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People And Their
Problems
New Delhi, 3 February 2007
Changing Perception
Towards
Spreading Legal Literacy
By Radhakrishna Rao
Adult literacy and formal education programme in India have
undoubtedly proved to be an effective instrument to bring about a socio-economic
transformation of the society. According to Avadesh Kaushal, Chairperson of
Dehra Dun-based Rural Litigation and Entitlement Kendra (RLEK) the spread of
literacy has brought about a remarkable change in the “outlook and perception”
of the country at large. But then the
RLEK, which is active in adult literacy and formal educational sector of the
hill State of Uttarakhand, has also been spearheading legal awareness programme in the State, as well as in the
neighbouring Himachal Pradesh.
Right from the outset, the RLEK has been striving ceaselessly towards empowering indigenous groups,
marginalized communities and children and women to claim their rights and
entitlements. After years of struggle
against atrocities meted out to under-privileged and marginalized communities
in the region, it has fought for the right of the community and the individuals
in the courts of justice.
Several legal battles fought by the RLEK led to the
formulation of legislations in accordance with the decisions and judgments of
the courts. As pointed out by Kaushal:
“These acts were merely the starting point. People had to be organized and
mobilized. Persistent advocacy efforts brought about a countrywide exposure to
widespread violation of fundamental rights. The RLEK initiatives led the
promulgation of Bonded Labour Abolition Act, 1976, Environmental Protection Act
of 1986 and Psychotropic Substances Act of 1988”.
It was but natural that activities of the RLEK focussing mainly on securing justice to the poor and deprived
sections of the society led to the creation of a full fledged legal cell to
strengthen its pro-active role in empowering the entire society with legal
literacy. The legal cell of the RLEK through research and training aims at
inspiring confidence of the public in the administration of justice,
inculcating a spirit of righteousness
so that adherence to the law is ensured in totality.
Realizing the sound and solid track record of the RLEK in
fighting for justice and empowering the indigenous communities, the National
Legal Services Authority has entrusted it with the responsibility of setting up
a national centre for legal literacy and legal training for the States of
Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh. As part of this mandate, it regularly
conducts legal literacy for the empowerment of elected women Panchayat Raj
representatives, as well as the depressed
sections of the society.
In addition, the RLEK’s legal cell helps create a cadre of
paralegals. Women in general and those in need of the justice are the prime
focus of the legal training camps organized by the RLEK in various parts of
Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh from time to time. As stated by R.N. Agarwal,
Member Secretary, Uttarakhand Legal Series Authority, “the RLEK is one of the
leading NGOs (Non-Government Organizations) of North India,
working towards the empowerment of women and weaker sections of the society in
the most unreachable areas.”
It is through such initiatives of civil society that
qualitative changes at the grassroot
level can be made a reality. On the
other hand, the main aim of the legal literacy campaign of the RLEK is to
empower the marginalized communities to claim their rights and entitlements in
order to usher in a society based on the sound principles of justice.
Pragati, the all-woman Panchayati Raj unit of the RLEK has
been working relentlessly for more
than a decade towards ensuring the political empowerment of the women of
Uttarakhand with legal literacy as a major tool. The mission
objective of Pragati is to enhance the status of women in the social, economic
and political spheres through a process
which is designed to change the nature and direction of systemic forces that
marginalize women and other socially deprived sections of the society.
For quite sometime now, Pragati has been spearheading a
campaign designed to raise women’s consciousness
of political rights guaranteed under 73rd and 74th
Constitutional Amendments and to raise women’s knowledge and awareness of their rights and privileges with respect to
social, economic and political institutions, health, nutrition, education and
the law. Further Pragati is active in lobbying towards political level changes
for ensuring women’s rights, including rights to inheritance, right to
ownership or property and right to maintenance in the event of divorce and
desertion.
More importantly, Pragati imparts pre and post-election
training to women. Another area where
Pragati has excelled in providing information and training on gender and
local-self governance, gender and reproductive health, development and legal
literacy. Members of Gram Sabhas, elected woman representatives, local women’s
groups and NGO functionaries have all benefited from the programmes of the
RLEK. In particular, Pragati regularly holds workshops and open sessions to make elected women representatives legally
literate and develop channels of communications linkages among various segments
of the society and political set up.
Meanwhile, with the draft Bill on the Nyaya Panchayat to
pave the way for setting up inexpensive, fast-track rural courts now under
scanner, the RLEK is lobbying for the introduction and implementation of the
Bill without further delay. The Nyaya Panchayats, which have been an integral
part of the social heritage of India,
is a proof positive of the thriving democracy in India’s rural backyards. Going
ahead, Nyaya Panchayats are an effective answer to relieve the judiciary of its
un-excessive load of backlog cases
which has assumed insurmountable
preposition, making access to
justice to the public at large a long delayed process.
Over the years, the legal ambit in its entirety has widened
to encompass innovation in the legal
process, for instance, cyber crimes,
intellectual property rights violation and bio-terrorism. Also when people’s
problems are neither heard nor dealt with a completely new system of dispensing
rough and erroneous verdicts by using strong arms tactics to attain the desired
goal has been set up by caste and communal groups in various parts of the
country.
In the ultimate analysis, it is believed that in the context
of the problems facing the conventional justice dispensing mechanism in the
country, setting up of rural courts under the Nyaya Panchayat Act has become
indispensable. It ensures participatory and people-oriented system of justice,
provides greater scope for mediation, conciliation and compromise and in turn mitigate
hardships of the rural people by providing justice at the village level.---INFA
(Copyright,
India News and Feature Alliance)
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