From Mustard Oil to Clean Water: How Women Are Building Resilience in Rural India
Organization: S M Sehgal Foundation
2025 LOCAL ADAPTATION CHAMPIONS AWARD FINALIST
In the village of Hussaini in Uttar Pradesh, women used to wait anxiously for the rains. When the skies stayed dry, their crops struggled and they were forced to walk longer distances to fetch water, all while still working in the fields.
Despite contributing equally to agriculture, women are rarely recognized as farmers. This lack of recognition cuts them off from training, technology, credit, and markets, leaving them among the most vulnerable to climate shocks. The result is a cycle of invisibility and disadvantage. Women bear the brunt of climate change while being excluded from solutions.
Yet, these same women are also driving solutions. When a power surge broke the oil press that women in Hussaini village depended on, many assumed the venture would collapse. Instead, the women pooled their savings, repaired the machine, and kept the business alive. That determination turned a small self-help group into local entrepreneurs. Stories like this capture the essence of the work of S M Sehgal Foundation.
From a Single Village to a National Movement
More than two decades ago, the S M Sehgal Foundation began with a simple vision in one small village in Haryana: empower people to build solutions for themselves. Today, that vision stretches across twelve states, touching thousands of lives.
The Foundation runs Women Farmer Schools and Women Leadership Schools, where women learn everything from soil testing and drip irrigation to financial literacy and public speaking. These lessons in farming and governance give women the knowledge and confidence they need to influence how farms are managed, how water is shared, and how decisions are made in their villages.
By investing in women’s skills, knowledge, and confidence, the Foundation has created pathways for inclusion where exclusion once stood. “The idea is simple, that one day, when a farmers’ meeting is planned, no one needs to say women farmers too because it’s naturally understood that farmers are not just men,” says Anjali Makhija, CEO of the Foundation. “That’s the kind of change we’re working towards. Where women’s participation is seen as equal, expected, and essential.”
In Hussaini, women who once relied on uncertain harvests now run a mustard oil business and a flour mill, using a hardy crop that thrives even when rainfall is scarce.
Across other states, women trained as Pashu Sakhis (friend of the animals) provide animal health care while earning steady incomes, and women-led Farmer Producer Companies (FPC) are proving that collective power changes outcomes. The Allahabad Bovine FPC, where 90% of shareholders are women, has adopted zero tillage farming, cutting costs and increasing yields. In Uttarakhand, another women-led FPC crossed a turnover of more than ₹10 million in 2024–2025, showing how rural women are leaders in shaping climate-smart economies.
Water is also being reimagined under women’s leadership. Instead of walking miles for unsafe supplies, women now use biosand filters, soak pits, and rainwater harvesting systems to secure clean water close to home. In the Foundation’s Jalagam project, women took the lead in building soak pits, planting kitchen gardens, and teaching their neighbors about water conservation. These everyday actions have added up to real change, easing daily burdens while strengthening entire communities against climate shocks.
Women and Community Ownership Driving Change in Rural India
The experience of the S M Sehgal Foundation demonstrates that resilience is strongest when it is built and grounded in community ownership. It is seen in the determination of the women who kept their mustard oil press running despite setbacks, in the farmers who adopted zero tillage and saw their yields rise, and in the women leaders who stood together to secure access to clean water. These stories are part of a larger shift that the Foundation has nurtured over two decades. A shift from women being treated as invisible laborers to being recognized as farmers, entrepreneurs, and community leaders.
Each success reinforces the lesson that sustainable change comes when communities own the process and when women are central to it. The impact goes beyond livelihoods alone, it offers a new vision of resilience shaped by the women who sustain rural India.
