Legal literacy is commonly understood as knowing the primary level in law. When citizens, particularly marginalised or underprivileged groups, know what the law has to offer them, they can recognise and challenge injustices much more forcefully. The first step towards that knowledge of law which can transform people’s lives is legal literacy. 
Legal literacy is a tool for bringing about qualitative change at the grassroots level. Experience shows that better awareness of laws helps people work more effectively in diverse spheres. The non-implementation of many laws is partly attributed to the beneficiaries’ lack of awareness. 
Project Dheer aims to conduct legal literacy and governance sessions in rural India. Around 35% of India’s population have no formal education.  Most of them live in rural areas, where social and economic barriers play an important role in keeping the lowest strata of society illiterate. Literacy is an indispensable means for effective social and economic participation, contributing to human development and poverty
reduction. Even those who are literate are helpless and confused when there is a violation or infringement of a right enforceable in law.
The term of the program will vary from village to village and so will the content of the sessions. The main factor influencing the content of the session will be the demography of the village. To determine what all will be covered in the sessions, a team will go for reconnaissance to the village in order to collect all the relevant information needed for planning the sessions.
As Project Dheer is a pilot project, we will start by focusing on only one village for which we shall design the sessions from scratch. Our objective is to draft a session plan which can be conducted in the target area so as to provide maximum utility to the target community. The subjects covered in the session would range from basic rights to remedies against criminal offences.
Knowledge of law is power and helps self-realisation. India, the largest democracy in the world, has an emergent need for generating awareness of rights as knowledge so that people live in consonance with the true dictates of democracy and rule of law. Project Dheer is Itisaras’ first initiative to address this need.