Tuljapur Off-Campus

About Us

TISS Tuljapur in the Osmanabad district of Maharashtra was set up with support from the Government of Maharashtra in 1986. It is a 100-acre campus on a vast plateau on the outskirts of the temple town of Tuljapur. The tuljapur campus has commenced offering the Five Year Integrated Masters programme since 2012 and also offers MA in Rural Development. It has a full-fledged computer centre, library, gymnasium, boys hostel, girls hostels, guest-house, faculty and staff quarters.

The initial focus of the Institute on rural development projects and field action has widened to include academic activities with grass root level involvement both by faculty and students in the last 7 years.

The Tuljapur Campus was established following a review undertaken by the Institute in its Golden Jubilee year 1987. The campus was established with the goals of promoting initiatives for sustainable, eco-friendly and equitable socio-economic development of rural communities, with a focus on gender and social justice. Through its programs, the School of Rural Development (SRD) seeks to contribute to the revival of the rural Economy, Society and polity by promoting alternatives in development. In order to achieve this, SRD evolved a four-dimensional program 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. It conducts a three year Bachelors degree (Hons.) in Social Work (BASW) and a two year Masters degree in Social Work (MASW) with specialization in rural development. Currently, it has started an interdisciplinary 5 year integrated BA-MA in Social Sciences programme.

Recent Achievements

The synergy between teaching, research, field action and extension has enabled the TISS to continue to shape planning, policy and programme formulation, foster critical rethinking, and development of people-centred interventions.

• The Special Cell for Women and Children, a Field Action Project of TISS, completed 25 years of work in 2009 on ‘Violence Against Women’ as a programme/service located in the police system. At present, 7 States have established Special Cells and efforts are on to establish the Special Cells in the remaining States and Union Territories of the country.
• TISS is the Principal Recipient of the Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in a country-wide project for capacity-building of higher institutions of learning in HIV/AIDS Counselling. Named Saksham, the project will conduct master training programmes and help to build infrastructure to develop the capacities of 40 academic institutions all over the country, which, in turn, will provide supportive supervision and training to 12,000 counsellors working in the national HIV/AIDS counselling programme. The Global Fund has awarded Saksham an A-1 rating.
• In the Andaman & Nicobar Islands, as a part of post-tsunami reconstruction, the TISS has embarked on a programme of capacity-building of local communities in sustainable development. In collaboration with ANI Administration, TISS is in the process of setting up Disaster Early Warning System and structures for Rural Knowledge Centres.
• The TISS is recognised by the World Health Organisation as a collaborating Centre for Health, Policy Research and Training. The UNAIDS Centre for Behavioural Research on HIV/AIDS is also located at TISS.
• The TISS has been engaged in working with the GoM to design an Outcome Budget covering 12 key government departments. The Outcome Budget initiative is an attempt to link public expenditure to definitive positive outcomes rather than mere outputs so as to establish the relationship between financial allocation, the actual expenditures, and the eventual outcomes of that expenditure.
• The TISS has established collaborative research and student exchange programmes with over 25 universities and consortiums in Africa, Asia, the United States and Europe.
• The TISS has become a partner in a Consortium of 12 European Universities and 8 Indian Universities. This Consortium is led by Lund University, Sweden, and has received a grant of 9.6 million Euros for academic exchange under the Erasmus Mundus External Cooperation Window India Lot 15. Under the Grant, TISS faculty members and students will receive fellowships for teaching and research work in various universities across Europe, and TISS will receive scholars and students from European Universities.
• At the request of the Mumbai High Court, in 2005, the TISS Rural Campus undertook a study of farmers’ suicides in Maharashtra. The Report has been appreciated by the Court, both for providing valuable insights into the rural livelihood crises and its policy recommendations. A long-term action research project on agrarian crisis has been initiated.
• The TISS continues to be involved in critical research in diverse areas such as education and literacy, family and children, women’s issues, HIV/AIDS, rural and urban development issues, displacement, youth and human development, and the rights of Dalits, indigenous peoples, minorities and other marginalised groups.