The TISS Tuljapur Campus was established following a review undertaken by the Institute in its Golden Jubilee year in 1987. The Campus was established with the mission of promoting initiatives for sustainable, ecofriendly and equitable socioeconomic development of rural communities, with a focus on social justice. Through its programmes, TISS Tuljapur seeks to contribute to the revival of the rural economy, society and polity by promoting alternatives in development. In order to achieve this, TISS Tuljapur evolved a four-dimensional programme comprising teaching, training, field action, and research & documentation. It has built a strong team of multidisciplinary faculty drawn from social work, philosophy, sociology, economics, agriculture, and other related disciplines.

TISS Tuljapur seeks to achieve its mission by creating a cadre of professional social workers, social scientists and functionaries with a rural orientation, appropriate values and skills. TISS Tuljapur programmes to transmit and operationalise the principles underlying the Constitution of India, the Human Rights Charter and the Social Work Code of Ethics.

Since its inception, TISS Tuljapur has been consistently responding to those vulnerable to natural and humanmade calamities and the unjust socioeconomic and political order. Its response to the Latur earthquake, and its role in addressing the recurrent drought and its attendant effect on livelihood and human dignity of people in Marathwada region bear ample testimony to this fact.

What was initially envisioned as a ‘Rural Campus’ of TISS has now become a School of Rural Development (SRD) actively engaged in promoting sustainable, eco-friendly and inclusive rural development through teaching, research, field action programmes, training and documentation. While TISS Tuljapur is treading the path towards higher education, its commitment to build the capacity of frontline workers, especially at the grassroots, and evolving alternative experimental action programmes aimed at livelihood, social entrepreneurship and institution-building has assumed greater significance. Organisation of people, promotion of gender equity, application of appropriate technology, communication of new techniques for agricultural and non-agricultural workers, and rural-based research in social work and social sciences are some of the strategies adopted by TISS Tuljapur.