| Gender Resource Centre / Samajik Suvidha Kendra |
|
| Legal |
|
| Legal Counseling. |
|
| Living in areas where crime is high these poor residents donĄŻt have access to any kind of legal aid. The women especially continue to suffer domestic violence in silence because of the highly conservative nature of the community. So, free legal aid is being provided by a lawyer who visits the centre twice a week. The primary focus is to first provide counsel and work out reconciliation. The next step is to provide legal counseling and if required, help from legal aid cell. So far 39 cases have been tackled at the Centre and it has been really encouraging that women have found the courage to trust the GRC with their intimate problems. |
|
| Legal Awareness Sessions |
|
| The GRC also organizes legal awareness sessions to create general awareness on womenĄŻs rights. So far 16 sessions have taken place and 534 people have actively participated in them. The issues covered in these sessions have been the Domestic Violence Act 2005, Right to Information Act, Women Helpline, Human Rights, Juvenile Justice, Divorce under Muslim law and the Police Control Room. |
|
| Paralegal training |
|
| Legal empowerment is an important component of this project. It is envisaged that in order to effectively empower the community, a group of advocates from within it will be created, who will effectively communicate concerns of the community. This group will have skills and training to seek solutions to problems through institutional processes. |
|
| The trainings on human rights and law that have been initiated are helping the community members to develop an understanding of the legal system. The idea is to equip them with knowledge and skills that will make them confident to use their advocacy skills to get their grievances addressed. |
|
| An intensive baseline study was conducted providing recommendations and inputs for this training. The paralegal trainings have been designed, based on these recommendations. Two groups of community members, each having 15-20 members, one male and one female group, has been formed. It is envisaged that these groups will emerge as paralegal workers after an intensive process of training which has been rolled out by CEQUIN. |
|
| The ultimate goal is to help create and leave behind a permanent legal resource base in the community. As a result of this paralegal presence, it is hoped that a constantly growing number of community members will participate in addressing their problems and carry out interventions wherever possible in order to result in greater justice for the community. |
|
| Case Studies |
|
 Legal Aid for Gender Justice |
|
|
