Making Legal Empowerment and Legal Aid More Effective: Interventions through the Project on Access to Justice for Marginalized People

Transcription

1 Making Legal Empowerment and Legal Aid More Effective: Interventions through the Project on Access to Justice for Marginalized People A Workshop Organised by Department of Justice (Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of India) and United Nations Development Programme in collaboration with National Legal Services Authority 14 DECEMBER 2009 CONFERENCE HALL No. 1, INDIAN LAW INSTITUTE, Bhagwandas Road, New Delhi

2 Setting the Context The Department of Justice (Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of India) is implementing a project on Access to Justice for Marginalised People along with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The current project is based on the lessons learnt from a similar pilot project implemented by the Department of Justice, Strengthened Access to Justice in India ( SAJI I). SAJI I had sought to carry out a justice sector diagnosis, identify entry points and support innovative small pilots to identify good initiatives for replication. Based on the lessons and results of SAJI-I ( ) and an extensive design mission, the current four-year project (October 2008 December 2012) was developed. The interventions under the Project Access to Justice for Marginalized People will be focused on strengthening access to justice for the marginalized people, particularly women, SCs, STs and minorities by supporting strategies and initiatives that seek to address the barriers they face in social, economic and political domains. The programme will focus on the one hand on improving institutional capacities of key justice service providers to enable them to effectively serve the marginalized sections of the society and on the other hand, on directly empowering the poor and disadvantaged men and women to seek and demand justice services. The Project will be implemented in 7 identified states of Bihar, Chhattisgrah, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. Four broad project goals The project seeks to achieve four deliverables by the end of the project period 1. Support national and local justice delivery institutions to improve access to justice for women and men belonging to the marginalised groups; 2. Develop legal and representational capacity of CSOs and networks providing access to justice services to disadvantaged groups; 3. Enhance legal awareness of women and men belonging to marginalized groups and their elected representatives in select districts; and 4. Inform policies and institutional structures through action research and studies. Why the focus on Legal Services Authorities? Legal Services Authorities are critical justice providers and collaborating with them is essential for the successful implementation of the Project. - Ms. Bhupinder Prasad, Special Secretary, Department of Justice and National Project Director, Access to Justice for Marginalised People The Legal Services Authority Act 1987 put in place a statutory system for providing free legal aid and services to the most marginalized groups in India. The Act mandates the SLSAs to perform three primary functions: (a) Give legal service to persons who satisfy the criteria laid down under this Act; (b) Conduct Lok Adalats including Lok Adalats for High Court cases; and (c) Undertake preventive and strategic legal aid programmes The Project, in focusing upon justice delivery institutions, gives special attention and importance to the Legal Services Authorities because of their statutory mandate to provide free legal services including legal aid, awareness and empowerment. Indeed, the Design Mission set up to design the Project had consulted stakeholders across various sectors and jurisdictions before coming to the conclusion that the Project must give special attention to assisting the Legal Services Authorities in strengthening their capacities. 2

3 The Workshop The Workshop on making legal empowerment and legal aid more effective: interventions through the project on access to justice for marginalized people was organised by the Department of Justice in collaboration with UNDP and the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) with the aim of bringing together the State Legal Services Authorities (SLSAs) and the civil society. The primary aim of the workshop was to apprise the Member Secretaries of the 7 Project states and the civil society about the project and its goals. In addition, the Workshop was also envisioned as a platform to share experiences and good practices. In addition, it provided a space to discuss the priorities of each state in the area of access. The Workshop also sought to establish a rapport between the civil society organisations and the SLSAs so that the project activities could be carried out properly in the seven states. With these goals in mind, the Workshop brought together around 30 participants from across the country including Member Secretaries of the SLSAs in the 7 Project states, Member Secretaries of SLSAs from three other states (Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Kerala) to share good practices, lawyers, judges, and representatives of the civil society organisations. Structure of the Workshop The Workshop began with opening remarks from the Special Secretary, Justice; Member Secretary, NALSA and the Project Manager. This was followed by 4 presentations from representatives of civil society who set the context for further discussion on legal aid and legal empowerment. Thereafter the Member Secretaries/representatives of 10 SLSAs made short presentations on how their SLSA functions, the challenges before them and some of the good practices they have developed 1. The Workshop provided ample space for discussions. Structure of the Report This report seeks to capture the essence of the discussion in the Workshop and is organised thematically rather than chronologically. It begins with a brief description of the functioning of the SLSAs and incorporates participants suggestions on how to improve it. The report then records some of the common problems faced by the SLSAs and ideas to meet some of these challenges. It concludes by emphasising the importance of conducting a comprehensive needs assessment of SLSAs with a view to strengthen the capacity of the SLSAs to provide access to justice to marginalized communities. Functioning of the SLSAs: some salient points All the SLSAs in the 10 states represented in the Workshop conduct similar activities, although the scale, scope and methodology differ depending upon the availability of resources and usage of innovative approaches. 1 Please see the agenda (Annexure I) for further details. 3

4 Lok Adalats and Alternate Dispute Resolution mechanisms Issues of social justice are not negotiable. We cannot use ADR mechanisms to deal with cases where issues of grave social injustice are involved. - Ms. Grover, MARG Holding lok adalats and permanent lok adalats forms a major chunk of the activities of the SLSAs. Some like Jharkhand are also holding plea-bargaining special adalats. Others like the Gujarat SLSA run free Mobile Legal Services Unit, which arranges lok adalats and legal literacy camps in remote areas of the state with a view to provide justice at the doorstep. With regards to the working of the lok adalats, Ms. Sinha from Centre for Social Justice, emphasized that law colleges should be involved actively in organising these adalats and mentioned that not as much effort is being put into organizing them at present as it was when they were initially launched. Students are huge resource available for this kind of activity. She also suggested that there is a need to conduct social audit of lok adalats in order to validate the quality of the negotiations. Apart from lok adalats, many SLSAs are also experimenting with other alternate dispute resolution (ADR) mechanisms such as mediation and conciliation. Mr. Mohanty, Member Secretary Orissa SLSA also suggested that those cases of the marginalised people should be identified that can be resolved through mediation and conciliation in trivial matters and ultimately by lok adalats. He also argued the case for opening of mediation/counselling centres in each gram panchayat. Mr. Navneet Kumar, Member Secretary, Jharkhand argued that most of the issues can be resolved at the pre-litigation stage. Ms. Vrinda Grover contended that issues of social justice are not negotiable and cannot be resolved at the pre-litigation stage. After some debate, Justice Akbar Ali intervened to point out that while all issues cannot be resolved, especially where grave social injustices have been done, the point is that ADR as an option is available in a variety of cases although not in all. Ms. Ramasheshan, Advocate, Madras High Court, emphasised the importance of training lawyers and judges in ADR mechanism so that value judgments are not attached to the parties who are unwilling to go through the process despite the courts having referred the case for ADR. Legal awareness and training It is important to provide an understanding of laws; an understanding of discrimination and its operation; and to address the fear of the system and its responses in a simple language. - Ms. Geeta Ramaseshan, Advocate SLSAs across the country conduct a variety of programmes on legal awareness. However, there is much difference between the contents, methodology, kinds of trainers used and the beneficiaries of these programmes. Recognising that the programmes could not be uniform, Ms. Vrinda Grover, Director MARG, argued that there should be some commonality in terms of methodology, content etc. She suggested that when planning or conducting legal awareness programmes, a few points must be kept in mind: There is a need to work directly with the people Create a cadre of people who can use and transmit their learning further It is relatively easier to make people aware of their rights, but the awareness programmes should go a bit further and deal with the question of how to realise those rights or how to access the rights. This is very important. 4

5 Ms. Kotwal from CHRI was categorical that for a legal awareness programme to be successful, the trainings should not be based on the trainer s pre-decided agenda but on the needs of the community. She also emphasised that the training organisation must establish a neutral identity with all the different sections of the community and should not be seen as being on the side of one section. Skilled Trainers: Participants agreed that training is a specialised area and it requires special skills. Merely reaching out to the community and informing them about the laws is not going to serve the purpose. In most of the states, the SLSA uses judges and panel lawyers to conduct legal awareness trainings. Ms. Grover argued that as a specialised skill, legal awareness training is not something which should be expected from a judicial officer who requires and possesses an entirely different set of skills. For conducting legal awareness and legal literacy events, specialised organisations/ individuals must be involved. Prof. Siva Kumar stated that in order to improve the quality of trainings, professionally trained persons should take up the task of legal awareness trainings. He noted that the CSOs are working well in this area and the SLSAs could use their services for legal awareness trainings. Mr. Mohanty, Member Secretary SLSA suggested that periodical orientation training programmes should be conducted to enhance the skills of the officials engaged in the process of legal service. He also suggested that an increased number of legal literacy camps should be conducted and in a better manner including the use of audio-visuals aids. Simplified material in local language: Mr. Singhal, Member Secretary, Chhattisgarh SLSA noted that one of the biggest challenges they are facing is that often there are communication gaps between the tribal community and the implementing organisation. Participants agreed that it is extremely important to prepare simplified legal literacy materials in the local language. Content covered in trainings: Mr. P. L. Mimroth, from Centre for Dalit Rights, Jaipur, argued that there is a need to study whether the identified categories of vulnerable people including the Scheduled Castes under the Legal Services Authorities Act are benefiting from the Act in reality or not. Special attention must be given to the content of the legal aid camps and programmes. He pointed out a recent report of the Rajasthan LSA report mentions that 150 legal literacy camps were conducted. However, a close scrutiny of the content of the law covered in these camps indicates that out of 150 camps, only 2 covered SC & ST rights. Involving and strengthening local resources: All legal awareness programmes should aim to involve and strengthen local resource who can assist the community even after the training organisation/lsa leaves. The quinquennial vision and strategy document prepared by NALSA identifies creation of a cadre of paralegal volunteers as an important area of SLSAs work. AP SLSA conducts regular training programme on paralegal volunteers. Senior citizens, advocates, teachers, law students, social workers, educated prisoners serving long term sentences etc. can all be trained as paralegals. Their inclusion is purely on a voluntary basis. The identified volunteers guide and assist the public in their respective villages in approaching the revenue and other authorities 5

6 for grievance redressal. They also assist the public in approaching the LSA for availing legal services. The Rajasthan SLSA has appointed legal services volunteers for implementation of legal aid programs. Prominent persons of the society including the sarpanchs, NGOs and anganwadi workers are involved in the legal literacy programs. In Kerala, the SLSA is giving special attention to the Anti-Ragging Act. Trained volunteers go to schools and colleges to create awareness on the law. Even students as young as those from the 9 th standard are covered under this activity. The volunteers have distributed 6,00,000 copies of the resource material on this law. The SLSA also works with the neighbourhood groups called the kudumbshree and legal literacy programmes are conducted with this target group. Member Secretary, SLSA, Orissa argued that Legal Resource Centres should to be opened in each district for training paralegals and beneficiaries. He observed that the creation of a strong base of paralegals at the panchayat level was critical. It is not just the SLSAs but also the civil society organisations who have worked in the field to create paralegal workers. While helping people on a case to case basis, CHRI successfully created a cadre of paralegals at the community level. Ms. Sinha from CSJ gave an example of a successful CSO partnership with an institution like NHRC to create paralegals within the prisons. NHRC had supported a scheme called the Kayda Sahayak Scheme where the life convicts were trained by NGOs to identify bailable offences. This was a very successful scheme in creating local resources in the prison community who were available round the clock to assist the newly admitted under-trial prisoners. She argued that it is very important to find spaces to collaborate with each other. Mr. Jacob John from Kerala Development Society pointed out the potential of the Self Help Groups as a huge social capital which could be utilised in the area of legal awareness through proper training. Mr. U. Sarathchandran responded that legal literacy is a specialised area and paralegal trainees need certain skills including those of articulation. He conceded that perhaps one could train some of the members from SHGs. Ms. Nupur Sinha from CSJ argued that we need human resources for legal awareness, and proper trainings could be provided to the SHGs or anganwadi workers. The trainees could be selected on the basis of their possessing basic minimum skills as suggested by Member Secretary, NALSA. Legal Aid There is a need not only to monitor the progress of legal aid cases but also to provide information to the beneficiaries about the status of their case. At the moment, the primary stakeholder the beneficiary is usually clueless about the status of his case. - Mr. Mohanty, Member Secretary, Orissa SLSA All LSAs are statutorily mandated to provide legal aid services to specified categories of people including the most marginalised. Discussion on legal aid focused on the often poor quality of lawyers who provide legal aid services. Lack of competent lawyers to provide such services was attributed to the lack of funds to engage competent lawyers. 6

7 Ms. Ramasheshan, Advocate, Madras High Court, suggested that when providing legal aid, the competence of the lawyer should be given utmost consideration and where possible, senior lawyers should be brought in to guide the juniors. Mr. Mohanty, Member Secretary, Orissa SLSA argued that there should be no funds constraints in matters of legal aid. The ceiling on payment for competent lawyers should be removed. Ms. Sinha from CSJ mentioned that the quality of the panel lawyers is not very good and often their work is not monitored. In many cases, these lawyers exploit the vulnerable clients and spoil their cases. Justice Akbar Ali agreed and noted that often the LSAs select/ identify the panel lawyers, give them cases and leave the victim at the mercy of the lawyer. SLSAs should monitor the work and conduct of its panel lawyers. Proactive approaches The Legal Services Authorities should take a lead in filing PILs where grave issues of public interest arise. - Mr. P. L. Mimroth, Centre for Dalit Rights Mr. Sarathchandran, Member Secretary, NALSA, mentioned that the NALSA and SLSAs could undertake a variety of proactive and preventive activities under the Act. The Authorities could provide financial assistance to lawyers for quality legal services to identified categories; contribute towards improving the paralegal services in the country along with strengthening of CSOs in the area of access to justice. They could provide legal trainings to elected panchayat representatives and orient young law students on legal aid. Some SLSAs already have good practices in using innovative strategies to maximise their outreach. The Jharkhand SLSA has linked all its initiatives with the Government of India scheme on education, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. JHALSA has associated itself with the Zila Saksharta Samitis created in each district under the National Literacy Mission and they use the rooms and other resources existing under the scheme in each district. Law libraries have been housed in the offices of the Zila Saksharta Samitis with information on government schemes and important laws. Their nodal officers have been trained as paralegals. They receive and collect applications for legal aid, lok adalats or resolution of cases through ADR from the people in the district, which are sent to the relevant LSA. JHALSA is also well connected through video conferencing with the DLSAs and Jail Superintendents of all the Jails across Jharkhand. In Andhra Pradesh, the Secretaries of the AP DLSAs are regularly visiting jails in their jurisdiction to create legal awareness and provide easy access to legal services to prisoners. They have also set up grievance boxes in the prisons that are opened by the Chairperson or the Secretaries of the DLSA. There are legal aid cells in jails to assist the prisoners. Representatives from the civil society emphasised the need for SLSAs to be more proactive in its approach. Some suggested that as an extension of legal services, the LSAs should monitor the quality of services being provided by the Public Prosecutors. 7

8 For Ms. Ramasheshan, an area of focus for the LSAs should be monitoring the safety of people seeking access to justice, for example when a girl escapes from child marriage. Mr. Rupesh, a lawyer from Bihar, citing an example from the Public Distribution System, pointed out that there is a Supreme Court order with regard to the PDS, but there is no monitoring of compliance with it. He suggested that the LSAs should play a role in such cases of public interest by conducting a compliance study with the orders of the Supreme Court. Mr. P. L. Mimroth, from Centre for Dalit Rights, Jaipur argued that LSAs should take a lead in filing PILs where grave issues of public interest arise. Mr. Mimroth gave reference of a massacre in Rajasthan where 17 Dalits were killed but the court dismissed their PIL. In such cases, if the LSA were to approach the courts, it might have a better standing. Father Ajay Singh from Jan Vikas, Orissa, similarly brought the participants attention towards verdicts given by a fast track court in the cases of mass killings during communal riots in Orissa. He pointed out that of 10 cases of killings, there was conviction only in 1 case and rest of the 9 cases resulted in acquittals. He argued that NALSA and SLSAs should take a proactive approach and intervene in such cases. Justice Akbar Ali pointed out that we often failed to intervene at the time of such incidents, and suggested that the Member Secretary, Orissa could intervene now. It is time that a strategy is developed to intervene in such cases. Some common challenges faced by the LSAs There are too many expectations from the Legal Service Authorities but hardly any mechanism for them to deliver. - Ms. Sinha, Centre for Social Justice The participants identified the lack of funds, infrastructure, transparency in working and accountability (both of the panel lawyers and the LSAs themselves) as some of the biggest hurdles faced by the SLSAs. Some other challenges before the SLSAs included naxalism, illiteracy, poverty, exploitation, ignorance, and superstition. Another challenge highlighted by some of the SLSAs was that often people do not come forward or send applications for seeking legal services. Member Secretaries of Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand raised this issue. Mr. Navneet Kumar, Member Secretary, JHALSA argued that many people do not approach the Court of Law and lead a life of misery despite availability of rights and remedies because of poverty, illiteracy, ignorance, insurgency or other disabling reasons including the apprehension of undue delay in delivery of justice. Drawing attention to the second category of people, Mr. Kumar referred to a point made by the Hon ble the Chief Justice of India: A perusal of pendency figures indicates that while there are more civil cases filed in developed areas, the reliance on the civil justice system is shockingly low in States such as Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Jammu and Kashmir as well as the North-Eastern States. 2 Mr. Kumar stressed that major issue before the state of Jharkhand was of docket inclusion so that the silent sufferers are able to access formal systems of justice. 2 National Consultation for Strengthening the Judiciary towards Reducing Pendency and Delays, Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi, 24 October,

9 Lack of funds, human resources and infrastructure In most states, lack of infrastructure and human resources is a huge challenge before the SLSAs. - Mr. U. Sarathchandran, Member Secretary, NALSA Lack of adequate budgetary allocation is a major challenge faced by the LSAs. Member Secretary, UP SLSA highlighted the meagre budgetary allocation compared with the size of the state and the population as the biggest challenge before the SLSA. The budgetary allocation for the UP SLSA is less than that of Jharkhand, a much smaller state. Ms. Prasad, Special Secretary, Justice informed the house that the Department of Justice is taking up the issue with the 13 th Finance Commission to get enhanced funds allotted to the SLSAs through the respective State Governments. Ms. Sinha, CSJ, observed that there is no structure in place for properly carrying out the activities that the LSAs are mandated to carry out. The judges have to carry out these activities as an additional responsibility apart from their regular judicial work. Mr. Chandra, Member Secretary, UP, pointed out that the establishment of courts in remote areas implies that many judicial officers maintain two establishments. This is a big challenge before the SLSA because the judges are not available over the week-ends and holidays to conduct the LSA activities as they travel to meet their family during this time. On other days, they are too busy with their routine judicial activities to be able to devote time to LSA. Some states have paid particular attention to this problem. Following the Andhra Pradesh pattern, the JHALSA has appointed a full-time civil judge as the secretary of the District Legal Services Authority. The secretary does not discharge regular judicial function and devotes all her/his time to the DLSA. Madhya Pradesh also follows this pattern. Mr. Sarathchandran, Member Secretary, NALSA noted although some states have full time secretaries at the DLSAs, many do not. He suggested that the Department of Justice should take this matter up with the state governments. Transparency and accountability often the budgets of LSAs lapse and the money remains unused. There should be a mechanism of monitoring why this happens.the functioning of the SLSAs must be transparent and people should be able to get information on their working easily. - Mr. Rupesh, Advocate Mr. U. Sarathchandran, Member Secretary, NALSA observed that there is a need for constant monitoring of the SLSAs by NALSA. This will ensure accountability of the SLSAs. He suggested that perhaps UNDP could provide technical support to NALSA for developing this monitoring mechanism. He also stressed upon the need to shift towards e-governance so that NALSA can monitor day to day progress of its subordinate bodies. Ms. Prasad, Special Secretary, Justice, mentioned that the e-courts project could also explore the possibility of ensuring that the SLSAs are computerised. 9

10 Partnerships between LSAs and civil society: a must The available funds and infrastructure are insufficient and this needs to be addressed. However, much can be done even in the given resources. - Hon ble Justice Akbar Ali Participants across the board agreed that SLSAs must work in partnership with civil society in order to overcome some of the challenges posed by the lack of resources. Justice Ali pointed out that many CSOs are doing good work and asked Member Secretaries to work with the CSOs in providing legal services. He stated that the Project on Access to Justice for Marginalized People is an opportunity for LSAs and CSOs to go-ahead and work together in 7 states. Justice Ali suggested that the Member Secretaries of the SLSAs should identify the marginalised communities in their state as well as their state specific issues and draw-up strategies/ work plan for rendering legal services. Given that the Project on Access to Justice for Marginalized People will support interventions in the seven states, it would be valuable for the Member Secretaries to analyse on a target (population) basis, the priority issues, the stakeholders and the support that the NALSA, the SLSA and the Project could provide. Ms. Asha Menon, Member Secretary, Delhi Legal Services Authority, shared their experience of developing gender resource centres where lawyers and NGOs are contributing in expansion of resources, out-reach to victims and rendering help to the public prosecutors. Such collaborative efforts could be explored by other SLSAs in expanding their reach. Prof. Siva Kumar noted that there is no bridge between the LSAs and the people seeking assistance, and suggested that the law students be utilised to bridge this gap as legal volunteers. Ms. Ramasheshan emphasising the importance of building networks and partnerships with other agencies and organisations, contended that networks between inter-state agencies have also become very important these days with increased interstate migration. For example, people from Chhattisgarh or Jharkhand migrate to Tamil Nadu to work mostly in the construction industry where there are frequent accidents but hardly any compensation for these people. This is primarily because of language barriers and abject poverty. It is imperative to have inter-state networks that can be activated in such cases. Need for evidence based advocacy One of the primary objectives of the Project is to assist the LSAs in strengthening their capacities to provide access to justice for the marginalized people. - Ms. Prasad, Special Secretary, Justice and National Project Director Ms. Swati Mehta, Project Manager, Access to Justice for Marginalized People, suggested that perhaps it is the right time for SLSAs to undertake a needs assessment exercise. She pointed out that when we debate the challenges before the LSAs, we talk about lack of resources, lack of effective monitoring of the panel advocates etc. but all of this seems anecdotal in nature rather than evidence-based. A proper needs assessment conducted by experts would help the SLSA to put down on paper where the gaps are 10

11 and how those could be addressed. The Member Secretaries of the SLSAs seemed to agree with the suggestion. Mr. Sarathchandran responded that NALSA is in the process of gathering data on needs assessment of LSAs. They have some interns working on this process and they may require help from UNDP in analysing the data collected. He also suggested that the UNDP team (Project Team) should visit and convene meetings in all the 7 target states. These meetings would expose the judicial officers to issues of the marginalised sections because they may not have a similar mind set. Ms. Prasad, Special Secretary, Justice and National Project Director requested the Member Secretary NALSA to share the data collected by NALSA on the SLSA s needs assessment with the Department of Justice. Ms. Sumeeta Banerji, Assistant Country Director, Governance Unit, UNDP, suggested that with respect to the needs assessment of the SLSAs, perhaps interns may not be the best suited to develop the statistical tools to collect data and experts could be utilised for the purpose of developing tools. Data collection could also be done by a team comprising NALSA, DoJ and UNDP that could visit these states. She drew the participant s attention towards the project brief on Access to Justice for Marginalized People. She requested the Member Secretaries to read this document and undertake a capacity/needs assessment exercise in collaboration with local CSOs or law colleges. She clarified that UNDP may render its support to address some of the identified gaps, but it would be on issues such as capacity building, training workshops or developing resource materials. SLSAs and the Project on Access to Justice: The way forward Mr. Ramesh Abhishek, Joint Secretary, Justice reiterated that NALSA and SLSAs are important pillars of justice delivery and an integral part of the project. The Project does not have a great deal of money but we can use our resources effectively. The Department of Justice is making efforts to mobilise more resources for the coming year. Ms. Prasad, Special Secretary Justice pointed out that the Project aims to bring together the CSOs and the LSAs so that they can work closely in the states. It was with this aim that this Workshop was convened and it has been successful to that extent. Ms. Prasad emphasised that there is a need for regular meetings among all (LSAs, CSOs, DoJ and UNDP) so that we can update each other and enrich the process. This Workshop will be followed by visits by the Project Team to each of the 7 states to discuss their priorities and the way forward 11

12 Annexure - I Making Legal Empowerment and Legal Aid More Effective: Interventions through the Project on Access to Justice for Marginalized People 14 DECEMBER 2009 VENUE: CONFERENCE HALL No. 1, INDIAN LAW INSTITUTE, Bhagwandas Road, New Delhi AGENDA 9: 15 9:30 Tea and registration Opening Remarks 9:30 9: 40 Ms. Bhupinder Prasad Special Secretary, Justice and National Project Director, Access to Justice for Marginalized People 9:40 9:50 Ms. Swati Mehta Project Manager, Access to Justice for Marginalized People 9:50 10:00 Mr. U. Sarathchandran Member Secretary, National Legal Services Authority Session I Setting the context 10:00 10:15 Legal empowerment: issues and challenges Ms. Vrinda Grover, Director, MARG 10:15 10: 30 Involving the community and civil society in legal empowerment: an experience from Gujarat Ms. Navaz Kotwal, Coordinator, Police Reform Programme, CHRI 10:30 11:45 Legal Aid: issues and challenges Ms. Geeta Ramasheshan, Senior Advocate 10:45 11:00 Involving the community and civil society in legal aid Ms. Nupur Sinha, Centre for Social Justice 11:00 11:30 Discussion Tea 11: 30 11:40 12

13 Session II Making legal empowerment and legal aid more effective: experiences, challenges and the way ahead Chair: Hon ble Justice Mr. Akbar Ali 11:40 11:50 Joint Secretary, Bihar SLSA 11:50 12:00 Member Secretary, Jharkhand SLSA 12:00 12:10 Member Secretary, Orissa SLSA 12:10 12:20 Member Secretary, Andhra Pradesh SLSA 12: 20 13:00 Comments, discussion and plan of action Lunch 13:00-14:00 Session III Making legal empowerment and legal aid more effective: experiences, challenges and the way ahead Chair: Prof. Siva Kumar, ILI 14:00 14:10 Member Secretary, Chhattisgarh SLSA 14:10 14:20 Member Secretary, Madhya Pradesh SLSA 14:20 14:30 Member Secretary, Rajasthan SLSA 14:30 14:40 Project Officer, Gujarat SLSA 14: 40 15:10 Comments, discussion and plan of action Session IV Making legal empowerment and legal aid more effective: experiences, challenges and the way ahead Chair: Mr. U. Sarathchandran, Members Secretary NALSA 15:10 15:20 Member Secretary, Uttar Pradesh SLSA 15:20 15:30 Member Secretary, Kerala SLSA 15:30 16:00 Comments, discussion and plan of action Vote of Thanks and Tea 13