Jan Sahas is committed to promote the development and protect the rights of socially excluded communities with the special focus on girls and women through abolishing all kind of exclusion, slavery, violence and discrimination based on caste, class and gender. Jan Sahas started functioning in the year 2000 when it took up the issue of death of one child labour and two dalit labours in an illegal unit of firecrackers. Few people united on the issue and Jan Sahas was born. On this backdrop a group of young volunteers decided to come together and form an organization, ‘Jan Sahas Social Development Society’. Organization focuses specifically on legal empowerment, access to justice, eradication of all forms of bondage including manual scavenging and caste-based prostitution; empowerment of adolescent girls and women to end violence and gender justice and reform in criminal justice system; support in education; land rights and agriculture development; promotion of basic rights and entitlements; develop barefoot lawyers to build victim or survivors as leader and empowerment of communities through capacity and organization building.

The target groups of the organization is socially excluded communities such as Dalit, Tribal, other excluded communities and special emphasis on girls and women. The organization is intensively working in 15 districts of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. Through the fellowship program, networking and campaign initiative Jan Sahas has its presence in the rural and urban areas of other 48 districts of 5 states (Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar and Maharashtra) of India. Jan Sahas is also involved in national level policy initiatives with the government and UN Agencies.