Empowerment The Institute strives to assist social activists in the praxis of action-reflection-action with people at the grassroots level, and support groups like intellectuals, journalists and policy-makers. It generates a database on the economic policy, the impact of globalization and liberalization, debt trap and relief, the role of global financing corporations, the agrarian scene, the lives of the marginalized communities and human rights.

Networking The Institute has been making attempts to align itself as a supportive resource centre with individuals, organizations and people’s movements especially of Dalits, tribals, women, the most backward castes and minorities.

Research & Advocacy

Advocacy of descriptive policy research is carried out to learn about certain social problems and human rights issues. These studies seek to measure social problems with a view to heightening community awareness of them and providing proposals and other action to ameliorate the problem in question. For advocacy, the institute also bends its research methods in order to inflate the magnitude of the social problem described, and thereby suggest social action to address the issue.

Indian Social Institute works for social advocacy. This involves monitoring, networking, campaigning and lobbying for changes in national policies in favour of the poor. It applies a multi-disciplinary approach in addressing social challenges.  

1. Building the capacity of small social policy implementing groups and individuals through training and informative programs.
2. Conducting simple and complex social research/ study and analyzing policies so as to adopt and develop sound recommendations for improvement, to various stakeholders with potential to change the situation.
3. Adopting social advocacy strategy to address gender discrimination, children's rights, domestic violence, social justice and violation of human rights.
4. The aim of research in rural development is to critically examine rural development as an object for policy making. In recent years, rural development has emerged as a policy field in its own right. Despite the fact that governments are now drawing up national rural development strategy plans, the obstacles to ‘sustainable rural livelihoods’ are significant. The principal focus of research in this field is on the transformation of the rural areas. Improving conditions and opportunities here faces problems such as underemployment, land abandonment and deteriorating services and infrastructure.  One of the main aims of this research is to develop practical and theoretical ways for critically engaging with these problems.
5. The concepts of empowerment and advocacy, and how they impinge on power relationships are explored through research.

The institute’s research and advocacy agenda is bringing together and benefiting from the research and experience of technical experts, researchers, academics, policymakers, government officials and social activists from different disciplines.

Protection and Promotion of Human Rights Following the rights based approach to development, the Institute identifies specific areas and the possible measures for the protection and promotion of human rights especially of the marginalized.