Empowering rural communities with sustainable solutions

Reliance Foundation's Rural Transformation programme aims to uplift rural communities by enhancing livelihoods, fostering sustainable agriculture, empowering women, and building resilient community structures for water, nutrition, and livelihood security.

The Rural Transformation programme focuses on strengthening rural communities through both physical and digital approaches. It works across the block as a key unit of transformation, ensuring localised, scalable solutions. Reliance Foundation works closely with communities to co-develop action plans to ensure a targeted and impactful approach, fostering resilience and self-reliance at every level.

Reliance Foundation’s Rural Transformation initiatives are structured around two core pillars: Self-Reliance and Resilience, ensuring a thriving rural India aligned with the vision of Viksit Bharat (Developed India) by 2047.

The Rural Transformation programme began during the inception of Reliance Foundation in 2010. Built with a strong participatory approach, today, it has grown to reach millions of communities across the deepest and remotest geographies of India, building strong partnerships with non-profit, community and technical organisation shaping models to guide rural and national development.

Key focus areas

The programme is implemented through two key focus areas — Reliance Foundation Bharat India Jodo (RF BIJ) and Rural Transformation Information Services (RTIS) — are central to this effort. RF BIJ, initiated in 2010, empowers communities to take collective action towards sustainable livelihoods through multiple pillars. It focuses on building self-reliance by enabling communities to access resources and technologies that support their long-term sustainability.

RTIS, by leveraging digital platforms, reaches rural communities across India with critical information and support on farming, fishing, livestock rearing, and more. This phygital approach integrates digital tools to support real-time decision-making while maintaining essential physical outreach for community engagement and support.

Reliance Foundation engages with communities through peer and partner organisations and collaborates with the government to leverage synergies. The partnership-driven approach with various stakeholders, including government bodies, non-profits, and entrepreneurs, is pivotal in driving sustainable, community-led development.

Sustainable and meaningful change is strongest when it comes from within the community. Reliance Foundation is developing a grassroots leadership cadre, so rural communities move beyond receiving support to actively shaping their own progress.

Broadly, the Rural Transformation programme works towards its vision by:

• Collaborating with rural communities to ensure that interventions are tailored to local needs.
• Promoting sustainable natural resource management, ensuring long-term environmental sustainability.
• Empowering communities with vital information to strengthen and safeguard livelihoods, leveraging both physical and digital tools.
• Enabling pathways to collectivisation, access to finance, markets, and social safety nets, creating robust support systems for rural communities.

Reliance Foundation’s work extends beyond individual households and village communities, addressing challenges at the block and district levels. The focus on blocks ensures that development efforts are deep-rooted and impactful, strengthening local governance, community institutions, and resilience systems.

Reliance Foundation's Rural Transformation programme empowers communities towards self-reliance and resilience through targeted, sustainable solutions delivered via its key pillars - RF BIJ and RTIS. This commitment to localised action and robust support networks fosters lasting progress and contributes to a vision of transforming rural India.

• Securing Livelihoods by Improving Climate Resilience
• Enhancing Farming Incomes
• Empowering Women in Rural Communities
• Improved nutrition for rural communities
• Community Capacity Enhancement
• Technology for Rural Development