Began in 1974, N M Sadguru Water and Development Foundation is a non-government, non-political, not for profit, secular organization, registered under the Public Charitable Trust Act and the Societies Registration Act (1860) and the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act. It is recognized by the departments of Rural Development of the Government of three states of Rajasthan, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. The organization is receiving funds from the states and central government, national and international funding agencies for its rural / tribal poverty reduction programmes centered around Natural Resources Management.
Its main objectives are to improve the living conditions of rural and tribal people by developing environmentally sound land and water resources programmes ; improve the environment and eco-system ; arrest the distress migration ; improve the socio-economic status of rural people and strive for their overall development. This is promoted by facilitating the growth of community based institutions that support and sustain the Natural Resources Management programmes.
The project area is classified as a drought prone semi-arid region of the country and is pre-dominated by tribals and rural poors representing the poorest section of their society. The project area is presently extended across three states in sixteen districts of Rajasthan, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, Besides implementation of livelihood programmes centered around NRM, the organization has been at a great scale imparting training, capacity building and technical inputs to large numbers of government and non-government organizations at its state of art training institute at Chosala, Dahod, Gujarat, which has not only excellent physical infrastructure and facilities, but, manned by highly qualified and richly experienced staff known for their expertise and performance in the respective field. Usually, groups from the government and non government organizations from 20 Indian states take benefit of their training and capacity building and often international groups also come for the training-cum-exposure.
Mission: SADGURU endeavours to develop and expand environmentally, technically, socially sound natural resource interventions leading to empowerment of rural community including women to ensure equitable and sustainable development and poverty reduction.
Vision: Empowerment of tribal and rural communities with natural resources restored, developed and expanded in the selected project areas.