Women Leadership

WomenLeaders India Fellowship: Cultivating change agents

The WomenLeaders India Fellowship, powered by Reliance Foundation with technical inputs from Vital Voices, is a leadership development programme focused on advancing women’s leadership in India. Launched in 2022, the fellowship has, to date, supported two cohorts, empowering a total of 100 women leaders from across the social sector.

Across its first two rounds, the 10-month fellowship engaged 50 fellows per cohort working in areas including Rural Transformation, Education, Sports for Development, and Arts, Culture, and Heritage. This investment in women changemakers has translated into tangible leadership outcomes — 84% of fellows from Round 1 and 91% from Round 2 reported maintaining or significantly strengthening their confidence as women leaders, enabling them to lead with greater clarity and purpose within their organisations and communities. 

Structured around three tracks — Economic Empowerment & Entrepreneurs, Social Sector Leaders, and Changemakers — the fellowship focuses on leadership capacity building and skills development through mentoring, peer learning, and increased visibility. The strength of this approach is reflected in the scale of impact generated by fellows’ work: Round 1 fellows collectively reached 1,147,922 individuals, while Round 2 fellows extended their reach to 2,929,559 new individuals in the past year, significantly amplifying the programme’s ripple effect.