely, Agricultural Development, Water Management, Good Rural Governance, Community Media, and Rural Research.  Each of these reinforces and builds on the organization's mission, vision and values.

Sehgal Foundation’s Agricultural Development Program aims to improve rural prosperity by training small-holder farmers, particularly women producers, on scientific agricultural practices and new technologies that increase crop yields, conserve water and reduce agrarian risks. Sehgal foundation works with small-holder farmers in both rain-fed and irrigated areas with the objective to improve livelihoods of small farmers through adoption of best management practices and new promising technologies. Interventions are focused on soil nutrient concordance, use of water-saving irrigation techniques, promotion of clean energy, appropriate mechanization, horticultural development, livestock management, drudgery reduction and use of Information and Communication Technology in agriculture.

To address the critical need for water security in India, Sehgal Foundation’s Water Management Program focuses on collection, storage, and access to safe drinking water and replenishing it back to the ground. This entails rejuvenation of traditional village methods such as rainwater harvesting systems to capture water from rooftops and the creation of many small storage structures such as Check Dams, Wells, Ponds, among others.
Sehgal Foundation’s Good Rural Governance program promotes grassroots democracy and citizen participation, with an emphasis on women’s empowerment. It aims to bring about mass awareness, villager empowerment, capacity enhancement, and leadership. 

Sehgal Foundation uses Community Media to bridge the information gap, voice community opinions and mobilize communities. Its community radio Alfaz-e-Mewat, broadcasts programs related to its themes and relevant topics every day for 13 hours to over 180 villages.

Rural Research Program maximizes the impact of poverty alleviation initiatives for rural communities through using participatory research and impact assessment as practical tools informing action, outcomes and learning. Rural Research is a cross-cutting initiative that bifurcate its work into two broad themes, that is, Monitoring, Learning and Evaluation (MLE), and Development and Policy Research (DPR). MLE focuses on integrating all components of the research process which are undertaken to design and implement interventions by Sehgal Foundation in the rural pockets of the country. These components largely include needs assessment, baseline surveys, mid-term monitoring and impact evaluation studies. It emphasizes on qualitative and quantitative measurement of trends through surveys, participatory rural appraisal tools and techniques. DPR focuses on strategic and policy level studies. It attempts to understand poverty dynamics in a rural context and throws light on concepts of vulnerability, exclusion and marginalization. The theme also attempts to contribute to the larger body of knowledge through participating in thematic discourses which align with the ambit of Sehgal Foundation’s work. Organizing roundtables and conferences on key development issues is an important component of this theme which furthers the purpose of disseminating knowledge created at the grassroots. 

Why should a corporate work with us?

S M Sehgal Foundation is a 19-year-old public charitable trust established under the Indian Trusts Act 1882, that addresses need of rural communities in the critical areas of water security, food security and good governance. The Foundation's team of over 262 members works across 850 villages of Bihar, Haryana, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka.

S M Sehgal Foundation works with the following objectives -

• Empower villagers, especially women and build capacities of village level institutions to play a leading role in village development.
• Increase crop yields and improve soil fertility by training marginal and smallholder farmers on improved agricultural practices 
• Mitigate water scarcity and water-related health concerns by applying appropriate technologies to sustain local water supplies for household and agricultural purposes
• Maximize impact of poverty alleviation initiatives for rural communities through using participatory research and impact assessment

Special Features of the Organization