Situation in India
India is a country of enormous dimensions with a population several times the size of other countries and of people profoundly differentiated by language, culture, history, economic strength and social standing. India is rich in resources and qualified personnel. However, still around one third of its people are illiterate and live below the poverty line. India has some of the finest social planning and legislation to improve the situation of the poor, on which much progress has been made. Translating these policies into practice has, however, activated enormous forces of resistance and reaction, so policies often remain on paper.
What mainly prevents the poor from reaching a human way of life and a fuller participation in the fruits of general development is their lack of self-confidence, of knowledge and skills to operate "the system", to  get access to the public programmes meant for them,  to contribute and participate in the planning and realisation of such efforts. Thus any lasting effort to change the predicament of the poor has to start, first and foremost, with improvement of their self-confidence and their self image as well as their capability to solve their problems themselves. Based on this new understanding of their own abilities they have to gain knowledge and skills to operate the existing system and its rules and procedures, to ensure their rights, to get access to the public programmes meant for them and to contribute and participate in the planning and realisation of such efforts.  

Programmes
Concern for others always has to start from the basic understanding that even the poorest person is a full human being capable to improve his or her situation. Thus we sincerely believe that it is through the broad field of information, mobilisation and education that the poor will find their way to help themselves: seeing themselves as capable of changing their destiny and acting accordingly.
Translated into concrete programmes, which Misereor supports in India, this thrust can take various expressions: Foremost stands animation, as it is often called, empowerment of the poor or community organisation. Further programmatic implications from this thrust are the promotion of community health, meaningful primary education, non-formal vocational training, promotion of women's organisations, credit societies etc.
Misereor programmes in India are focused to directly address the situation of “the poor”. In our understanding, these are the marginalized and oppressed, specifically dalits, adivasis, women, children and, to a certain extent, also people with disabilities. It is always our aim to reach among them the poorest and those in greatest need. We are aware that situations and needs differ so widely within this vast country, we however, perceive the situation of the poor in the North of the country as the greatest challenge to development work in India.

Partners
With it’s limited resources, Misereor supports any group which genuinely promotes the self-help capacity of the poor. Co-operation with both, secular and Church groups to us is simply an obligation from a universal human, non-sectarian and non-communal call of Christian witnessing. As Misereor has started its engagement in India in close co-operation with the Catholic Church in India and because Church groups and Church institutions are working successfully with and for the poor in many parts of the country, the Church is quantitatively still our major partner.
As a support organisation based in Europe we cannot possibly do full justice to all potential partner groups in India. We develop a more substantial and long-term contact with partners whom we perceive as crucial on the basis of regional needs and their own profile. Such so called "core partners" are involved in strategically important issues and innovative measures. With other partners we are co-operating in a more routine manner.
Considerable changes among national Indian support agencies during the late 1980ies led to initiatives towards new forms of co-operation stressing transparency of policy, transfer of decision-making and professionalism in approach. In selected sectors a number of competent and committed persons form a group to deal with related project proposals and partner dialogue and to periodically review priorities.
In this vein the 'National Education Group' (NEG) was set up in 1990 to relate to primary education for the poorest. In 1994 a group dealing with Functional Vocational Training ('Functional Vocational Training Forum' - FVTF) was constituted, and since 1997 the 'Community-Based-Rehabilitation Forum' (CBRF) for rehabilitation of people with disabilities is active.
The 'Indo-Global Social Service Society' (IGSSS) was Misereor 's trustee in India since its beginning in 1961. The trustee function of the organisation has come to a complete end in the 1990ies and today IGSSS is a professional Indian organisation independent of Misereor. But we are still co-operating closely with IGSSS in our national programmes and Misereor also engages IGSSS for professional services (e. g. partner consultation).
For co-operation with the Church in India, contacts with 'Caritas India' have been intensified during the recent years. This has also led to co-operation in concrete programmes e.g. promotion of the Animation approach, through Church partners all over the country.
Misereor also avails of the professional consultancy services of service agencies and other national organisations such as AFPRO, CHAI, ISI, SKIP, VHAI as well as competent individuals.