Together We Empoer 3rd Edition

six months. Dormant vigilance committees were reactivated, and new ones were formedin villages where none had existed before. Committees reported to food supply officers atthe district level who took the reports seriously and took action accordingly. e Raigadcommunity requested that depot dealers display quota details, list rates, and list the RationVigilance Committee members by name. eir requests for receipts for items purchaseddeterred false records by shop owners.is single initiative with Swades more than doubled the reach of the LocalParticipation and Sustainability program. e exciting results inspired the SMSF team toset a goal for identifying more nonprofit organizations with the potential for replicatingsimilar initiatives in their own areas across rural India and in more areas where the teamwas already working. As with every potential partnership, profiles of all the organizations’missions and visions were reviewed for commonality of interest, synergy, and thepotential for an action plan.e Rural Research team had tracked Local Participation and Sustainability outcomesquantitatively since 2013, but determining the exact numbers of beneficiaries of thetrainings was difficult since the results in infrastructure construction mainly includedroads, drains, and ponds. However, the team could now demonstrate the number ofcitizens who benefited from better delivery of services from the Public DistributionSystem, Mid-Day Meal program, Integrated Child Development Services, and otherprograms.As more village champions sought election to School Management committees(SMCs), they had the authority to monitor schools and teachers’ attendance, check thequality of Mid-Day Meals, and supervise school budgets. Ten to twelve members wereelected for two-year terms by parents of schoolchildren. As a result of the villagers’willingness to join these legally mandated committees, a record 751 champions wereselected as members of SMCs in Mewat in 2015. Of these, 107 were selected aschairpersons, and fifty-one as vice chairs. For so many champions to be motivated to thisextent was a significant achievement.An example of their ability to create positive change was the result of theirmonitoring of SMC accounts. State governments had allocated Rs. 400 per student togovernment schools. School uniforms were to be distributed twice a year to children inclasses one through eight. Each boy was to be given a shirt, long pants, a tie, socks, shoes,a belt, and one woolen pullover sweater. Each girl was to receive a salwar kameez(traditional dress), a chunni (headscarf), a tie, socks, shoes, and one woolen pulloversweater. Intervention by newly elected committee members facilitated the appropriatedistribution of school uniforms to the students.Community radio continued to be a powerful tool for spreading empowermentmessages in the Mewat district and in new partnerships with community radio stations in

other districts. e team played a leadership role in community radio by sharing theirown innovative programming packages with leaders in sister stations that didn’t have theirown programming. Radio outreach and talk programs spread to universities, institutes ofrural development, and district legal services authorities, and aroused the interest of morefoundations, corporations, and NGOs.Promoting the Local Participation and Sustainability concept through communityradio and publications, with support from legal service authorities across India, werevaluable strategies for empowering citizens to participate in making their village-levelinstitutions more functional and improving the operation of key government programs.e advancement of dignified human existence across rural India could only berealized through the involvement of all citizens. e team saw that those most likely torecognize the value and uniqueness of the model included development practitioners andthose interested in development work: lawyers, human rights workers, jurists, law schoolacademics, legal aid workers, street law practitioners, paralegals, legal literacy andempowerment missionaries, social scientists, and economists. eir appreciation andsupport was essential to reach all of rural India.Law students were ideal candidates for helping to strengthen legal aid clinics andsupport services; though they received no academic credit for such work, nor were lawfaculty generally acknowledged for such efforts. ough law institutes in India weremandated by bar councils to assist legal aid clinics as part of their curriculum, this wasmore on paper than in practice. Corrective steps made by the team to overcome theconstraint included actively supporting any programs that made legal services available,and strengthening those that showed promise on paper but were yet to be fullyfunctional.e team also explored the interests of academic programs in social sciences that hadcommunity outreach programs as part of their curriculums. e Strengthening VillageLevel Institutions program was a natural fit with social sciences departments. In manyuniversities, students pursuing master’s degrees in this area received credit for communityoutreach. Faculty members were responsible for handling assignments in adopted villageswhere villagers identified their own priorities, prepared plans, and undertook holisticdevelopment of their communities. An advantage in persuading social sciencedepartments to replicate Local Participation and Sustainability initiatives was thatprogram engagement with communities achieved results without requiring much capitalinvestment. Universities did not typically have funds for capital investment, but they hadhuman resources in the form of bright students with skills to conduct community-leveltrainings.Unnat Bharat Abhiyan (advance India campaign), a program to uplift rural India, wasa promising opportunity for collaboration with technical institutes to promote citizen

participation. Launched in late 2014 by India’s Ministry of Human ResourceDevelopment, the program asked central/state government-funded institutes to adopt acluster of “backward” gram panchayats for development. Law schools and universitysocial sciences departments supported promoting such initiatives in principle, but thepotential for actively replicating the models was unknown.e team’s plan was to continue to organize legal literacy camps, collaborate with lawschools and other educational institutions, partner with other NGOs and corporations toshare program templates and training materials, utilize the power of community radio,and train and inspire individuals and groups.Because the team knew well that real change would not take place until citizens feltownership in the implementation of their government programs, components of theLocal Participation and Sustainability program were now embedded in each SMSFproposal and agreement with corporations on every project in Water Management,Agriculture Development, or other initiative.Occasional challenges to the expansion of initiatives came from a fewcorporate/business sector leaders who preferred to provide less-direct support forcommunity services, such as health camps and school supplies, rather than empoweringcommunities with information and skills to express their needs. A manufacturing plantthat employed a few hundred laborers voiced their fear that, if their workers became moreeducated on such issues, they might strike for higher wages. Some NGOs did not want torisk a change from the status quo.e SMSF team was determined to keep their attention focused on finding solutionsto any constraints. ey had never turned away from a challenge. After all, their workhad begun in a part of rural India that many NGOs had written off—even governmentreports had called Mewat “development resistant.”An added feature of SMSF’s anniversary celebrations was the publication of abiography about the founders. Seeds for Change: e Lives and Work of Suri and EddaSehgal by Marly Cornell was originally intended for a small audience of family, friends,and the S M Sehgal Foundation team. However, by the time the book was published in2014, Suri and Edda Sehgal were finally convinced to allow the book to be madeavailable to the public.Deeply humble by nature, Suri and Edda Sehgal had never even told their ownchildren about the hardships and dangers they each endured in their childhoods, theirrefugee pasts, or the historical figures and events that were part of their extraordinarylives. Upon reading Seeds for Change, lifelong friends and colleagues of the Sehgalsexpressed their wonder at the astonishing information that provided new insight into whySuri and Edda were so committed to making a positive difference in the lives of the ruralpoor in India. Missouri Botanical Garden Press offered to distribute the book, and the

biography won multiple literary honors. Award-winning publisher was added to thefoundation’s accolades.Book launch parties were held in Hyderabad and Gurgaon. At the Hyderabad booklaunch party, several people attended who had worked for the Sehgals at Proagro. Onegentleman said tearfully that those years at Proagro were the “most happy times” of hislife. Several agreed that without Proagro, the growth of the seed industry in India wouldhave been much slower—that every key figure in the seed industry had some connectionto Proagro.Touched at hearing these comments, Suri thought hopefully, Perhaps the same canhappen in the social services sector with the help of the foundation.e final fifteen-year anniversary celebration was held at the SMSF’s campusheadquarters in Gurgaon. e program included entertainment, conversation, cocktails,and dinner. e SMSF team and international attendees included trustees, advisors,partners, representatives of academia, and diplomats. Suri Sehgal welcomed the guests onbehalf of himself and Edda and thanked all the team members, partners, and others inattendance. In his brief remarks, he said, “When we started our work in India, we madethree important decisions to ensure impact. First, we must be credible, transparent, andaccountable. We must rekindle hope, to help change the villagers’ mindset to one ofhopefulness—to show them that change is possible. And finally, anything we do must bemeasurable, scalable, and sustainable.”He underlined his unwavering awareness that “development must be community-ledto be sustainable” before adding that the most overarching truth learned in the previousfifteen years was the true power of empowerment. “An empowered individual can createmiracles if given an opportunity, guidance, and support.” He reminded guests ofMargaret Mead’s certainty, “Never doubt that a small group of committed citizens canchange the world; indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”Suri concluded with what he termed a “humble request”: “Let us work together tomeet the unmet needs of the rural poor. Let us rekindle hope and offer the poor clearpaths to prosperity, justice, and human dignity.”CEO Jane Schukoske continued the welcome, describing the SMSF campus and itsplatinum LEED-certified Green buildings as a hub for innovative thinking and problemsolving. She shared highlights of SMSF’s programs and interventions over the past fifteenyears that created opportunity, built resilience, and solved pressing social, economic, andenvironmental challenges in some of India’s poorest communities. She acknowledged theskilled SMSF team and thanked the many partners who were “critical to our expansionand learning.”Jane’s annual report from the CEO to the team that year reaffirmed the “criticallyimportant work” still to be done with village communities. She quoted Suri: “We are

clear on our mission and vision and have a clear plan. We have solid, eager partners. Wehave sound experience, a good reputation, and an able team. We realize that resultsmatter.”22. A critical need for water storage structures prompted a water storage collaboration on 4,500 arid acres atICRISAT in Hyderabad in 2009. e resulting water body was named Suri Sehgal Lake.

Expanded Teams and PartnershipsSeveral members of the S M Sehgal Foundation team had worked previously with theSehgals in their highly successful seed businesses, Proagro Group, within a dynamic workenvironment where employees continued to learn, evolve, and grow. Suri and Eddabelieved that every individual success was a shared success. A collective goal in all Sehgalbusinesses, and at SMSF, was for employees to feel vested in successful outcomes. epriority for hiring new people was to identify individuals who felt respect for the issuesand values represented by SMSF. Being good at a job was important, but the fit with theteam was essential. Solution-oriented people fit best—those who looked for possibilitiesrather than barriers, what can be done rather than what is wrong.From executives and trustees to interns and volunteers, every team member waswelcomed and expected to take part in open and honest dialogue. Sharing opinions andoffering suggestions, and acting on shared values, were considered fundamentalresponsibilities. Never a monopoly of one mind, all ideas were considered, every voicemattered. International visitors frequently mentioned being amazed to hear the sameobjectives articulated when they met staff on a one-to-one basis.Such a model requires strong leadership, individuals who pull the team together,motivate others, and keep the team focused and clear on the messages. Core leaders weretasked with making sure that all team members had the support and resources required todo their work and also continue to learn. Leaders took everyone’s aspirations intoconsideration. Paths to upward mobility were defined through horizontal or verticalexpansions of responsibility, and roles and responsibilities were expanded and rewarded inkind.

SMSF leaders clearly articulated the organization’s vision for the future and whereemployees and departments fit into the big picture, reinforcing objectives to be fulfilledby the team as a whole. Strategy meetings emphasized interdepartmental decisionmaking. e ideal result was for decisions and behaviors to be in sync with a sharedvision. Involvement in SMSF’s operational design tended to foster stronger team spiritand positive morale, which more naturally translated into achievements in the field.Dedicated SMSF staff members tended to be passionate about their work, andtypically enjoyed being out in the field, interacting within the community. ey becamefamiliar with each other’s work so they could work collaboratively as needed, as well asindependently in their given roles. If gaps developed, the focus on legal and ethicalcorrectness kept the organization moving in the right direction while seeking the rightsolutions.Ramesh Kapahi described an instance during an informal meeting in early summer2015 to illustrate the kind of ownership and engagement felt by team members at everylevel of the organization: Housekeeping staff reported that the building’s water storagetanks were almost empty, monsoon rains were due, and the contractors hired to removethe silt from the tanks had not shown up. e housekeeping team immediatelyvolunteered to come in that weekend to take care of the silt removal.Ramesh noted, “e housekeepers noticed a problem and suggested a solution theycould take care of themselves (and of course they were compensated for the extra work),”adding, “Most importantly, with that type of mutual respect and team commitment, wemotivate each other.”As SMSF teams evolved, systems and procedures evolved. As partnerships with villagesbecame more numerous, Suri and Edda Sehgal continued to be invited to thecommunities to meet people and see the work firsthand. ey participated in as manyvisits, events, and celebrations as possible during the weeks they spent each year in India.ey shared the villagers’ excitement when seeing their successes. ey listened to teammembers, collected qualitative information, heard suggestions and complaints, mentoredand motivated, and facilitated and built team spirit, as they kept a finger on the pulse ofthe organization.e manner in which SMSF teams work together, within rural villages and withpartners throughout the world, has remained a dynamic process that continues to developand change as new information and needs are identified. With growth andtransformation a constant, job titles and project names may change, but the overallmission and vision remain steady.Outside the core staff, field staff, and research staff, the many people coming to SMSFincluded an extraordinary range of visitors, interns, and volunteers. Community-led

development has been promoted by offering opportunities to young people to help themenvision themselves as global citizens. In the early years, the team scouted for interns andsoon began receiving applications from schools around the world. Interns brought freshperspectives and ideas to SMSF initiatives with hands-on projects in all program areas andserved as valuable brand ambassadors.SMSF has hosted hundreds of interns and a steady number of volunteers, includinghigh school students, undergraduates and those pursuing master’s degrees and advancedstudies from colleges and universities in India, the US, Canada, and Europe. Acontinuing stream of interns is always in the pipeline, including Borlaug-Ruan internsselected by the World Food Prize Foundation.Guidance has been provided to students from academic institutions such as St.Catherine University, Georgetown University McDonough School of Business, HarvardLaw School, University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University, Iowa State University,University of California-Berkeley, University of Baltimore, Purdue University, Universityof Nevada Las Vegas, University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Florida, DrakeUniversity, Cornell University, Johns Hopkins University, Washington University in St.Louis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Creighton University, Grinnell College,Davidson College, University of Texas at Austin, Virginia Tech, Rice University, andUniversity of Michigan; the University of York, and the School of Oriental and AfricanStudies (SOAS) University of London; the University of Southern Denmark; andEHESS/School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences, and Toulouse School ofEconomics in France.Virtual internships have been accommodated as well. To further strengthen access tojustice at the grassroots level, a virtual internship collaboration was created with threeinterns from the Australian National University. eir work provided valuable insightsand recommendations for how law students can be more effectively integrated into thefunctioning of community legal aid clinics in India.SMSF work has also attracted the interest of highly skilled professionals who offertheir expertise in volunteer capacities. One such volunteer came by way of an opportunemeeting with Suri Sehgal, when he and Edda were in Tokyo to meet potential partners inMarch 2011. A devastating earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan halted plans for theevent. Research scientist Satoko Okamoto was one of only eleven attendees to show upfor what was to be a large reception that evening in Tokyo. As a result of meeting withSuri, Satoko traveled to India and stayed for two years, sharing her skills with the SMSFRural Research team, organizing events and seminars, and assisting with grant proposals.Jane Schukoske credited Satoko’s precise work on an application that resulted in receivinga grant from the Embassy of Japan.

Dutchman Jan Dirk Geertsema, an esteemed organizational and leadershipconsultant, who provided annual training workshops to SMSF teams from 2004 until2010, and thereafter as needed, joined the Council of Advisors. An. His skills in strategicalignment and leadership principles helped to build and keep the team work culture insync with SMSF’s stated goals. Anjali Godyal partnered with him from 2006 onward,conducting leadership and behavioral change workshops for the field teams.Many gifted people have shared their hearts and skills with S M Sehgal Foundation.Trustees, advisors, consultants, and associates over the years have been a treasure trove ofastonishing human beings, and benefactors who share SMSF’s values and vision fordevelopment in rural India. e distinguished men and women who have served asadvisors and trustees (voting members) have been experts and practitioners, accomplishedin their respective fields, who have generously shared their wisdom and experience toassist in governing the organization. In alignment with SMSF’s mission and interests,these academics, economists, scientists, business and financial leaders, engineers, andmentors have provided their visionary leadership, and technical insights into the coreareas of the work and helped to enhance SMSF’s sustainable approach to ruraldevelopment outcomes. eir areas of expertise include water management and security,agriculture development and science-based solutions and practices, women’sempowerment and social and gender equity, soil conservation and ecological revival, localparticipation and building local leadership, and dignified, health-oriented, rural living.Individual trustees and advisors have motivated and mentored field teams, broughtpractical experience to culturally sensitive programming in girl’s education and childdevelopment; enhanced transparency and strengthened community buy-in, and helpedthe programs reflect the needs and aspirations of the villagers. eir guidance has alsocome in areas of fiscal inclusion, compliance, institution building, evidenced-basedplanning and impact assessment in regard to poverty alleviation and inclusivedevelopment.Mr. M.D. Asthana, who came from a distinguished career in the IndianAdministrative Services, was a valuable asset as a member of the SMSF Council ofAdvisors for eighteen years. As a highly ethical “law abider,” who always advocated for andpromoted Government policy, his continued guidance and unwavering supportsignificantly strengthened SMSF’s operational capacity. His credibility in public serviceenabled the achievement of several important milestones such as when the team wasestablishing the community radio station, while forging a strategic partnership with theNational Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, and when assisting SMSFin reaching solar energy efficiency goals. Later during the global pandemic, he helpedwith the approval of a COVID-19 relief grant, enabling timely and much-neededsupport for affected communities.

AVM Surinder Sahni, a retired officer of the Indian Air Force and formeradministrative officer, was a mentor and trustee to SMSF for almost a decade in the earlyyears, contributing visionary leadership to several core areas. His technical insights helpedthe Water Management team improve the effectiveness and longevity of water harvestingstructures. A key area of his support was harvesting water run-off to recharge the aquifer.His recommendation of project interventions along the Aravali hills and vetiver grassplantations to boost groundwater recharge and soil conservation resulted in significantwater retention and ecological revival of native rootstock. His hands-on involvement inwater management served as an informal quality audit and provided consistentmotivation and mentorship to the field teams. AVM Sahni helped to spearhead theAgriculture Development team’s introduction of biochar and charcoal briquetteproduction using crop residues and tree pruning. His strategic input helped reduceproduction costs, develop practical marketing strategies, and enable SMSF to pilot viableeco-friendly fuel alternatives.A vocal proponent of women’s empowerment, AVM Sahni also emphasized its criticalimportance to rural development outcomes. His helping the team shape the villagechampion training curriculum was critical in building local leadership. Further, headvocated for a holistic approach to village sanitation, recommending an aim for 100percent adoption of household latrines, wastewater management, and soak pits across allmodel villages. His recommendations reflected a vision for dignified, health-orientedrural living that guided program priorities. His enduring wisdom and commitmentcontinue to serve as a cornerstone of SMSF’s mission and impact.A trustee for seven years, Ms. Jayshree Balachander provided valuable insights tostrengthen SMSF’s focus on community engagement and sustainability. During her visitto the demonstration village at Notki, she appreciated the quality and impact of theinitiatives underway and offered constructive feedback to further enhance long-termeffectiveness, emphasizing that core programs must expand to effectively transform ruralcommunities. She underscored the importance of community contribution andownership as pillars of sustainability. Her thoughtful observations and strategic directioncontributed to SMSF’s continuing evolution as a community-rooted, ethically driven,and impact-focused institution.Trustee Dr. Suhas P. Wani, a renowned expert in natural resource management, hasbeen a trustee of SMSF for fifteen years as of this writing. He has contributedsignificantly to advancing soil health and water resource sustainability in ruralcommunities. He helped the Agriculture team develop a comprehensive soil healthmanagement model tailored to specific needs of the Mewat region, and supported theteam’s efforts to map soil nutrient profiles to guide better practices. His guidance has beeninstrumental in enabling farmers to adopt nutrient-sensitive soil management forimproved productivity and long-term soil vitality.

Dr. Wani’s strategic insights have also enriched SMSF’s approach to groundwaterrecharge and sustainable water use. He helped the Water Management team craftinnovative, participatory models for water security in water-stressed and drought-proneareas, and promoted an-integrated, science-informed, community-driven approach tonatural resource management. His support reinforced the SMSF mission to improverural resilience and sustainability.Contributions by advisors and trustees have helped in shaping SMSF’s ResearchCenter into a hub for successful models of development, knowledge exchange, and crosslearning, with a systems-thinking perspective to create interconnected outcomes, longterm sustainability, and real-world impact measurement. During the sensitive time of thefatwa, trustees guided and supported the team to navigate with empathy, patience, andstrategic clarity to ensure respectful, inclusive, and sustainable interactions, models, andsolutions. e entire SMSF team and leadership continues to value and appreciate theguidance and leadership added by this extraordinary group of people who have been sogenerous in sharing their knowledge and talents to help empower rural India.At the all-important village level, SMSF has been privileged to play a part in thecareer development of village champions, guides, trainees, and field staff, many of whomcame from the same communities where foundation work has been or is still being done.Many have been subsequently recruited for coveted government jobs. eir ongoingcommitment and work excellence remains a source of great satisfaction for the entireteam.Members of the field team have been instrumental in every successful SMSFendeavor. e courage and heroism of this well-trained and high-quality group of peoplefrom the local villages have been evident at every critical juncture. eir participation wasessential again and again in overcoming obstacles, ignorance, and complacency.By mid-2015, seventy of the 125 members of the field team were on the regularpayroll. e rest were part of a team brought in for specific projects. All were well-trainedand readily willing to articulate their shared mission. ose numbers increasedsignificantly with the rapid growth of projects and partnerships that began later in thecontinuing expansion of CSR projects and partners.Razia, whose extensive work at SMSF’s community radio station was described inChapter 11, is an example of someone from the villages of Mewat who worked at SMSFfor several years, and served as a powerful role model for her community. She and twoothers from the original radio broadcast team, Arshad Ayub and Javed Hussain, createdsuch impressive radio programming on health and hygiene that their skills and talentswere sought by the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM). Razia accepted a job thereas district coordinator while still remaining active on the radio station’s community

advisory committee. At least eight SMSF employees were hired by NRHM within thefirst few years of the community radio broadcasting initiative.One of the first trained village champions, Mubarik Husain, was initially assigned tothe village of Notki. Over the next five years, his excellent work there was rewarded withtwo promotions, first to block facilitator with oversight of other village champions, andthen as an assistant program leader. After three years in that role, Mubarik accepted aposition with Haryana State Rural Livelihood Mission (HSRLM), which implementsNRHM programs at the state, district, and block level. Mubarik was hired as the districtprogram manager of training and capacity building. He is one of three people trainedand employed by SMSF to go on to work at HSRLM.Community mobilizer and sociologist B.R. Poonia often spoke with warmth andpride about these talented former employees who continued to do development workelsewhere. Good work done by SMSF “alumni” from the village communities is evidenceof the efficacy of their training and experience. He noted that Mubarik Husain, Razia,Arshad Ayub, Javed Hussain, and many others who continue to make an impact in thedevelopment field elsewhere represent “the legacy of S M Sehgal Foundation.”e empowerment generated by SMSF’s respect-based, nonhierarchical businessmodel extended beyond the employee teams and into the community. As respect wasalways modeled first by founders Suri and Edda Sehgal, team members continued towork to earn the respect of the people in the villages.Team members frequently described Suri Sehgal as a thorough gentleman whosesubtle and humble manner always made those around him feel comfortable and valued,and Edda Sehgal as a thoughtful and stabilizing force in all circumstances. An attentivelistener in team meetings, Edda’s talent for analyzing and synthesizing complexinformation, then expressing it briefly and simply, inspired team members to say, “Shealways makes sense.” Like Suri, Edda is also known for conveying advice discreetly andremembering small personal details about others, such as a team member’s preference fora certain type of treat. She would, months later perhaps, show up with that treat as a gift.Suri and Edda Sehgal’s focus on people and their growth and development has been akey component of every SMSF decision and action. Each training, whether in the field,in leadership sessions, or in time spent capacity building, is an investment in people.According to Suri Sehgal, “When you build up people’s capacity, human capital willdeliver.”e appreciation that people involved with SMSF feel for each other and for theirwork is evidenced by the way so many, from every level within the organization, continueto stay connected to SMSF in various ways. Several members of the original core teamwere still with the foundation at year fifteen and thereafter, still humble and stilldetermined, as they continued to adapt to the evolving needs of the communities and thescope of the work required to meet those needs.

When Suri and Edda Sehgal were each asked to consider S M Sehgal Foundation’slegacy at year fifteen, Suri began, “To create sustainable social impact requires acombination of invention, innovation, and entrepreneurship. Invention is the creationof new ideas, science, or technology. Innovation is applying an idea or invention to aproduct or service that creates value. Entrepreneurship is the replication or scaling up ofan innovation to create sustainable social impact. Sustainability of projects or programs isa challenge every NGO and business faces. We have seen this dilemma wheneversomething we completed was not sustained by the community. Local participation was aninternally tested idea. e application of the idea and initially testing it in six villages wasthe innovative step. e entrepreneurial application on a large scale (hundreds of villagesand more than twice that, counting Swades’ reach) has had a huge social impact!Furthermore, it assures the sustainability of the projects by the community.”Edda added, “We were tackling something complex from the beginning. oughsome organizations build one hospital or one school, our goal was to develop the people.Developing skills in people is growing in momentum, but that takes time. India is a bigand complex country. Suri often thinks of SMSF as like running a business, but thepeople with whom we work don’t see it that way. ey work with their hearts. Everyonewas so busy doing so many simple concrete things that it took time to adapt to anunderstanding of the larger mission. Over time and many meetings in small groups, wefigured out where we were going. Prior to 2011, the sense of hope was vague. But then wereally saw the potential. e employees saw the benefit, and so did the people in thevillages. Seeing some village women become leaders reinforced hope in the community.Changing mindsets is slow, especially with multiple generations living in the samehousehold and strong elder influence. Women in the rural villages still lack economicindependence and economic security. Even if they earn a paycheck, the money goes tothe men. Obedience and independence work at cross purposes.”Suri agreed that, “Development is a slow process. Experimentation takes time. Didwe take too much time in experimenting with ideas before deciding on what to scale up?ere have been detours and changes along the way, which may have been confusing toemployees at times. But I don’t think we could have done anything differently.”Offering a metaphor from his career as a seedsman and scientist, he explained, “Incorn breeding, we look for one ‘crown jewel,’ an inbred line that combines well withother inbred lines to create a high-yielding hybrid. We screen hundreds of thousands ofsamples to find one. To find a model that creates effective impact that is scalable andsustainable is like finding a needle in a haystack. When we find what really works in thevillages, adoption by the communities can be relatively quick.”He continued, “Getting people involved is the trick to sustainability. Participation isnecessary. Once people begin to see results, change begins to happen. SMSF has manystrengths—grassroots knowledge, some financial security, a professional and committed

core team—and more focus than ever with the Local Participation and Sustainabilityprogram. is is a key element in the total development strategy. We are now on the righttrack; we have models to implement. We will continue to seek more partners,demonstrate our credibility, implement projects as perfectly as possible, finish them ontime, and keep our partners fully satisfied. Changing mindsets is not easy. We must keepour own minds open, be willing to change but stick with what works. We use notextbook model at SMSF. We learn by doing. e Local Participation and Sustainabilityprogram is a sophisticated tool for creating hope. By teaching villagers about the value oftheir participation and leadership within their local institutions, citizens can see results oftheir own actions; they are engaged, enabled, and empowered to take responsibility fortheir own development. ere is power in empowerment. Despair is transformed intohope. is is our strength—our legacy.”SMSF continues to invest in excellent people, technology, and state-of-the-artfacilities to serve as a premier learning platform for rural development and povertyreduction in India. e strategic alignment process continued from year to year to keepthe organization’s purpose, values, models, processes, responsibilities, culture, and peopletogether, and attract more partners to the effort.As SMSF work extended to more villages and communities, more success stories,grounded in real experiences, were available to be told. Social media was booming acrossthe country, and the Communications team began experimenting with different formats,tailoring content to fit each platform to resonate with the new variety of stakeholders.e approach evolved to match SMSF’s growth with the pace of media and technology toreach intended audiences in more meaningful ways.A significant and powerful shift began during this transition in how SMSF’s mediaand partnership communications conveyed overall narratives when describing the work,and particularly the people, in the communities being served. Recognizing that paststories from the field focused so much on struggle, perhaps unintentionally, depictingvillagers as helpless, powerless, and anchored to the past, the team moved away from thatframing. In keeping with the concept of “positive deviance” in communications, the teamembraced the understanding that solutions often already exist within communities, andthe team’s role was to find and share those stories with a new mindset and focus.Communications team lead, Pooja Murada explained, “Development communicationsshould inspire a sense of agency, while staying true to the realities on the ground. Apositive deviance approach offers a much more refreshing way to approach change thatgrows from within communities themselves.”Rather than putting so much emphasis on villagers’ problems, SMSF’scommunications in all media forms would showcase villagers who had faced challenges orproblems and found unique and successful solutions, achieving empowering outcomes

themselves with minimal support from the foundation. All SMSF newsletters, articles,and other external communications shared authentic and hopeful stories.When Jane Schukoske’s tenure as CEO came to an end in June 2016, her roletransitioned to advisor to S M Sehgal Foundation. Suri Sehgal said of Jane, “She has beeneffective and successful in continuing to raise the professionalism of our staff with solidteam development and training that is heavy on communication, dialogue, and consensusbuilding—the same respectful, participatory approach she brought to communitydevelopment. She established vital academic and diplomatic linkages that are benefitingthe organization, assisting in creating more partnerships, and furthering citizenengagement approaches for local participation. She has added vitality to the foundation.”With Jane’s departure as CEO, Ajay Panday returned to SMSF as CEO. When he’dleft SMSF in 2009 to teach at Jindal Global Law School, he stayed on in the role asadvisor and consultant. He launched an annual internship program between theuniversity and SMSF that provided law students with opportunities to serve communitiesin legal aid clinics, and he continued to help build the Local Participation andSustainability program. Ajay said, “I was very happy to return, as I knew there was morefor me to do for the S M Sehgal Foundation vision and mission.”Ajay’s focus was now on greater expansion of SMSF’s programs and projects beyondMewat. e annual operating budget would be enhanced with more donors and projectsas a goal.

Scaling UpAs S M Sehgal Foundation’s partnership portfolio expanded due to India’s CorporateSocial Responsibility (CSR) mandate, the entire SMSF team expanded as well. New staffembraced the understanding about the importance of striking a balance between meetingtheir partners’ needs, addressing the communities’ needs, and ensuring the team’s capacityto deliver the agreed-upon results. All three points were essential to the long-term successand sustainability of any initiative.e team recommitted to timely responses to all partner contacts and interchanges,and 100 percent honesty in every communication. Even when sharing shortcomings, noinformation would be withheld. To nurture meaningful relationships with partnersrequired mutual respect. SMSF’s credibility in the CSR sector grew as the work gainedrecognition from key stakeholders.Support from the Sehgal family and other US partners was instrumental in attractingadditional CSR funding through annual charitable grants to SMSF in India. ese grantscovered the cost of experts and the indirect project expenses such as essential functions incommunications, financial management, compliance, and reporting. e team assuredany potential CSR partner that all project funds they gave would be directed entirelytoward project implementation and administration, ensuring maximum impact.In considering opportunities to attract more funding partnerships to expand SMSFwork, Suri Sehgal felt increasingly confident that other potential partners would includethose like him, based in the US, who were either born in India, or of Indian origin, andwould want to support development initiatives in India. A growing number of CEOs of

major companies in the US, and globally, came from India. e same was true in everyfinancially lucrative profession from medicine to investment banking.Suri observed, “To engage with these individuals so they are inspired to make somecontribution in funds or in-kind, perhaps share their expertise—but make some effort togive back to India, would be very rewarding. e need for help is so great. We need toraise the awareness of other NRIs (nonresident Indians) about the opportunity to directlyhelp their country of origin, to perhaps act on their own appreciation, particularly for thehighly subsidized educations they received in India that helped qualify them for successesthey achieved since being in the US.”As of 2016, about four million people in the US were from India or of Indian origin.India was the leading country of origin at the time for US immigrants, most of whom(78 percent) already had at least an undergraduate degree when they arrived.23 Certaincities in the US had large numbers of first- and second-generation Americans of Indianorigin. Suri hoped to determine their possible philanthropic interest in helpingdevelopment efforts in rural India.Since Suri and Edda Sehgal lived in Des Moines for twenty-four years during Dr.Sehgal’s work with Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc., the family had multiple personaland professional connections with those who could appreciate the plight of impoverishedfarmers in rural India. An informal group in Iowa, brought together at first by Jay Sehgal,along with a few friends, had raised awareness as well as funds to support SMSF projectsin India.Some schoolchildren who heard about the work were inspired to raise funds forparticular projects that would help kids like themselves in India. Students wrote letters toschoolchildren in India. ey created school projects that offered ideas and models forsolutions to problems such as water scarcity. Some of these interactions and students’creative thinking and sensitivity to the issues led to invitations to come to India. SomeUS students traveled to India and visited villages and schools to see SMSF work beingdone in person.A year before Suri and Edda Sehgal created SMSF in India in 1999, they created a501c(3) private charitable foundation, now called Sehgal Foundation (SF) in the US withsimilar goals: to drive positive social, economic, and environmental change in rural Indiaand to support worldwide conservation and biodiversity. When the Sehgals launched theseparate entity, S M Sehgal Foundation (SMSF), as a public, charitable trust in Gurgaon(now Gurugram), India, their goal was to further their vision by direct engagement inpromoting rural development. SF in the US continued to support SMSF work in Indiayear after year and partner with nonprofit entities, academic institutions, corporations,and individuals to enhance their impact across rural India.When Jay Sehgal initiated the first informal US chapter of SF in Des Moines tosupport a specific campaign to create rainwater-harvesting systems in government schools

in India and promote the advancement of women and girls, he made similar inroads in afew other parts of the country. By 2016, he’d found interested partners in Minnesota,Illinois, and Florida. He gave talks at assorted events to community and professionalgroups and also in schools, showing videos and photos of the conditions in the ruralvillages and of children in government schools who lacked basic amenities that studentsin the US took for granted.In gatherings and events to introduce SMSF to potentially interested partners in theUS (including NRIs and others around the country), a common message quicklyemerged. e most promising idea heard again and again from those offering advice onhow to make a meaningful difference with regard to some of the most challengingproblems in India’s rural villages was to support work that helped children—andespecially to help girls in rural India to have a brighter and more promising future.Reaching young people while they were in school was a way to begin changing some ofthe entrenched issues related to poverty and provide them with opportunities for a betterlife. More and more people in the US expressed interest in how to contribute specificallyto that effort.However, to make lasting change in the lives of India’s rural schoolchildrenencompassed a wide range of overlapping issues and needs that no single solution couldaccomplish. Several important problems were intertwined. Any work to make a trulylasting difference would have to identify and address the multitude of underlying factorsthat caused low school attendance and high dropout rates, especially for girls, ingovernment schools in rural India.e most obvious pressing issue that made regular school attendance difficult was thecondition of many schools. Many campuses and buildings were poorly maintained,lacked reliable electricity, and were at times unsafe. Missing gates and crumblingboundary walls meant that classes could be interrupted by cattle or other animalswandering on campus. Traffic and roadside activities distracted children’s attention fromconcentrating on their studies.Many children who attended school went home early due to the lack of sanitationfacilities, separate toilets for girls, and no water for handwashing or drinking. Adesignated space to prepare or serve Mid-Day meals was often unusable or nonexistent.Many classrooms had no seating or desks, so students sat on dirt floors. Beer bottles,cigarette butts, and trash left during after-school hours could often be found in theunlocked classrooms.In addition to various infrastructure elements, teacher shortages and/or absenteeismwere common. School management committees (SMCs) were largely nonfunctioning.Many parents and other SMC members were unaware of their roles and responsibilitiesand/or lacked the skills to function as effective members. Some members were not evenaware they had been nominated or appointed as members.

All these factors combined to affect the quality of education and reaffirm parents’doubts about the schools. Children were not inspired to attend school, nor were parentsmotivated to send them, in spite of education being mandated for free through gradeeight.To address the many long-standing and seemingly intractable issues, and make itpossible for every schoolchild in rural India to have a brighter future, required thecreation of a highly coordinated program. Integrated measures were needed to addressand provide safety, environmental components, and learning tools.is precise goal inspired a growing interest and expectation of an ever-expandinggroup of partners in India and in the US. e development of a complete, integratedprogram was underway. Certain partners and groups came forward to support thetransformation of a specific rural government school. By the end of 2016, the new coreSMSF program was officially named: Transform Lives one school at a time.S M Sehgal Foundation teams had previously carried out many individual projects tohelp government schools in project locations where they worked, but now all schoolprojects would have a full range of improvements. All aspects of the initiative, carried outin partnership with rural communities, would create secure, healthy, and stimulatinglearning environments, and ensure all WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene)components: access to clean drinking water, sanitation facilities, and promotion ofhygienic practices.Each school would have a rainwater harvesting system and water tank, handwashingstations, separate bathrooms for boys and girls, and a separate space for Mid-Day Mealprep and serving. All safety and infrastructure issues would be addressed. Boundary wallswould be rebuilt along with main gates and signage. Classrooms would have secure doorsand windows, desks and seating, and reliable electricity.Campus paintings and educational wall writings would be added based on the BaLAconcept (Building as Learning Aid) for engaging, child-friendly, learning environments.Inspiring imagery, wall paintings, and some plantings would make school surroundingswelcoming and attractive as well as serving as added learning tools.In addition to safe WASH practices, schoolchildren would engage in participatorylearning of basic life skills, including self-confidence, decision-making, and social andemotional skill development as part of the curriculum. To bridge the divide between ruraland urban children, a digital library/smart class would be set up in the school, along withdigital literacy skill training. Learning about digital devices and the internet would morenaturally increase children’s knowledge of their own roles as participating citizens in theirvillage’s ongoing growth and development.A critical program component to ensure sustainability of the improvements includedbuilding the capacities of each School Management Committee to engage and participate

in maintaining and improving the overall functioning of their school. Work plans wereshared with local citizens ahead of project implementations to help cultivate greaterownership across the community and help to sustain the impact of the projects in thelong run.A cost-sharing element served as an effective tool to help generate accountability andassure sustainability. For villagers to share some part of the cost of the transformation hadalready proved to have a significant impact on the sense of ownership of projectinterventions and the overall effort a community put into maintaining any assets built.Each School Management Committee would collect a “community contribution,” inan amount jointly decided by the community and the SMC, to be used only foroperation and maintenance purposes. Upon completion of the infrastructure projects,responsibility for the newly “transformed” school belonged to the SMC, and the villagecommunity would be able to use the funds collected to sustain the results.With active and involved School Management Committees remaining engaged withlocal community members and school administration, school assets were safeguarded, andvandalism was minimized. Repairs were kept up in classrooms and kitchens, sanitationfacilities, and boundary walls.Before-and-after pictures of schools by community members, showing smartclassrooms for digital learning, attracted increasing attention from nearby villages.Providing a healthy and safe learning environment for children to learn and grow, alongwith improved access to essential facilities of water and sanitation in schools, resulted inincreased enrollment. More kids, especially girls, returned to school!Students were proud of their schools and looked forward to school each day. Manyfamilies who had previously sent their kids to private schools transferred them to thetransformed government schools.Dropout rates decreased, and enrollments increased in some schools by 50 percentwithin the first couple of years. Teachers from other schools also requested to betransferred to the transformed schools.e changes went beyond transforming the lives of the students and teachers.Students’ families and their entire communities were added beneficiaries. Schoolchildrenshared what they learned about WASH practices with their families, which triggered achange in the community’s health and everyone’s personal dignity. Digital literacytrainings gave students valuable information, such as eligibility criteria for programs andservices that could benefit their families. Families now accessed more programs andinformation online about scores of government services and entitlements, as well asimportant agriculture information and resources for farmers.Digital proficiency and internet access also provided students with access to the largerworld. Easy access to online educational trainings and information on subjects such as

history, science, mathematics, and geography made learning easier. Students could booktrain and bus tickets, pay utility bills, and shop online for their families. By learning howto operate smartphones, laptops, and computers, students were becoming change agentsfor rural development.Opportunities to refurbish government schools that were in fairly poor conditions incommunities across rural India made the newest SMSF program an increasingly favoredchoice of partners in the US as well as a growing number of CSR partners across India.Transform Lives one school at a time soon became a flagship SMSF program as itexpanded to wider regions.Expansion was an important goal for SMSF’s development efforts in general. Allprojects to that point were still only being done in a few states in North India: Haryana,Rajasthan, and Bihar. is was about to change.In the spring of 2016, on a visit to Hytech Seed Company in Hyderabad, as part ofSuri and Edda Sehgals’ annual stay in India, many of Suri’s well-wishers suggested thatSMSF expand its development activities into South India where the need for water wasespecially pronounced.Returning to Gurugram, Suri and Jay Sehgal discussed an expansion idea withhydrologist Salahuddin Saiphy.24 ey asked if he would be willing to establish an SMSFoperations office in Hyderabad, Telangana, and initiate projects in South India. ey felthis technical skills, development experience, and interests in handling challengingprojects made him an excellent fit for this assignment.Suri envisioned a South India team handling all program functions independently.Vital Water Management projects would be implemented along with AgricultureDevelopment and Local Participation and Sustainability projects, etc., to include effortsto promote the involvement and empowerment of women.ough relocation was not something Salahuddin had previously considered (and hedidn’t yet speak the languages used in the south), he embraced this growth opportunitywith enthusiasm. In May 2017, after successfully completing a major partnership projectalready underway in Alwar, Rajasthan, he moved with his family to Hyderabad,Telangana, becoming the first SMSF core-team member to relocate from the head officeto lead expansion in another location.is pilot project represented a broader commitment to decentralizing aspects ofSMSF work. Salahuddin would be operating with minimum dependency on the headoffice, without other program experts and specialists or local support functions. Specifictypes of decentralization in the southern states would hopefully result in newimplementation plans that SMSF could use elsewhere as greater program expansionoccurred.

Salahuddin credited the kind support from folks at Hytech Seed India Company andother partners in the region for assisting him in starting a small SMSF office inHyderabad. A few challenges to working in South India included differences inadministrative processes and securing compulsory government department permissions,the shortage of trained workers, and a certain lack of trust in NGOs by the localcommunities. As the culture of NGOs in the region did not always match SMSF corevalues (honesty, integrity, professionalism, excellence, and optimism), some time wasneeded to develop trust and credibility within the local communities.Within six months of scouting and developing a robust proposal for potential projectlocations in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, a large CSR partnership project wasapproved to construct five check dams in Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh, and to desilt andrejuvenate five water tanks (ponds) in Kolar, Karnataka. is required the simultaneousbuilding of a solid team of professionals in all three states—Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka,and Telangana, who would be prepared to take on such big projects.Local village communities in each region were reluctant at first to participate in theprojects because other organizations had cheated them in the past and vanished withoutcompleting promised work. To suggest raising even a small community contribution tocreate community ownership and long-term sustainability of project interventions wasmet with suspicion.As SMSF’s teams knew so well, this type of investment made the projects sustainablein the long run, overcoming the biggest challenge and failure of so many developmentprojects. To win community confidence, regular interactions and meetings were held thatincluded trainings about the proposed initiatives.Invitations to monitor each project from inception to execution were given toeveryone, and their full engagement throughout was encouraged. e communitycontributions were deposited in a bank account managed independently by each localcommunity to help cover long-term operations and maintenance of their new structures.As part of making the interventions sustainable in the long term, water user groups werealso formed in each community to help create the all-important community ownership inthe structures.Seeing was believing. Many villagers were astonished by the high quality of thestructures and the immediate impact of the completed projects. As a ripple effect, theteam received more requests from nearby communities and districts for SMSF to work intheir villages.During his visit to check dam sites, the superintendent engineer of the IrrigationDepartment in Anantapur expressed appreciation for SMSF, saying, “is is very highquality work being done here, and what’s more fascinating is that it is at almost half thecost of any government project.”

e completed overall initiative made such a difference that it changed the landscapeof nearby villages as well as each project village. Communities were profoundlytransformed by the improved availability of drinking water and by supplementing theirrainfed agriculture. Farmers went from planting a single crop of groundnut to plantingtwo or three high-value crops with a multi-cropping pattern. is increased theavailability of fodder for more milch animals and increased milk production.Many beneficiaries elaborated on the impact of check dams. Adi-narayanappa, aresident of Kodur village in Anantapur who owned four acres of land spread over threeparcels, had previously invested a large amount of his hard-earned money to constructseven bore wells, but only one or two bore wells worked. ree of his dry bore wells wererejuvenated by check dams the SMSF team constructed in his village. Adinarayanappasaw considerable improvement in the groundwater levels and yields. He could finallyirrigate all his parcels of land and multi-crop with high-value crops to earn good profits.He was able to meet his family’s needs for healthcare and education and, eventually, addanother floor to his house.In addition to reducing migration from the local villages to the cities in Bangaloreand Anantapur for labor work, many other ecological and environmental benefitsresulted from year-round availability of water stored in check dams. Along with thewater-harvesting structures, such as the check dams, recharge wells, ponds, etc., thedesilting and rejuvenation of traditional tanks in Kolar, South India, led to increasedwater storage and enhanced groundwater recharging.e tank silt, which is rich in nutrients, was used by farmers in their agriculturalfields. e improved soil health and water retention capacity, along with the reduceddemand of fertilizers, pesticides, insecticides, etc., led to a doubling of crop yields. eproduce was good quality, and the crops brought good prices in the market.As a civil engineer for the Water Management program projects, Pawan Kaswanjoined the South India team in Hyderabad in 2018. He assisted in developing a workingmodel of a rooftop rainwater harvesting system at the Rural Technology Park at theNational Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj (NIRD&PR). e purposewas to showcase the model for community members, panchayati raj institutions,government officials, and others.Representatives from various countries came to NIRD&PR to learn more about newdevelopment advancements. e same model was used in government schools as part ofthe overall Transform Lives one school at a time projects completed in the South Indiaregion. Kaswan would eventually go on to train other civil engineers for more of SMSF’sproject locations, providing support in infrastructure planning, scoping, and proposaldevelopment.Back in Gurugram, principle scientist Lalit Sharma was working on ideas andinterventions to be incorporated by the Water Management team to address major

challenges to safe drinking water, including salinity, iron, microbial contamination,arsenic, and fluoride. Lalit’s role had shifted from direct implementation of waterconservation projects to leading Water Research and Training and designing andpromoting adaptive technologies to improve the quality of drinking water. He wanted tocreate a better biosand water filter.A universal concrete model had been designed and promoted by the Centre forAffordable Water and Sanitation Technologies (CAWST) in Canada, and SMSF wasamong several NGOs promoting the model in India. To find a better, more-lightweightoption, Lalit and Salahuddin had previously worked together with several vendors todevelop prototypes using PVC pipe and stainless steel fabricators, finally using a stainlesssteel shell. Lalit upgraded and refined that version, making it much easier to move. enew filter was named JalKalp.Integration of the germicidal properties of copper into the model increased itsmicrobial removal efficacy. e low-cost, innovative design required no ongoingmaintenance costs. An excellent technology, the project team sought funding to promotethe JalKalp. e model was popular in Bihar, and its implementation spread to severalstates.To assist other grassroots organizations and hopefully further increase the beneficiarybase, Lalit conducted trainings in collaboration with CAWST Canada, and implementeda few projects on interconnected WASH issues, such as Project WASH for HealthyHomes that was conceptualized with community interaction in Bihar.However, the JalKalp model was only being adopted by about 10 percent of thevulnerable populations. ough economical in the long run, the initial one-time cost wasbeyond the ready-cash affordability of many villagers. So Lalit started work on an ultralow-cost model that could match the affordability of even the poorest families whoneeded it most.Once funding was received in 2016 for the promotion of water filter technology andto start the development of a new, lower-cost ceramic pot filter, Lalit also began to studyand collect more information on fluoride and fluorosis. His work and continuingresearch had been affected in a powerful way during a local village visit two years earlier,in 2014, when he met a woman who was suffering from skeletal fluorosis caused byexcessive fluoride in the local drinking water.Deeply disturbed by her extreme suffering, he recalled, “Her joints were so ‘frozen’ instiffness and pain that she could not even brush away the mosquito biting her face.”Greatly troubled by this woman’s painful condition, Lalit was determined to find asolution to help people like her and prevent this painful, crippling disease.A worldwide health problem, fluoride contamination in groundwater is a serioushealth hazard in much of India in varied concentrations. e same common element,

which can cause dental cavities when missing, can badly damage teeth, bones, joints, andother systems and organs in the body when ingested in large amounts.Knowing that groundwater deemed “within prescribed safe limits” of fluoride stillmight not be safe, Lalit wanted to develop a risk-free, sustainable, low-cost filtertechnology to remove fluoride from drinking water—and he wanted that technology tobe so robust that a village household could use and maintain it without external support.He devoted the next few years to this effort while working with CAWST, training otherNGOs, and conducting more-in-depth drinking water research.Lalit also began working on an ultra-low-cost water filter model. e JalKalp filterwas an excellent technology, and most economical in long run with no recurringmaintenance cost in a lifetime, but it was only adopted by about 10 percent of vulnerablepopulations due to the cost.While the new technology was in development, Lalit’s fluorosis research brought himinto contact with others working on the same subject in some way. is prompted him tocreate a comprehensive, structured fluoride and fluorosis mitigation training that includedbuilding community awareness.e team’s fluoride research efforts were given added momentum in 2018 when theAlfaz E Mewat team reported receiving a listener call during the broadcast of a regularhealth segment. e caller was a Mewati villager who wanted health workers to come tohis village because “most of us” in the village had terrible pain in their knees.Lalit went to the village, accompanied by a district level fluorosis consultant, toconduct a water test. e fluoride level in that village and the surrounding areas wasfound to be very high. is disturbing information helped catalyze a public awarenesscampaign efforts that were furthered by plays and songs aired daily on the radio station.Alfaz E Mewat launched an eight-episode program series called Fluorosis Se Jung(battle with fluorosis). e radio jockeys assisted in distributing Moringa saplings to callerswho phoned-in to say they had symptoms of fluorosis. Moringa oleifera powder/tea (fromthe seeds, leaves, and/or bark) inhibits the growth of pathogens in water, and itsantioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antimicrobial properties has been found to reducefluoride levels in the body.25 In addition Moringa is rich in vitamins and minerals,particularly vitamin C, calcium, and magnesium. Community media continued tohighlight vital information and identify resources for the community.26Another member of the water team, Aparajeeta, joined Lalit’s team in a formalfluoride and fluorosis prevalence study the same year. e study involved analysis of watersamples from 1,166 sources in 317 selected villages, surveying 41,564 children for dentalfluorosis, and conducting 1,350 focus-group discussions with fluoride-vulnerablecommunities. e team began submitting their findings to a number of scientificpublications.

In addition to assessing the prevalence of skeletal fluorosis among communitymembers, focus group discussions were held to sensitize people about the link betweenfluoride in water and the disease, and to help build awareness about prevention, control,and management of fluorosis; and promote the plantation of Moringa trees to make afree local source for consumption of the dried leaf powder.Lalit and Aparajeeta conducted the first training of doctors and other medical staffworking in the fluorosis-endemic district of Rewari in 2019. at training resulted in aNational Health Mission nomination for the resource pool of the NPPCF (NationalProgram for Prevention and Control of Fluorosis). eir expertise was circulatedinternally within the government health system. More districts invited the team fortrainings. e team’s first research publication on technology development for fluorideremoval was published that September.When a new MatiKalp water filter design was finalized by the end of 2019, Lalittrained a village potter’s family to produce the model. e cost was less than one sixth thecost of JalKalp.27 Steady production began in January 2020 but almost stopped for a yeardue to COVID. Ten production units were in continuous production thereafter untilthree cottage units and one industrial-scale unit were established. SMSF helped buildproduction capacity and provided technical support.23. MPI Spotlight. J. Zong and J. Batalova. Migration Policy Institute, 8/31/17; and MPI Spotlight. J. Zong, JBatalova, and J. Hallock. Migration Policy Institute, 2/8/18. https://www.migrationpolicy.org/24. Gurgaon was in the process of being renamed Gurugram, and Mewat was renamed Nuh. e name changes weremade official in September 2016.25. “Unique antioxidant effects of herbal leaf tea and stem tea from Moringa oleifera L. especially on superoxideanion radical generation systems” by S. Sugahara, A. Chiyo, K. Fukuoka, et al. Biosci Biotechnol Biochem. NIHNational Library of Medicine. 2018 Nov 82(11):1973-84; and Hills, Jenny. “Scientifically Proven Benefits ofMoringa (Tea, Powder, Leaves).” Health and Natural World. Dec 11, 2021.26. “With audio plays and drumstick plants, a radio station is battling fluorosis in Haryana’s Mewat by SoumyaMathew. Scroll.in, Sept 18, 2018. https://scroll.in/magazine/892186/with-drumstick-plants-and-audio-plays-a-radio-station-is-battling-fluorosis-in-haryanas-mewat27. “Turning challenges into opportunities with MatiKalp”: A Ceramic Pot Filter by Lalit Mohan Sharma,Aparajeeta, Yashi Gautam, Sumit Singh. IOSR Journal of Environmental Science, Toxicology and Food Technology Vol17:2, Feb 2023. https://www.iosrjournals.org/iosr-jestft/papers/Vol17-Issue2/Ser-1/B1702011020.pdf and “A LowCost Solution for Arsenic in Water: Integrating ZVI Technology into Ceramic Pot Filter: MetaKalp” by Lalit MohanSharma, Aparajeeta, Yashi Gautam, and Sumit Kumar. International Journal of Science and Research, Vol 12:5, May2023. https://www.ijsr.net/getabstract.php?paperid=SR23512152240

Farmer Capacities AdvancePartnership projects in the years approaching the twentieth anniversary of S M SehgalFoundation brought valuable awareness to farmers. e emphasis on women farmersacross all initiatives resulted in quantifiable improvements in farm productivity with theuse of advanced agricultural practices, soil health management, and water-efficienttechnologies. e Agriculture Development team introduced a series of new activities thatled to increased farmer knowledge, more efficient use of resources, and better yields.In addition to the proven value of soil health testing, micronutrient supplementsadded to soil, and crop demonstrations, significant new components were introduced ineach agriculture project partnership. Water-efficient technologies included sprinklers, dripirrigation, and laser land leveling of uneven fields. e provision and use of a Package ofPractices (PoP) included specific recommendations and guidelines for sustainable farmingfrom field prep to harvesting. PoP kits provided quality seeds, need-based macro- andmicro-fertilizers and nutrients, and appropriate chemical use for disease and pest control.As part of a CSR collaboration, the SMSF team conducted a two-year agriculturalproject in several villages of district Nuh (formerly Mewat) in Haryana, that broughtpositive changes to farmers’ yield rates. Focus group discussions, interview guides, andcase studies were used to analyze the outcomes of project components with regard tofarmers’ awareness, implementation, changes, attribution, and adoption.When new agricultural practices were introduced to a large number of farmers, theteam understood that it was unlikely that every farmer would understand or follow eachrecommendation. Farmers always had their own perceptions, practices, and views. When

a new practice was suggested, they sometimes feared losing yield, so some deviation wasexpected. e team respected each farmer’s choices and decisions.Information gathered at each step of the process provided important learnings andopportunities to improve how new ideas and practices were presented to rural villagers.For example, when soil testing was conducted in participating villages, only 16 percent ofthe farmers applied the recommended micronutrients (zinc, sulfur, potash, and boron) totheir farmland. e low numbers were found to be due to difficulties some farmersexperienced in receiving and/or understanding the Soil Health Card that displayed thesoil test results. Some farmers did not know how, or were unable, to purchase themicronutrients, so they simply kept their usual practice of putting only urea and DAP ontheir fields.To address potential misunderstandings and increase awareness, regular village-levelmeetings were held. Farmers were informed of a crop demonstration in the first year,then more meetings were held to discuss the usefulness and required amounts ofmicronutrients to apply to crops on a half-acre of land. e micronutrient applicationsproduced an improved yield compared to plots cultivated by conventional methods.However, some farmers had applied all their micronutrients on one-acre of land or onanother crop. More than half had not bothered to prepare a non-demo plot. As a result,those farmers could not see the actual yield differences on their own fields.Awareness about macronutrients and micronutrients increased among the farmers,and their use of PoPs improved productivity and the quality of the produce. Movingforward, closer field monitoring was essential. Some farmers who had usedmacronutrients for the first time found it difficult to remember the names and accuratemeasurements, so ICT sharing was needed for them to develop more sustainable use ofthe nutrients.Laser land leveling, a proven technology for conserving irrigation water, leveled thefarmland for 176 farmers in five sample villages. e evened-out land saved water byallowing for the smooth flow of irrigation and rainwater on the surface.A digital land leveler was provided to farmers at a subsidized price. SMSF coveredmost of the cost for one-hour of leveling. Farmers saved an average of two to six hours ofirrigation with each use, and they noticed uniformity in seed germination and cropmaturity. e yield rate of laser-leveled land was far higher than the non-laser-leveledland.Findings revealed that farmers were quite willing to adopt laser land leveling, butaffordability was a barrier for some. e team assisted in informational sessions aboutgovernment programs that helped farmers afford agricultural technology at subsidizedrates. For instance, a sprinkler unit could irrigate one full acre of land at a time, savingwater and time. A savings reduction of four to seven hours was reported by farmers in a

single irrigation, which also reduced electricity costs. Plant roots were protected fromexcess water, and some areas that had been wasted as part of channel-making were nowable to be utilized for production.Horticulture, such as planting fruit trees, was encouraged to diversify farmers’ incomesources and provide a shield if the market prices of cereal crops and vegetables were verylow. Farmers were provided with lemon and citrus saplings to create orchards.Easily operated solar sprayers distributed to farmers at a subsidized amount eliminatedfuel/petrol/battery use, reduced labor and time, and increased efficiency. Lighter than abattery-operated model, the sprayer covered three-to-four acres of land in oneapplication.In a similar project in a Muzaffarpur village, a farmer adopted the use of a potatoplanter machine for cultivating five acres of land. Manual sowing was laborious andexpensive. e machine went deeper and sowed faster, taking only an hour or two insteadof a whole day. e farmer was able to earn extra money by renting out his machine tonearby farmers. Demand for the machine grew.In the Mahendragarh district of Haryana, a dry region with sandy soil and a lowgroundwater table, farmers depended mostly on rain for crop irrigation. But the slopes ofthe surrounding Aravali hills drained monsoon rains away quickly, which also took awaythe nutritious topsoil and prevented percolation of the water to replenish thegroundwater table. e SMSF team introduced the simple technique of farm bunding tomitigate this issue. By elevating the soil all along the field boundary, water was allowed tosoak in the field.Agriculture Development program lead, N.P. Singh, explained, “Low cost, rapidlyresponsive, and sustainable, farm bunds are economically beneficial, particularly forrainfed-agriculture, as they bring substantial acreages of neglected barren agricultural landunder cultivation.”Many farmers were provided with a reaper to help harvest wheat that was otherwisecut manually, primarily by women. is machine saved money and time in labor,especially in northern areas where the weather was harshest. Windstorms and monsoonrains could damage crops during harvest time, when labor rates are highest.Agriculture economist and SMSF’s Agriculture Development and Extension lead,Pawan Kumar, strongly endorsed economic empowerment as the key for all-arounddevelopment, particularly for women farmers, who carried the bulk of the farmwork. Atevery opportunity, he reminded his team, the field teams, and the women villagers,“Without money in her hands, a woman will remain dependent on other familymembers, husbands, etc., and not be a decision-maker.”To rise above the poverty line, Pawan explained that marginal landholders “have tofind a way to generate more income from the same piece of land, as well as meet the

minimum dietary energy requirements for their family. is effort can only be possiblewith efficient use of agriculture inputs and natural resources (land and water), cultivatingdemand-oriented high-value crops, and creating some income diversification withhorticulture and animal husbandry.”Each of those efforts was supported by the Agriculture Development programprojects. In addition to core farming practices, allied activities included high-techvegetable production, salt-tolerant vegetable crop nurseries, and promoting kitchengardens in every home. e team had been promoting the creation of kitchen gardenssince 2015 to enhance food security and further empower women,. e home gardenshelped subsidize family household needs and improve their nutrition. Excess producecould be shared or sold.Efficient animal husbandry practices were introduced for marginal and sub-marginalfarm households. Possession of one or more milch animals proved effective in reducingpoverty and hunger and improving the nutritional value of the food eaten. Livestockmanagement, such as goat-rearing, included preventive animal healthcare informationdissemination through health camps and animal nutrient management. Livestock-relatedactivities reduced farmers’ risk of crop failure and provided additional income. eseoptions also served as an added lifeline for those without cropland.e Agriculture Development team continued to advocate for clear pathways topropel transformative social change and inclusive growth to help farmers move awayfrom subsistence farming toward commercial agriculture. To motivate farmers to adoptthe modern technology shown in the demonstration fields, daylong Khet Diwas (fielddays) took place at various stages of crop growth: at germination, fruiting (pods, spikes),and prior to harvesting. Farmers were invited to see for themselves the results accruingfrom any recommended practices. Annual Krishi Sammelans (agriculture gatherings andsummits) were held with farmers from many villages to interact and discuss SMSFprograms.e foundation team promoted further mechanization for small landholders to lowercultivation costs, reduce climate-related risks, and encourage rural entrepreneurship.Various need-based machines were provided to farmers, including potato planters,reapers, bed makers (to raise rows), maize shellers, solar water pumps, and solar sprayers.Mechanization helped the machine owners to provide services at a cheaper rate. e useof machines reduced the cost of labor and time, and more importantly, reduced women’sdrudgery, particularly in the field operations done only by women. Farm waterconservation was advocated with the use of sprinklers, drip irrigation, laser land leveling,Zeba (a patented super-absorbent polymer input to soil), farm bunds, and irrigationponds.

With the adoption of farm mechanization, crop productivity increased significantly.Some subsidies for these efforts were obtained from the government, and some camefrom partnership projects, given only to first-time buyers of the machines. Farmers couldearn additional income by renting their machines to other farmers for an added returnon their investment.In a partnership called Kaushal Krishak (skilled farmers) with PI Foundation, S MSehgal Foundation created a Mobile Agri Clinic that brought holistic agriculturalprograms and information for small farmers to their doorstep. ree thousand farmersused the diagnostic and advisory services of the mobile clinic in its first two years.At SMSF’s two-decade mark in 2019, agriculture initiatives in 269 villages that yearincluded 19,200 demo plots. More than 2,000 training sessions were held on modernagriculture practices and 1,727 kitchen gardens were providing nutritional food forfamilies. Close to 5,000 acres of farmland benefited from using farm inputs, machines,and practices.e Sehgals’ vision from the start was for the foundation to someday beindependently self-sustained without Sehgal funds. Creating and expanding CSRpartnerships held promise for the possibility of moving closer to realizing that vision. eexpanded partnership approach also required a mindset shift away from a familiar relianceon what was working well on a limited scale, and toward a more-unfamiliar,entrepreneurial independence on a larger scale.After CEO Ajay Pandey left SMSF to return to teaching at Jindal, Anjali Makhija hadbecome COO in early 2019. Her new role was to provide strategic direction to theorganization, enroll and align the team for more Corporate Social Responsibilityprojects, and seek meaningful participation and engagement from teams across allfunctions. Such a task required her to simultaneously promote, strengthen, and maintainthe collaborative culture within SMSF. She had to build the team’s capacities to managethe expansion, maintain a positive image with partners and external stakeholders, andremain fully engaged in developing the CSR partnerships. To further those aims, sheassigned more responsibility to Anjali Godyal in fundraising and project implementation.By developing and training a designated fundraising team, she remained closely engagedin all CSR partnerships. As chief development officer, Anjali Godyal and her teampitched ideas to partners and oversaw implementation of all projects.As the CSR expansion gained momentum, the leadership team also recognized a clearneed to strengthen and formalize the “people” systems within the organizationinfrastructure to support that growth. A senior manager for Human Resources (HR) wasrecruited and hired to structure and streamline the HR functions to reinforce and keepall HR practices aligned with the organizational culture of S M Sehgal Foundation.

In her new role, Meenakshi Mrinalini collaborated with the operations and techteams to implement an in-house Employee Management System to effectively balancestructure and flexibility to remain responsive to the evolving nature of developmentwork. at involved establishing standardized processes for HR functions: recruitmentand selection, onboarding, performance management, employee benefits, jobdescriptions, designations, contract letters, and an approval matrix for hiring andseparation. e process integrated priorities for creating learning and developmentopportunities internally and also within external partnerships.Orientation and integration of new staff now went considerably beyond introducingorganizational policies and procedures described in an employee handbook. Welcomingnew people included a virtual immersion into the organization’s history, values, culture,and collaborative approach to community engagement and teamwork.Meenakshi described her own orientation by COO Anjali Makhija, on her first day atSMSF, “Her [Anjali’s] approachable leadership style truly stood out to me. Coming froma corporate background where multiple layers of bureaucracy are the norm, experiencingthe openness and accessibility at SMSF was genuinely refreshing. From day one, I felt animmediate sense of connection with the team. Within a week or two, I felt as though Ihad been a part of the foundation since its very beginning.”Team meetings and trainings, including team-building exercises and small-scalestrategy workshops, were also made part of periodic field visits. is helped to connectwith teams on the ground, understand their challenges, and hear their concerns as well.A priority of continuous learning promoted capacity building with in-house crossfunction training sessions, workshops, coaching and mentoring, peer learning forums,etc. For personal and professional growth, team members could pursue onlinespecialization courses at their own convenience. Consultant Jan Dirk Geertsema’straining module on behavior styles and leadership principles assisted the team in workingmore effectively with increasingly diverse types of people. is essential ingredientenabled the team to grow alongside SMSF’s expanding reach and complexity.Suri and Edda Sehgal were present for the twentieth anniversary celebration held atSMSF’s headquarters in Gurugram. e occasion included a film highlighting the twodecades of S M Sehgal Foundation work, a project exhibition, and a gathering ofpartners, board members, former CEOs, and other distinguished guests. A twenty-yearcommemorative publication included testimonials from program beneficiaries, quotesfrom CSR partners, and impact data from all program initiatives. Suri and Edda eachaddressed the audience with heartfelt messages.Suri began, “We have come a long way in our short history. We’ve been honored topresent our innovations at the United Nations and offer them freely throughout theworld. e growth of our key programs in agriculture development, water management,

and local participation and sustainability has been organic and strategic. We havecombined aspects of each program in our most successful initiatives such as TransformLives one school at a time, which is giving hope for a better future to India’s ruralschoolchildren. As we enter our third decade in rural India, we resolve to continueongoing reevaluation and reinvention based on positive results and lasting impact. All inall, it is a wonderful feeling to be helping people, society, and the planet, which makes ourlives very satisfying. We are proud of what we do.”Edda recalled, “When Suri and I decided to create a foundation to do what we couldto address the crushing poverty we saw in rural India, we had no previous experience indevelopment work. You could say we were “innocent.” When we saw the looks of defeatand suspicion on the faces of villagers, especially the women who had been disappointedso often by false promises, we vowed to listen, and the team continued to experimentwith a growing assortment of solutions to some of the most pressing issues. ose earlyyears were a powerful educational experience. We were learning by doing, a method ourteams still embrace.”She added, “e vision for the future is fantastic—a vision of ongoing progress andmovement for change that will continue to spread from village to village in all directionsthroughout India. I am confident that this will happen, perhaps not in my lifetime, but Ibelieve it will happen. We are proud of the team, the work, and the results, and we thankevery partner in the process—every individual, corporate, educational, and governmentpartner; all the collaborating NGOs and nonprofit organizations with similar visions fora better world, and each person with a desire to help others feel hope for a better future.”As the reach of SMSF’s work expanded into early 2020, the imperative for regionalteam members to feel empowered to make routine decisions, without relying heavily onthe central team, became increasingly important. e new year held great promise formany new CSR partnerships and exciting changes for farmers. In February, PrimeMinister Modi launched a new Central Sector Scheme: the Formation and Promotion of10,000 Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs). is new program was intended tosupport the overall socioeconomic well-being of small, marginal, and landless farmers. Byincentivizing them to come together to form FPOs, farmers could work togethercollectively to gain economic strength.e program would provide hand-holding support to any new FPOs for up to fiveyears with technology access, quality seed, fertilizers and pesticides, and financing. ecollective action would make it possible for agrarian communities to achieve betterproductivity, create better market linkages for their produce, and realize higher returns.is new mandate was intended to help FPOs to remain self-sustaining beyond thefive-year government support period. is would provide effective capacity-building to

FPOs to develop agriculture entrepreneurship skills to become economically viable andself-sustaining beyond the period of support from the government.S M Sehgal Foundation teams in every area would soon be thrust into an entirelynew challenge to navigate all of the projects in place and continue in their efforts to meetthe most pressing needs of rural India. ey, and the communities they served, would berequired to carry on under a completely new set of unprecedented circumstances. eability of team members to move the work forward, and maintain consistency,compliance, and alignment across the entire organization, was about to be tested on aglobal scale.

Rising Up ~ PandemicFor S M Sehgal Foundation teams across all project locations in rural India, thecircumstances surrounding the COVID-19 virus created an altogether new learningexperience. Everyone in India and around the world had to operate and manageindividual and overall business and life affairs under markedly different conditions oncethe World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 pandemic a global healthemergency on March 11, 2020.Prime Minister Modi announced India’s nationwide lockdown on March 24. eGovernment of India’s Ministry of Home Affairs advised nationwide safety guidelines andprotocols, including travel screenings and other assorted restrictions. State governmentsdirected precautions and safety measures to avoid the spread of the disease. Quarantineswere now common in most treatment facilities.SMSF staff took the recommended safety guidelines seriously. Almost allcommunications were carried out virtually, online, or by phone. Every usual system wasstretched thin. ough the situation felt so uncertain, CSR partnership projects in ninestates continued to be carried out once the recommended precautions were in place toprevent the spread of the disease. SMSF team members had flexible hours. Manyemployees worked from home or in alternating shifts to avoid close contact with others.Ramesh Kapahi received permission to go to the office to handle salary disbursement andpayments to vendors, so all staff and bills were paid.Prior to the official lockdown, SMSF’s community radio station, Alfaz E Mewat FM107.8, had already begun serving as a lifeline of information to rural villages. Since earlyFebruary when the COVID-19 virus was spreading so quickly around the world, the

station’s radio hosts had been broadcasting updated information about the virus to peopleliving in remote locations. Continued daily broadcasts reached about 250,000 people in225 villages. Because the radio station staff also came from the local villages, they wereable to broadcast local developments in the local languages.In keeping with recommended minimal staffing guidelines, the radio hosts usuallyworked remotely or alone on a rotational basis at the radio station in the GhaghasCommunity Center. ey communicated the critical safety measures people had tofollow, provided information about how to access dry rations, and identified methods toaccess government entitlements to meet the most pressing needs. Coverage of all aspectsof the pandemic included identifying the most vulnerable groups in the villages and anyspecific families who might need urgent help.In addition to transmitting critical communications to village communities, radioplayed a part in maintaining transparency regarding SMSF’s projects and programscontinuing in the villages. ey were able to provide real-time updates and report anyproject delays.When the community radio station’s antenna malfunctioned shortly after thelockdown was announced, the radio team was unable to call a technician. at type ofsupport was not possible due to travel bans, remote work, and related limitations. As theteam was busy trying to find a way to restore the vital connection, listeners in thecommunity quickly stepped up themselves to address the problem.At a time when fear and misinformation were rampant, a local electrician, workingalongside a group of village partners, made the required repairs to restore the critical linkto trustworthy information within the communities. at this solution to such asignificant and pressing problem came from the heart of the community was appreciatedas a powerful moment by SMSF staff.During the initial three-week lockdown, the station initiated a program called Aaj kahero (Today’s Hero), which highlighted personal accounts of villagers describing how theywere handling the situation. e radio relayed continuing basic health alerts andprecautions: frequent handwashing, staying home, wearing face masks, social distancing,covering mouth and nose when coughing or sneezing, disinfecting and cleaning surfaces,and being aware of symptoms such a fever, cough, etc. e studio equipment wassanitized each day as well.Listeners were provided with accurate and timely information in a program calledSavdhan! (Alert!). Callers could ask questions and report concerns. e radio team wasable to dispel myths, rumors, and false information that had been causing added fear inthe villages. With support from UNICEF and the Community Radio Association, addedprogramming included phone-in interviews with physicians, the District Nuhimmunization officer, and health department officials.

As a lifeline for kids, the station’s Radio School program covered Math, English, andScience for primary and secondary grades. ese included recordings made byGovernment school teachers, volunteers, and interns; the National Council ofEducational Research and Training; and educational content from Sesame Street.ough the official lockdown was not extended beyond the initial twenty-one days,and activities reopened relatively quickly, many in Gurugram and other locationsremained cautious and continued to wear masks in public. By April 2020, deaths fromCOVID began to mount in local regions and elsewhere. Alfaz E Mewat FM 107.8continued to keep people informed.e Water Management team based in Gurugram and working in the North Indiaregions continued to conduct water filter monitoring and user support with WhatsAppvideo calling. is messaging service was able to connect about 1,500 villagers tocommunity awareness sessions.While unable to travel, Lalit Sharma conducted a virtual seminar on fluoride andfluorosis in which participants from eighteen countries participated. After that, peoplefrom many different countries started connecting with SMSF on the subject. is causedthe team to realize the wider need for structured comprehensive training resources on thisimportant topic. Up until that point, no such material on the subject was availableworldwide. e virtual trainings were well-received. By September 2020, the water teampublished a study about the prevalence of fluoride in the groundwater (and fluorosis) inNuh.28Lalit’s team had continued work on improving the MatiKalp water filter. ey werenow focusing on dolomite (marble stone) and slacked lime (calcium hydroxide)technologies, which were able to treat water with fluoride contamination up to five timesthe safe limit. e team kept trying to make the model more versatile to treat higherconcentrations of fluoride that existed in some locations. With the depletion of theaquifer, the contamination level increased, so seeking a longer-term solution continued.In six districts of three states in South India, SMSF partnership projects were runningwith full teams when COVID-19 first hit. Work was halted for a short period, but thelarge Jaldhara check dam project stayed on schedule for completion by August 2020. eSouth India teams took all necessary precautions and followed all guidelines issued bylocal authorities. Staff maintained flexible working hours with an emphasis on safety.Most partnerships and projects were coordinated and monitored primarily by phone.Independent teams handling the different projects had responded swiftly to thedifficulties created by the pandemic in local communities. ey distributed ration kits to270 poor families. Beneficiaries included disabled people, single women taking care of

their families, and local sanitation workers. e kits included rice, lentils, salt, cookingoil, handwashing soap, bathing soap, face masks, and hand sanitizers.For Transform Lives one school at a time projects, teams installed paddle-operatedhandwashing stations in Government schools along with a supply of hand sanitizers,gloves, face masks (surgical and N-95), thermal scanners, and PPE (personal protectionequipment) kits.Although the government ensured the provision of a continuing supply of inputs tofarmers such as seed and fertilizers, and they allowed shops to open for a fixed time, farmfamilies suffered during the lockdown. With most markets closed, farmers were unable tosell their produce. Vegetable growers in particular faced huge losses of perishable items.Having no cold storage facilities nearby, they were unable to store vegetables.Most work by other NGOs in the region had completely stopped, but because thebulk of SMSF work was to support agriculture development for the benefit of rural India,SMSF’s work projects were still considered “essential services.” e work was able tocontinue with limited delays. is was especially possible because the team also tookimmediate, strict measures to minimize the impact of the pandemic. As with projects inthe northern regions, movement of staff working in the southern state villages wasrestricted to absolute need, and the teams maintained social distancing and handwashingprotocols. All staff used safety gear, and strictly followed the guidelines issued by localgovernment and other agencies.SMSF partners and communities soon saw that, despite multifaceted challenges in thefield and the continued movement of staff between locations, each high-impact projectwas still being carried out. Most stayed on track with some minor delays. Each team’sattentive responses to local communities and district administration created trust andresulted in expressions of appreciation for S M Sehgal Foundation.When COVID vaccinations were available in January 2021, community radio AlfazE Mewat was instrumental in motivating villagers to be vaccinated. To address awidespread “vaccine hesitancy,” the station initiated a campaign called “Vaccine Hero,”featuring people who had been vaccinated.Hourly messages on COVID-19 prevention included information on health facilitiesand where relief aid was currently available. Programs engaged listeners in positivemessaging with encouraging stories about how others were dealing with the requiredadjustments and changes in their daily routines due to COVID.When the second wave of the global pandemic hit India in spring 2021, the effect onIndia was far more devastating and desperate. Rural health facilities were still reeling fromthe first wave.29 By April, shortages of hospital beds, medical supplies, oxygen cylinders,and vaccines were the norm throughout India. Team members were getting panickedcalls from community members and distant family members and friends asking formedical support, especially oxygen concentrators.

Beds were not available for seriously ill people in private or district governmenthospitals. Basic treatment supplies such as hand sanitizers, N-95 masks, medical gloves,and PPE kits were in short supply for medical professionals. Oxygen cylinders were notavailable even for ten times the price. Small portable oxygen concentrators that couldprovide continuous oxygen supply for one or two people were in huge demand but notavailable in the market. Preserving life became the top priority.All NGOs similar to S M Sehgal Foundation had to shift the focus of their work tourgent relief work and the delivery of emergency services to the communities they served.SMSF’s teams in every project location immediately diverted their attention to savinglives. e plan was to deliver emergency supplies to those in need as quickly as possible,while only carrying out the most critical roles in program areas.SMSF’s teams acquired and provided emergency food rations and much-neededmedical equipment and supplies to all rural communities where the work was being done.However, the teams needed more help. e leadership team called Jay Sehgal in the USwith a request for more supplies, especially oxygen concentrators. Getting the equipmentto the people suffering in rural hospitals was urgent.At SF headquarters in the US, Jay had already been hearing from partners from allacross the country who were anxious to help India. He was deluged with calls and offersof donations to assist in the effort to help rural India. Suri and Edda Sehgal immediatelyoffered to match all donations made in the US.Jay received pledges of a half-million dollars within three days!ough SMSF had never been a “relief ” organization as such, and no one on theteam was experienced or fully prepared to take on that role, Jay got busy following local,national, and global leads to find the needed equipment. e pressure to meet theimmediate need was enormous. All of the companies that produced the necessaryequipment were swamped with similar requests. e first hurdle in the challenge was howto identify the right people to procure the required equipment, then determine how toefficiently transport the equipment to India.Jay ordered oxygen concentrators from a company in China and made a payment inadvance. But the vendor cancelled the order, saying they would not be able to supplyconcentrators for at least thirty days. Jay immediately explored other reliable options inthe US and India, but none could supply a large quantity.Jay was finally able to place an order in the middle of the night to a company inChina for 500 oxygen concentrators. Having arranged the funds in the US, he then tookthe steps needed to acquire the required documentation to get the order through customsfrom China.A long-standing partnership connection with Mosaic Company, particularly Ms. Li inChina, helped expedite the process to bring the lifesaving supplies to the nine states where

the teams were currently working in India. Dispatching a shipment by air cargo was thefastest option to make the concentrators available.However, when our Chinese advocate, Ms. Li, contacted the shipping agent, she wastold that very few flights were operating, and the waiting list was very long. Moreover, theavailable flight for Delhi didn’t have enough space for the entire shipment. (A lot ofCOVID-related materials were being imported by many countries). Ms. Li exploredother options and spoke with several different shipping agents.At SMSF headquarters in India, Ramesh Kapahi was working simultaneously to gainimport approval from the Government of India, which required him to provide thedispatch schedule and a destination port. To ensure the speediest delivery, he decided tosplit the shipment into two parts.Half the quantity would be directly shipped to him for customs release at the Delhiairport for shipping to Government hospitals in secondary cities near villages in NorthIndia locations. e other half would be dispatched to Mumbai, then transported toSalahuddin Saiphy in Telangana by truck for Government hospitals in secondary citiesnear villages in the South India locations.To obtain the appropriate Government of India sanctions, Ramesh had to answerqueries and ensure that the materials being imported were “donated” and not forcommercial use. S M Sehgal Foundation advisor, Mr. M.D. Asthana, escorted Ramesh tothe commissioner’s office to lend support to the filing, which was approved with a riderthat all oxygen concentrators would be distributed only to Government hospitals. Asubsequent report, post-distribution, was also required to affirm that was done.After all procurement/import-related formalities were completed, and all documentswere shared with Ms. Li, she lined up an expedited process with a shipping agent inChina, and the equipment was dispatched. e shipment that arrived at Delhi airport wasreleased smoothly. But the consignment that arrived at Mumbai airport met with a snag atcustoms.e clearing agent asked why are all the concentrators were being transferred toTelangana, since Mumbai urgently needed oxygen concentrators. After Salahuddin’s teamassured the agent that the equipment would be equally distributed among AndhraPradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, and Karnataka, the consignment was finally releasedlate in the evening.e entire process, from the first request to the final deliveries in April 2021, requireda team effort and a few sleepless nights, but the life-saving equipment reached theintended destinations despite all snags and restrictions. Trucks had been arranged fordelivery as well as for unloading of the materials to the second- and third-tier ruralvillages. Field teams in each location delivered the concentrators and bulk supplies todistrict and primary healthcare centers (sub-district hospitals) in those areas, as well as the

local villages and schools. When they reached the hospitals, the field team members wereconfronted with alarming sights of very sick patients as well as dead bodies.Local communities, doctors, and district administration officials were whollyappreciative of the unexpected mobilization effort in such a difficult time from an NGOsuch as SMSF that was not specifically doing health-related work in the region. iscreated added trust among all parties and brought stakeholders closer together.Several district administrations and hospitals subsequently issued letters ofappreciation to the foundation for the support during the pandemic. Some staff memberswere specifically thanked for their exemplary work.Foundation team members visiting a hospital two years later in Medak, Telangana,learned that the oxygen concentrators provided by SMSF had saved hundreds of lives intheir hospital and community health centers. Some doctors and community memberspersonally credited SMSF for saving the lives of their family members.Ramesh Kapahi later reflected back on how difficult it was “to describe the feelings,emotions, and facial expressions of suffering people, helplessly waiting for some medicalrelief.”roughout the most-challenging first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, overallconnectivity proved to be a critical component for keeping S M Sehgal Foundation fullyfunctioning. e ability and mechanisms to use technology and social media platforms tosend and receive information kept the staff safe, kept the programs running, and allowedthe teams to maintain ongoing contacts and relationships with the communities beingserved, as well as the partners who made it possible for the work on the ground to moveforward.Beyond the basic phone and online links and networks that kept people in contactwith each other, the many radio programs, podcasts, webinars, presentations, trainings,and other virtual events and collaborations during the entire COVID period assuredcontinuous communication, interactions, and learnings.When less work was possible in the field, SMSF invested in staff development. Coreteam and field team members availed themselves of online training by team leader expertsin all program areas. A series of online training programs, refresher courses, and webinarsincluded key aspects of village participation, agriculture development, and watermanagement issues. Instructional webinars were also organized for other NGOs,interested individuals, and citizens working in rural development areas.A virtual consultation was organized in collaboration with J-PAL (Jameel PovertyAction Lab) on rural policy-making processes. Stakeholders from government, civilsociety, and corporations focused on agriculture development, education, and how toempower women.

In collaboration with CAWST Canada, SMSF offered a five-week online certificatecourse on Household Water Treatment and Safe Storage in collaboration with TERISchool of Advanced Studies for MTech and PhD students. Regular webinars werepresented on water management interventions, climate change, mental health, andpsychology. Even Poshan Maah (National Mental Health Month) was able to becelebrated virtually.e Communications team used social media to connect with local people and sharemore personal stories about how villagers were coping during the pandemic. Stories aboutactual real-life experiences inspired listeners as well as the team.Community radio Alfaz E Mewat kept the villagers entertained as well as informed,creating a comedy program that used humor to help listeners deal with complex socialissues. e station received recognition for providing a platform for local voices. eMinistry of Information and Broadcasting gave Alfaz E Mewat a Sustainability ModelAward (second prize) in July 2021 for its COVID awareness programming.Online digital literacy and life skills trainings were expanded as part of TransformLives one school at a time. Students and instructors in the Life Skills Education centersstitched cloth face masks at home and distributed them door-to-door to village families.When a tenth grade student, Hema Kumari, from village Shahpur, learned thatdigital literacy and life skills trainings had resumed, she and her friends and instructorsadvocated for a designated space in her village for girls’ classes. Following all COVIDguidelines (wearing masks, handwashing and sanitization, and social distancing), classesresumed. Hema said, “e empowerment led us to find alternatives amid adversities.”While virtual dialogues were held between schoolchildren, teams, and partners duringlockdown, local project teams worked to make schools ready to eventually welcome kidsback. A few of the Transform Lives one school at a time projects in Alwar, Rajasthan,included separate building structures on the school grounds designed and built in theshape of an airplane or boat. e idea was developed with the help of a governmentemployed engineer in the region. e spaces would be used as smart classrooms and/ordigital libraries.Similarly, the outside walls of some rows of schoolrooms were painted to appear asthough students were entering their classrooms through the doors of a train or a bus.ese creative formats proved to be immensely popular with students. People came fromnearby villages to see them.By November 2021, the SMSF team members were able to participate in person inmore special events, knowledge exchanges, and conferences. At the 9th Annual NationalCSR Summit the same month, COO Anjali Makhija spoke on a panel at the IndiaInternational Center on “Challenges of Gender Inclusion in Rural and Urban India.”

S M Sehgal Foundation was presented with the 2021 Federation of Indian Chambersof Commerce & Industry (FICCI) Sustainable Agriculture Award (2nd place) in thecategory of “Climate Resilient Agriculture.” e presentation from India’s premierbusiness association was made at a special Government session held at FICCI House inDelhi in conjunction with a virtual summit on “Envisioning Smart and SustainableAgriculture.” Excellence Awards were given to agribusinesses and organizations that hadperformed significant, sustainable on-the-ground interventions in agriculturedevelopment.Pooja Murada was present to receive an Annual Media Award on National JournalismDay the same month for her community radio work. In addition to her work with AlfazE Mewat, Pooja had collaborated with R. Sreedher, the “father of community radio,” inwriting the book, Community Radio in India.30Business and everyday life across India began to return to pre-pandemic norms. ByMarch 2022, more than 80 percent of India’s adult population had been fully vaccinated.COVID-19 infection rates were falling. People were still being asked to wear masks inpublic and continue social distancing for safety.31 Schools were opening and publictransportation resumed.CSR projects began to increase rapidly due to backlogged plans. Chief DevelopmentOfficer Anjali Godyal and the Fundraising and Partnerships team capitalized immediatelyon the trend to engage current partners in securing multi-year projects and attract manynew partners.e goodwill created by SMSF during the pandemic would play a part later ingaining approvals for future development projects in the region. SMSF now began togrow exponentially and economically, and expand geographically to more states. einvestment in the human resources of the team naturally grew as well.28. “A study on prevalence and impact of fluoride in drinking water in Nuh district of Haryana, India” by LalitMohan Sharma, Aparajeeta, Yashi Gautam. IOSR Journal of Environmental Science, Toxicology and Food Technology. Vol14: Issue 8. September 2020. http://www.iosrjournals.org/iosr-jestft/papers/Vol14-Issue8/Series-4/C1408041119.pdf29. “For the first time since April 2020 No Covid Death in a Month this September” by Ipsita Pati. India Times.Oct. 2, 2021.https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/gurgaon/first-time-since-april-2020-no-c ovid-death-in-a-month-this-sept/articleshow/86693608.cms30. Community Radio in India by R. Sreedher and Pooja O. Murada. Aakar Books, 2019.31. “Two years after world’s biggest lockdown, India surgesback to normal life” by Tama Venkat. March 2, 2022.Reuters. https://www.reuters.c om/business/healthcare-pharmac eutic als/two-years-after-worlds-biggest-lockdown-india-surges-bac k-normal-life-2022-03-02/

Surge AheadAs S M Sehgal Foundation teams and communities emerged from the myriad oflimitations imposed by the global pandemic, a move to more explosive growth inCorporate Social Responsibility (CSR) partnerships followed. Adapting to newgeographies and engaging with more diverse rural communities brought new challengesand new opportunities.e SMSF team had the advantage of a Strategic Development Task Force within theorganization. Formed during the pandemic in 2021 at the suggestion of Suri Sehgal, thegroup included a mix of strategic thinkers and other talented employees who contributedto the direction of the foundation. Members would be rotated every few years to bring innew perspectives. e group helped to identify and tailor strategies to address regionspecific issues such as water scarcity and gender inequality to ensure more-sustainableresults.While the majority of SMSF’s partnerships had been shifting to CSR collaborations,and many remained ongoing throughout the pandemic, Chief Development OfficerAnjali Godyal emphasized the value and importance of embracing the full integration ofthe most-reliable “development pillars.” ose pillars, embedded in the LocalParticipation and Sustainability (LPS) program, were required for the true measure ofsuccess of any project.SMSF teams were reminded over the years how even the most polished final projectin any village was not considered “successful” unless the results were able to be sustainedover time by the community members. Without authentic ownership of the results by the

community beneficiaries themselves, the lack of upkeep and maintenance of newinfrastructures could easily result in deterioration.Program teams had to be aware of this possibility and commit to preventing such anoutcome. Sustainability had to be well understood by all team members and considered adynamic and continuous process of building the capacities of each community involved.ose efforts had to begin at the start of any project and be sustained beyond the projectperiod.As expansion continued into twelve states, newly added project field team membersrequired a clear template on how to assure the essential local participation within theirproject sites. An identified model for sustainability was employed from the earliest stagesof any new project implementation. By early 2022, that template for a winning strategywas turned into a formal training guide, Engaging the Community for Sustainability ofIntegrated Village Development.e guide included the steps involved, and the reasoning behind, the imperative forengaging local participation in every SMSF development project. e duration for CSRprojects carried out by implementing agencies was typically limited to two or three years.at time period was the opportunity to influence community stakeholders’ understandingof, and appreciation for, their need to take ownership of the projects so the positiveresults would be maintained over time. e goal was systematic capacity building toengage with village-level institutions for greater awareness and understanding. Bytriggering a community’s collective action, the people would be able to continue tosustain the results of any development project done for their benefit.If the community, gram panchayat, or another local body did not have the interest orcapacity to maintain the projects, the results would likely decline. Regular capacitybuilding of gram panchayats throughout the duration of project initiatives, includingawareness sessions in the ward sabhas or gram sabhas, helped to orient a community tothe process of change and the need for their “ownership” of the project.Building ownership in their own communities, and awareness of the ongoing benefitsof project interventions, enhanced people’s willingness to pool their resources to maintainthe improvements. eir gram panchayats could access the invested funds, along with anyother support from subsidized government programs, to further maintain a project overtime. Local institutions became more vibrant as citizens saw the personal and collectiveadvantages of maintaining their public infrastructures. Seeing is believing.e LPS program team created platforms for community members, especiallywomen, to come together to see how their voices and choices were necessary andimportant from the beginning and throughout projects. Incorporating local knowledgeand choices in village development programs resulted in more inclusive and sustainableresults. As always, building awareness of the value of women’s participation allowed themto see the power of collectively working to address issues that affected their own families

and their community. e added reach of the LPS program often included awareness andadoption of safe health, hygiene, and sanitation practices. Integrating digital awarenesstechnologies and trainings widening the reach and benefits of government programs andresources included online platforms and services, toll-free helpline numbers, e-ResourceCenters, and Citizen Information and Support Centers.e training guide described the specific four-step process for achieving the desiredengagement and participation of rural communities, calling it the VCCS Model ofSustainability (Village, Capacity, Convergence, and Sustainability).1. Village Development Committee formatione Village Development Committee (VDC) requires a critical mass to influencechanges in the village. With the consent of the community involved, twenty totwenty-five community leaders from a project village are selected for the VDC.Members vary according to the project and may include those from farmers’ groups,women’s groups, water management committees, tank user groups, or anycommunity-based institution in the project village. Representation of all sections ofsociety, especially women and deprived sections, and elected representatives of villageinstitutions, such as gram panchayats and school management committees, should beensured.2. Capacity development of Village Development CommitteeBuilding the VDC capacities involves instilling a development ownershipperspective in all aspects of the project, including the benefits, maintenance of anycreated infrastructure, project steps and components, and participatory assessments ofeach development initiative.3. Convergence with local institutions, gram panchayat, and government departmentse VDC acts as the “pilot” and support group for village projects, makingdecisions about locations of infrastructure, selection of beneficiaries, obtaining any“non-objection” certificates from government departments, etc. e groupcollaborates and gathers support from local institutions, gram panchayats, andgovernment departments, and includes stakeholders in special events to establishrelationships and considerations for potential future development projects.4. Sustainability efforts to maintain assets and the adoption of developmentinterventionsWhen a community continues to benefit from completed projects, they “own”the results. eir pooled resources help to maintain any infrastructures created in theproject. e VDC collaborates with the gram panchayat to invite resource peoplefrom government departments to further capacity development. Communities canalso use their own funds to replicate the good practices in their project interventions.

e steps in the VCCS process brought community members together and formedcloser connections among neighbors and others in the community. Connectivity createdbonds. Women who were encouraged to speak up tended to develop greater selfconfidence and participation. As more people shared their own needs and concerns, theyacquired a greater understanding of the needs and concerns of others in their village.ese were the seeds of empowerment!Promoting the creation of Women’s Leadership Schools further enabled women toactively participate in village-level institutions and public life. Structured capacitybuilding sessions teaching leadership and communication skills built women’s confidenceto take leadership roles, address development issues, and participate in gram sabha.Building the skills and awareness of village-level institutions in rural development hadshown to promote good hygiene and sanitation in villages, conserve a community’snatural resources, and result in better public infrastructure maintenance. With capacitybuilding sessions for members of village-level institutions, such as gram panchayats andvillage development committees, representatives were better prepared to identify andaddress their shared challenges. Members created village-development plans, collaboratedwith government departments, and participated in plan implementation.Integrated learning about digital technologies widened a community’s ability to reachand benefit from government programs. Introducing villagers to the use of onlineplatforms, toll-free helpline numbers, and e-Resource Centers helped increase the deliveryof government programs to more remote areas. Such inclusion aided in reducing thedigital divide in concert with India’s National Digital Literacy Mission. Sustainability inall SMSF projects within every partnership was an essential dynamic and ongoing processof increasing the capacities of communities. Overall objectives extended beyond anysingle initiative to encourage rural citizens to eventually assume individual as well ascollective ownership of ongoing development in their villages.In April 2022, COO Anjali Makhija was promoted to CEO and trustee of S MSehgal Foundation. In her new role, the overall rapid expansion of SMSF required herwork to focus on the continuing development of a second line of leadership. She tookseriously the advice from Dr. Sehgal: “We should always be on the lookout for goodtalent within the organization and make efforts to retain them. Good leadership is veryimportant to drive the organization now.”Her commitment to promote and preserve the organization culture of respect,openness, and empowerment remained a top priority. She would maintain theorganization’s “loose and tight approach” (loose in operations/tight on principles).e roles of many younger as well as long-term professionals within the organizationshifted over time to help talent evolve and build stronger programs and departments.New leadership positions were made for ramping up fundraising, added finance

functions, program implementation, and coordinating public relations with CSRpartners. Arti Manchanda Grover, an original Communications team member withproven people-management skills, was designated as Partner Relations manager in 2023.Coordinating with Anjali Godyal, Arti began serving as a primary interface with SMSFpartners, helping to enhance and build SMSF relationships with existing and potentialpartners.Arti had been instrumental in the process of setting up SMSF’s community radiostation under the guidance of Pooja Murada, through the early years of scripting andediting radio programming and the expanded scope of SMSF Communications outreachinto more states and regions. Her new role fit well with an emerging need for workingdirectly with implementation teams, partners, and stakeholders to enhance and ensureconsistent communication channels with partners.Decentralizing some functions had been part of the organizational culture for sometime, such as allowing new recruits to define their own key responsibility areas (KRAs).e approach gained renewed attention as the organization grew and programs extendedinto more new locations.Decentralization had become a greater part of the conversation when the SMSF firstopened offices in different states, and particularly true when SMSF expanded toSamastipur, Bihar, in 2012. Given the distance from the head office, building a stronglocal capacity was essential. Back then, consulting experts were brought in to identifysuitable office space and hire local teams to execute and oversee fieldwork, managepartners, and ensure timely project delivery and reporting. e minimal dependency onthe head office reflected the broader commitment to decentralization.As expansion accelerated, it became increasingly important to strengthen efforts toensure that regional teams felt empowered to make routine decisions without heavyreliance on the central team. Anjali Makhija and the Strategic Development team beganto discuss and identify which areas could be decentralized and determine which functionshad to remain centralized to maintain compliance, consistency, and alignment across theorganization. ose discussions led to major decisions throughout the system in alllocations as expansion continued.As CSR partners began expressing interest in funding projects across locations, i.e.,not north regions or south regions, the partnership agreements and finances still remainedcentralized. Training more people and working on a decentralization plan was requiredand now in process.Project teams were increasingly engaged with farmers in collaborations with KrishiViygan Kendras (KVKs) since 2020. ese district-level extension centers proved helpfulin bridging gaps between farmers and agriculture research and technology as well as inpromoting better practices and farm mechanization tools. KVK initiatives with SMSF

were welcomed by gram panchayats and farmers. Gram panchayats encouraged andmotivated farmers to interact with KVK scientists and share their problems to achievebetter results in the field.During a six-month period in 2022, farmer meetings were organized with KVKresearch stations in Bihar, Maharashtra, and Rajasthan. Scientists from farm sciencecenters trained farmers on soil health and soil testing, use of a package of practices (PoP)for local crops, and farm technology and mechanization. In each training, womenfarmers were further empowered by face-to-face interactions with KVK women scientists.KVK and government linkages proved to be critical elements in the success andreplication of SMSF projects, and continued to be promoted as an ongoing part of theAgriculture Development team’s work in every project community.A pressing issue and priority of the government was crop burning, which had longbeen a common practice among farmers to clear their fields after harvesting. Especiallyproblematic with paddy crops in Haryana and Punjab, the practice caused heavy smogaround the northern parts of India as well as dangerous levels of particulate matter in theair, in addition to degradation of soil health and fertility.SMSF’s promotion of the sustainable management of crop residue began in 2022 aspart of a CSR project partnership to bolster Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs). Akey intent of the project, launched in one hundred Haryana villages, was to raiseawareness of the issues involved and promote the use of super seeders to replace cropburning.An added grant extended education support and environmental awareness to 5,000children and young people in sixty villages in Haryana districts. e goal was to buildtheir consciousness of eco-friendly practices and become change agents in their familiesand their communities.e project to stop the burning and promote alternative measures expanded to 150villages in Haryana and five villages in Punjab. SMSF teams trained farmers on ways toreduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions to decrease air pollution and health issues causedby crop residue burning.Building the capacities of farmers involved recommending cleaner solutions thatimproved soil health and crop productivity, promoting short-duration varieties of paddy,and providing the use of a super seeder machine to replace residue burning. e superseeder chopped crop residue directly into the soil and, in that single pass, added seeds andorganic matter into the soil, which improved soil structure and fertility and enhancedmoisture retention.A multi-year extension of the CSR partnership project to bolster FPOs focused onstrengthening groups in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, and Kolar, Karnataka. Capacitybuilding included trainings in fiscal management, market access, technology, and

sustainable agricultural practices, with emphasis on including women in FPO leadershiproles.Buyer-seller meetings organized under the project included input sellers and outputbuyers and also attracted the participation of district directors and others from theDepartment of Agriculture and the Department of Horticulture as well as KVK heads.e teams encouraged small and marginal farmers in all locations to expand theirfarming practices into new fields in addition to crop residue management, such as hillagriculture and regenerative agriculture.e SMSF team’s involvement in hill agriculture had escalated when the country wasstill in the throes of the pandemic in 2021 with work on a CSR initiative in Champawatdistrict, Uttarakhand, a state located in the central Himalayan region of India. eproject was part of a large and continued holistic rural development CSR initiative calledParivartan (Change), which had been carried out in multiple locations over the years.e Champawat region, located in the Himalayan foothills, was characterized by itsuneven landscape with hills, steep slopes, and valleys. e landscape required differentinterventions and solutions to treat deteriorated soil health and address water runoff.Farm machinery, such as laser land levelers, addressed uneven land; and solar-powered liftirrigation systems and farm bunding enhanced water efficiency.e Uttarakhand initiative began with the formation of a women-led FPO, theChampawat Monal Farmer Producer Company. Women members took the lead in fiftyvillages to boost agriculture livelihoods by fostering more sustainable agriculture andcommunity development.Parivartan projects carried out at the same time in Haryana during the pandemic hadincluded a series of initiatives that impacted 465,000 people over three years. eseincluded food packet distribution through the pandemic, providing solar-poweredstreetlights and biomass stoves, promoting kitchen gardens, and more developmentinterventions in the Transform Lives one school at a time program. Financial literacycamps, farmer trainings, and skill trainings for women in self-help groups were held inthirteen villages. Sanitation awareness drives resulted in the installation of many moretoilets.Promotion and trainings on the cultivation of a cash crop, lemongrass, on ten acresof land included providing a distillation unit for lemongrass oil extraction. e highmarket value of lemongrass oil resulted in continuing higher income earnings for thesmall-scale farmers. e combination of holistic rural development projects and multisectoral interventions improved education, health, sanitation, and women’sempowerment and livelihoods.