73rd amendment in the Constitution of India led to implementation of Panchayati Raj Act (Local Self-governance) and post-liberal economic transformation was yet to spread all over the country. Flagship government programs like Swarnjayanti Gram Swarojgar Yojna (SGSY) were being implemented by the government machinery and often didn’t reach to the poor in the villages. SRIJAN’s genesis in year 1997 was on the core principle of a strong collaboration among Government and NGO partners, as it was called during that time GO-NGO partnership. With such collaboration, not only the schemes and programs would reach to the poor, they would also give feedback to make schemes fit better for the poor. In year 2000, SRIJAN started first assignment with designing of Madhya Pradesh government’s World Bank funded District Poverty Initiative Project and later implementing it in Bundelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh. Same program was also taken up in Hadoti region of Rajasthan in 2004. Large infrastructural works on tank rehabilitation, irrigation resource creation and aggregating communities in form of user groups were the mainstays of the genesis phase. Formation of Self-help groups of women and initial aggregation of produce, especially milk had also begun during this phase.

By year 2008, SRIJAN already expanded to various parts of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh started projects with support from corporate philanthropies ITC Ltd, Bunge Pvt. Ltd etc. Once again, various Government Programs like Mitigating Poverty in Western Rajasthan (MPOWER), Wadi (horticulture) program of NABARD were being implemented in Mewar of Rajasthan and Mahakoshal region of Madhya Pradesh. During this phase, SRIJAN had started forming larger community institutions (Federations) in various parts of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan and work on agriculture, horticulture, and some value-addition in the produce through mechanization. By year 2012, SRIJAN expanded base to Odisha and Chhattisgarh as well. This phase saw tremendous leadership in SRIJAN and forums like Core-Group, Management Committee, Team Leaders Forum, Operational Policy Group were formed to run an organisation having 300+ workforce and operating in 4 states of the country. This phase also marked advent of large projects to support the organisation in reaching to 100,000 families and work on refining the models of livelihood. SRIJAN’s nano-orchard model of horticulture was the major outcome of this phase. SRIJAN by 2016, had reached to over 50,000 families and was recognised by government departments as technical resource agency. This led to SRIJAN’s expansion to Uttar Pradesh to practically operate whole of UPSRLM.

By 2016, SRIJAN shaped up projects to support implementation of livelihood programs and by 2018, started externally aided projects in Assam, Telangana, Maharashtra through support from various multilateral and government institutions including National Rural Livelihood Mission in Telangana and Maharashtra. During this phase, SRIJAN’s focus was primarily on the collaborative works in multiple parts of the country with government as well as non-governmental organisations. SRIJAN initiated two forums- Bundelkhand Sustainable Development Forum (BSDF) and Women’s Federation of India and is part of a regional forum called Madhya Pradesh-Sustainable Development Initiative (MP-SDI). The ongoing strategy in SRIJAN is to go for deeper tribal pockets in the country and take up assignments and projects with government collaboration. SRIJAN has development strong leadership pool and a very strong management system. In this phase, SRIJAN is expanding to uncharted territories near our older locations.