The IDIA project helps students from underprivileged and marginalised communities to secure admission to the leading law colleges in India. The aim is to create top quality advocates from within these communities. Since law is an instrument of power, access to premier legal education empowers these communities in the long run and helps them help themselves. Indeed, as the age-old adage goes: "Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish, you feed him for a lifetime".

IDIA was conceptualised as a pan-India student with minimal faculty and administration involvement from the NLU’s. Law students are the backbone of the movement, with students forming and leading teams in the major states and union territories of India.The IDIA movement has now spread to at least 17 different states and union territories.

Local teams have visited a large number of schools across India, from the Sunderbans in West Bengal and Pelling in the North East to Jitholi in Uttar Pradesh and Srinagar in the North to Tumkur in the South. The modus operandi for selection and training is thus: A simple aptitude test (involving mostly logical reasoning questions) is administered to check the students' aptitude for the study of law.