WEAVING

law
INTO
community
ACTION

A Report on PLD's
Field based Collaborations

Partners for Law in Development

New Delhi. 2004

Copyright 2004
Partners for Law in Development (PLD)
F-18, First Floor,
Jangpura Extension
New Delhi - 110014
Tel. No. - 24316832 / 33
Email : pldindia@vsnl.com

This report has been published with financial support from the
Swedish International Development Corporation Agency (SIDA),
New Delhi, India.

Report
Geeta Ramaseshan

Editor
Chitra Gopalakrishnan

Design
Inverted Commas

Printer
India Prints

Contents
Acknowledgements

Introduction

1
Access to Justice : The Scenario

2
Taking Law to the People

12

3
Arenas of Change

17

4
Change and Change Makers

24

5
Partner Profiles and Perspectives

29

6
Taking Stock and Looking Ahead

36

Notes

40

Appendix

41
3

Acknowledgements
This publication aims to capture Partners for Law in Development's [PLD] programme
'Access to Justice': its philosophy, achievements and the contribution of the actors who
implemented change. Capturing six years of the partnership programme has been a daunting
task for PLD. What began as a pilot project in 1998 has grown over this period into a fullfledged programme with many components. Also, PLD's own understanding and perspective
of its work has evolved substantially in this time.
It would not have been possible to record the growth of the programme or do justice to its
nuances through short field visits or by just reproducing the records maintained. This exercise
required a person who was familiar with the programme and its partners but could still provide
an objective evaluation of its progress. PLD is extremely fortunate that Geeta Ramaseshan, a
lawyer from Chennai, a regular resource person for PLD and a member of the Advisory Board,
agreed to undertake this documentation and review at a short notice.
Geeta undertook a six year journey into time through field visits, discussions on phone and by
communicating in person with programme partners, PLD staff and the resource pool.
In addition, she drew upon project records, quarterly reports of partners, workshop reports and
evaluations and, of course, upon her rich and diverse experience in social justice law.
We at PLD are extremely grateful to Geeta whose efforts have made this report possible.
Special gratitude is due to all the programme partners for joining hands with PLD for believing
in the value of this exercise and making time to meet with Geeta at short notice. They have all
been very supportive and helpful. Mention must be made of the Orissa partners, who travelled
long distances to meet with Geeta in Bhubaneshwar. We owe thanks to Lata Ramaseshan,
Amita Punj and Sudha Dogra for assistance with collation of information from the programme
records.
We also owe acknowledgement to the financial support that sustained this valuable initiative
for six years. SIDA, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency]s steadfast
support stands deeply appreciated. This publication has been possible because of them.
Thanks are also due to the National Foundation for India (NFI) and the United Nations
Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), South Asia Regional Office, for their support in
2000-2001 that was vital to sustain the continuity of this programme.

Introduction

artners for Law in Development (PLD) is a

resource group on human rights and the law. It
works to promote and secure social and
economic justice for marginalised groups with a
focus on women's rights. Established in 1988, it
began with a grassroots project 'Access to Justice'
that built capacities to expand access to justice for
marginalised communities.
In the last six years, PLD has been
implementing a unique partnerships programme. It
has evolved a three-way partnership between the
community groups, local lawyers and PLD with
work plans integrating rights into community
interventions. Using a rights-based approach to
development, the attention is on people's rights,
accountability, empowerment, participation, nondiscrimination and attention to vulnerable groups. 1
The partnerships programme has helped PLD
contextualise the role of law in rights-based
approaches to community work. It has drawn
attention to the range of community interventions in
which law can be effectively integrated to add
value, and in some cases transform the
intervention itself. For PLD, this six-year period has
been one of immense learning and gaining insights
which will shape future direction.
The partnerships programme is exceptional in
that it takes law directly to the people. PLD uses a
range of community interventions that raise
awareness and mobilise communities to address
both individual and collective problems. PLD's
approach to law is one of critical engagement
where it uses law to promote and protect human
rights to the extent possible and to contest law
when it limits these rights.
The law is a powerful yet difficult resource to
mobilise in social action and justice. The lives and

he partnerships programme is
exceptional in that it takes law
directly to the people. PLD's
approach to law is one of critical
engagement where it uses law to
promote and protect human rights
to the extent possible and to contest
law when it limits these rights.
realities of the most marginalised groups are not
the central concerns of law. Tribal communities and
the rural poor find little support in law to resist
displacement, loss of livelihood and the continuing
spiral of impoverishment. For women, equality
within the family and protection from violence
remain inadequately addressed. And, laws have
not been able to provide safety nets to the common
person to cope with the challenges of globalisation.
In fact, in its substance and use, the law has often
distanced these groups from the Constitutional
promise of a life of dignity, equality and security.
Despite limitations, the principle of rights,
entitlements and accountability within the law
provides powerful possibilities of contesting
disadvantage and injustice. Many strategies and
interventions can be exploited at different levels to
negotiate group concerns and address structural
and systemic injustice. But in such cases law
cannot be confined to litigation within the legal

system. The starting point for PLD has, hence,

been informal systems and processes within the
community where issues of justice are negotiated
and determined, as this arena influences people's
lives the most.
At this point, a distinction must be made
between traditional non-formal systems of justice in
India which have worked to enforce caste and
gender hierarchies and those initiated by
progressive movements and organisations
pursuing development and social justice goals. The
former are clearly not within the ambit of PLD's
concerns or potentially viable for social justice
initiatives. The latter, however, are. These systems
could become vibrant agents of change. By
infusing rights and law into their work they could
help bridge the gap between the informal systems
and the formal justice system.
In essence, PLD pays special attention to
people, their issues and community networks while
defining rights and justice. This focus, however,
does not imply a rejection of the formal system of
justice or disproportionate merit to informal
community interventions to deliver economic and
social justice. Instead, it recognises that formal
legal procedures bypass the disadvantaged and
vulnerable sections, and informal interventions can

play a meaningful role in the assertion of people's

economic, social and cultural rights.
PLD's partnerships programme creates and
strengthens interventions that intersect with
development and social action to carve and expand
spaces for law and rights outside of the formal
system. In this small but significant way, a chain of
actors beyond the legal institutions -- actors who
are closer to the grounds of deprivation, conflict and
disadvantage -- weave rights into their existing
field-level interventions, thereby expanding access
to justice for their communities.
This publication aims to capture the
partnerships project, its philosophy, achievements
and the contribution of the actors who implement
change. It provides an overview of the programme
through snapshots of field level work-plans,
experiences, outcomes and the voices of the
partners. In doing so, it hopes to document a new
and unconventional approach of using law for
social justice. It also wishes to underline the need to
expand the practice of law beyond the arena of
Courts, litigation and legally defined violations as
the lived realities of millions stand testimony to
denial of justice.
Madhu Mehra

Executive Director

LD's partnerships
programme creates
and strengthens
interventions that
intersect with
development and social
action to carve and
expand spaces for law
and rights outside of
the formal system.

1
T

he role of PLD has to be understood in the

context of the justice system - the law and the
reality in India.
The Indian Constitution
guarantees its citizens fundamental rights. These
include a large number of civil and political rights
enforceable in the High Courts and the Supreme
Court.2 The Constitution also has a set of Directive
Principles of State Policy that deal with economic,
social and cultural rights. These, however, are not
enforceable in any Court. With the development of
public interest law in India through a series of
judgments, the Supreme Court of India has
expanded the scope of right to life (traditionally a
civil political right) to include principles of economic
and social justice. 3
The Supreme Court has in recent judgments
also determined a new basis of liability in public law
and has also said that international agreements to
which India is a signatory will be part of domestic
law as long as they are not in contravention of
legislation.4 In addition, under the Constitution
special provisions can be made in favour of women
and children that cannot be challenged as
discriminatory.5
Despite such an array of rights guaranteed
under the Constitution and in judgments of the
Supreme Court, the gap between the guarantees of
Constitutional law and the standards of statutory
law is extremely wide. In reality, the capacity of law
to deliver social justice remains extremely limited
with a large population being unable to access
justice. Access to justice is contingent on existence
of laws that recognise the violation, information
about laws and violations, education, physical
proximity to courts, socio-economic capacity to
engage a lawyer, economic capacity to pursue
litigation and mobility in the public sphere. All these

ACCESS TO JUSTICE

The Scenario
are beyond the capacities of large sections of the
people, particularly the marginalised groups.
To begin with there is very little awareness of
the law. Even if people know their rights, the cost of
accessing Courts is high. Courts are generally
situated in towns that are inaccessible from
villages. Transport costs are enormous. Villagers
have to make numerous trips to engage a lawyer
(only a lawyer from the State legal services
authority will take on a case free of cost)6, file a case
and submit gathered evidence and documentation.
They may also be required to make several
appearances at the Magistrate Court to give
evidence. This means a loss of workdays and,
hence, wages and salaries. There is also the
danger that a case hearing is postponed
indefinitely. As corruption is rampant, Court
functionaries need to be bribed even to collect
Court orders.

espite an array of rights

guaranteed under the
Constitution and in
judgments of the Supreme
Court, the gap between the
guarantees of Constitutional law
and the standards of statutory
law is extremely wide. In reality,
the capacity of law to deliver
social justice remains extremely
limited with a large population
being unable to access justice.

In the case of women and children accessing

justice, the situation is far worse. Take the case of a
woman who is a landless labourer and wishes to file
a case of maintenance against her husband. In
order to file a case she would first have to make a
long trip to a town to engage a lawyer. The lawyer
would in all probability ask her to come another day
and ask her to produce evidence of marriage
including photographs, wedding invitation and
ration card. There is the very real possibility of her
not having such evidence. This by itself is a
problem to contend with. Having lost a full day, she
would have to set aside another day to file the
proceedings before the Magistrate Court that is a
Criminal Court where safety concerns are real.
Frequent appearances to Courts would be the
order of the day. It would cause tensions at her
place of work. If she has children she would have to
find someone to take care of them when she goes
to Court or take them with her. The trial itself may
take two years. If her husband refuses to honour
the Court verdict she would have to start execution
proceedings all over again. Moreover, her husband
would have the right of appeal in the Sessions

Court in another city and then to a High Court,

compelling her to start the process of engaging
another lawyer.
Poor social indicators for women in the country
show that apart from the access to justice they also
suffer deprivation in access to health services,
education, nutrition and shelter. They bear the
additional burden of violence within their homes.
This is primarily due to the non-recognition by the
State that their fundamental needs are their
7
fundamental rights as well.
Further, India follows the common law system
that by nature is adversarial. The system presumes
both sides to be equal when the reality is otherwise.
Also, lawyers are trained in the adversarial system
where winning a case is all-important. The legal
procedures and the representatives of the justice
system do not recognise social and economic
disparity, making the legal contest an unequal one
for the weak and the disadvantaged.
Despite statutory requirements in civil cases,
Courts do not always attempt mediation and
alternate dispute resolution.8 There is very little
accountability and transparency in the workings of
the lawyers and the judicial system as a whole.
Cases are often filed in a non-consultative manner
that damages the interests of the people affected.
A rights perspective in the legal discourse is
largely absent despite impressive developments in
the Constitutional law. In some areas as in child
abuse there is no legislation. Added to these factors
is the presence of dominant interests at every level
that often leads to poor implementation of the law.
Aradhana Nanda, a PLD partner from an
organisation called Friends Association for Rural
Reconstruction (FARR), who has worked with tribal
communities in Kalahandi, Orissa, for more than 20
years, relates her experience about judicial bias
against women. A judge once told her that 40 per
cent of cases filed by women for matrimonial relief
are false. Astounded at how the judge had arrived
at such a figure, she investigated the issue. She
found that 40 per cent of women lose their cases. In

10

the judge's perception, women lost their cases

because they filed false claims.9 The fact that rules
of evidence, procedure and substantive law are
barriers that work against women was lost on the
judge who saw his role as upholding the black letter
of the law.
As the formal legal frameworks are unable to
relate to the realities of lives of the disadvantaged
sections, it is not surprising that marginalised
groups seek solutions to their disputes informally at
the community level. Disputes could range from
petty crimes, family disagreements, tension
between neighbours, sharing of local resources to
the excommunication of persons from their caste
and society. The forum approached is different
from the Panchayati Raj elected under the law.
People either approach caste-based panchayats
or those formed by progressive groups who work
with the community on development and social
programmes.
Though panchayats formed on the basis of
caste do perform a vital role of adjudicating
disputes, their verdicts are most often biased in
favour of the caste members, the rich, and the
powerful. Though their settlements have no legal
bearing they have tremendous social sanction and
few people choose to challenge them. There have

rights perspective in the

legal discourse is largely
absent despite impressive
developments in the
Constitutional law. As the formal
legal frameworks are unable to
relate to the realities of lives of
the disadvantaged sections, it is
not surprising that marginalised
groups seek solutions to their
disputes informally at the
community level.

been instances when caste-based panchayats

have pronounced death sentences to couples for
breaking caste barriers to marry.
Their sentences particularly discriminate
against women. A woman working in the telecom
industry challenged the verdict of a caste-based
panchayat by appealing to the Madras High Court.
The panchayat had ordered her to hand over her
children and jewellery to her husband, an engineer
working in a public sector undertaking.10 In another
instance, the caste-based panchayat levied a fine
of Rs 45,000 on a dalit woman and ordered her to
prostrate at their feet 61 times if she wanted to get
the fine amount reduced. The police refused to
register a complaint till higher officials directed
them to do so.
On the other hand, the role of progressive
groups in alternate dispute resolution is significant
because they are motivated not by status quo but
by social justice goals. The poor approach these
groups because of their work with the community,
their accessibility and often, because of the
knowledge vested in them. For instance, if people
know that a "staff member has studied law, they
come to the organization with their problems."11
PLD's efforts fall into working with this category.
Such interventions are often not systematic,
informed or sustained but driven by a passion for
social justice. The idea is to work with such
interventions to develop capacities of actors to
expand their approaches to social problems to
include rights intervention and strategies. This
involves the use law with other development
interventions for the mobilisation of disadvantaged
groups and not just for dispute resolution.

11

TAKING LAW TO THE PEOPLE

Partnerships Programme

The Concept

LD's model breaks away from the traditional

moorings of law. The thrust is on taking law
directly to the people through a collaboration
between community groups, lawyers and paralegals who already work with the community
closely. It involves searching for and developing a
role for law outside of the Courts and one that is not
exclusively the domain of lawyers.
The project's primary intention is to pull
together the strengths of the community
organisation and the local lawyer in an effort to take
law to the people. PLD identifies field-based
applications of law, develops programmes to
consolidate and sustain them, sets standards of
practice, and projects this as an arena of
collaboration.
Called the partnerships project, the idea is to
encourage each of the partners (particularly the
community-based organisations) to build these
law-based components into their existing outreach
programmes to inject rights approaches into their
work. The aim is also to make such efforts towards
social justice correspond to and complement
human rights standards. PLD's understanding of
justice is not limited to redress of individual
violations but includes defining and manage
conflicts within the community through building
local capacities in human rights.
The law component in this context, thus, takes
on a fresh meaning. It gains a new role with far more
potential. It is no longer black letter formal law
leading court room action but rather one that is led
by the goals of social justice. It blends into
community work through 'non-formal practices' and
inject rights into the social transformation
processes. This has a twin effect of positively
supplementing community work and transforming

12

he project's primary intention

is to pull together the strengths
of the community organisation
and the local lawyer in an effort to
take law to the people. Identify
field-based applications of law,
develop programmes to
consolidate and sustain them, set
standards of practice, and project
this as an arena of collaboration.

the traditional nature of law practice by redefining

legal ethics and the lawyer-client relationship.
PLD particularly urges the lawyers and paralegals to expand the scope of law far beyond the
confines of the formal legal system as marginalised
groups find it difficult to articulate their grievances
and approach the system. In their collective fieldlevel interventions, the partners adopt law not as a
problem-solving device that comes into play after
the violation but emphasise its role prior to the
occurrence. The idea is to use law with other
development interventions for the mobilisation of
disadvantaged groups. This displaces the notion of

law as a central mechanism for social justice or an

autonomous profession with a role outside of the
social reality and social action. It underscores the
value of law not as a service or 'aid' but a resource
that constitutes one element in conjunction with
others for social and economic justice.
A basic principle of legal ethics is that a lawyer
must represent whoever comes to them. But PLD's
alternative law principles involve recognising the
imbalance of power within the system and letting a
lawyer decide who to represent. A human rights
lawyer, for instance, could refuse to represent a
person accused of rape.
The lawyer-client relationship also rests on
extremely unequal power dynamics. Alternative
law principles try to break this power relationship
by altering equations, for instance, the body
language and the way of addressing and the
sharing of information by the lawyer with the client.
Instead of sitting across each other at the table they
are urged to sit more informally - perhaps, in a
circle. Talking of such interactions, Prashant
Kumar Jena, who worked as a legal resource
person for a counselling centre in Adhikar, in
Darpanarayanpur near Cuttack, says, "The lawyerclient meetings are relaxed and informal. The idea
is to make the victims feel at ease, understand their
rights and create a confidence in them."12

he capacity of partners is built

through work plans that
integrate standards and
systems to correspond to their field
intervention through
documentation of work, on-site
training, thematic workshops, field
visits, evaluation and monitoring.
The training programmes are
designed to build perspective,
knowledge and skills.

In six years of the partnerships programme

there have been 30 lawyers/ para-legals supported
and developed as a legal resource for 19
community organisations/ networks. Community
groups and lawyers are keen to join the partnership
to strengthen the rights component in their field
work. This happens through inputs, capacity
building, direct support, exposure and, most
important, a dedicated time-bound work plan.
The capacity of partners is built through work
plans that integrate standards and systems to
correspond to their field intervention through
documentation of work, on-site training, thematic
workshops, field visits, evaluation and monitoring.
The training programmes are designed to build
perspective, knowledge and skills.
Over the last six years the partnerships have
predominantly been in the area of women's rights.
The other sectors of work include child sexual
abuse, common property resources, displacement
and environmental justice. PLD's programmes
have been predominantly in the states of Himachal
Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Rajasthan, Bihar,
Orissa, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Goa.
The range of issues covered and approaches
used in each of these sectors illustrates the many
ways of integrating rights in community work. They
demonstrate a role for law beyond litigation and the
ways in which individual cases or problems lead to
addressing collective concerns and formulating
strategies for a large section of the population.

13

The Programme in Practice

LD's partnership process brings together

community organisations and networks (with
demonstrated experience in using law in their
community outreach programmes) and locallybased lawyers (with an interest and commitment to
social justice) with PLD. The partnership is defined
in terms of a definite work plan, time period and
thematic focus. The underlying principles of this
collaboration are open discussions, clarity of roles,
and responsibilities of each partner and PLD. The
partners are committed to mutually agreed
parameters to ensure that their work is structured,
output-oriented and quantifiable in terms of
achievements and shortcomings.
PLD undertakes capacity building for project
partners to develop skills, perspective and
organisational capacity to integrate the rightsbased approaches to ongoing community work.
The components of capacity building are both
internalised into the partnership and fed as external
inputs. They range from documentation, periodic
reporting to guidelines, case tabulation, on-site
training, workshops, internships, field visits and
13
exposure visits.
Documentation is seen as integral to the
project. It helps develop organisational systems,
skills and a knowledge base in the non-formal
applications of law. It also sets precedents for
others to follow and helps transform ad hoc
interventions into a structured outreach
programme. As part of this effort, Vanangana, a
PLD partner, has developed systems and
framework of maintaining documentation for
individual cases as well as mapping trends in
violence against women in their district. The
periodic reporting to guidelines by the partner
organisations is an extension of capacity building in
documentation aimed at developing a combination
of macro with micro perspective. Having
successfully developed capacity in interventions on

14

ach component of the

partnership -- be it
designing work plans,
technical inputs, periodic
reporting, exposure,
exchange programmes or
training -- helps build not
just human resource capacity
but organisational capacity
and systems.

violence against women, Vanangana has

expanded its partnership with PLD to similarly
develop capacity on water and shelter.
Each component of the partnership -- be it
designing work plans, technical inputs, periodic
reporting, exposure, exchange programmes or
training -- helps build not just human resource
capacity but organisational capacity and systems.
This in turn facilitates an integration of the rightsbased approaches at the grassroots level. The
technical support provided by PLD also generates
awareness among lawyers and sensitises them to
human rights perspectives.

In Orissa, for instance, PLD's capacity building

and financial support has revived and
strengthened the network of organisations and
lawyers called Human Rights Network Orissa
(HURINEO). They have prepared information and
learning material on rights, focusing on the
Constitution, human rights and land laws. In
addition, they have used this period to conduct
district-level para-legal trainings, expand the
network membership and collectively respond to
violations or critical issues of concern in the state.
Monitoring of the partnerships projects is
carried out through a system of quarterly reporting
based on PLD guidelines as well as field visits,
discussions and self-assessment. The partners
are expected to document details of this project in
accordance with prescribed guidelines that help
structure their experiences and interventions
comprehensively.
The Training workshops organised by PLD
are developed around common areas of work and
specifically designed to correspond to the needs of
a group. A core group of local lawyers and
community workers are identified to be trained as
legal resources for community interventions and
for building capacities at the community level. The
community workers once trained form the paralegal force that complements and bridges the gap
between the formal and the non-formal
interventions of law. This core group of legal
resource implement non-formal practices of law
such as preparation of case documents, providing

legal advice, undertaking mediation for resolving

disputes, follow up with law enforcement and
Courts (where necessary), working with witnesses,
and so on.

LD's real contribution

lies in building and
strengthening local
identities in social justice
law. Its strength lies not in
embracing the work of its
partners as its own, but
rather in providing
impetus and resources
that add value to
community action and
strengthen local identities.

The trainings are sequentially organised to

gradually progress from technical information, to
procedure to developing critical perspectives. For
example, a para-legal training on women's human
rights could have many rounds. To illustrate: a
typical first round of training would provide an
overview of law and gender, followed by
elementary information on relevant civil and
criminal laws, definitions of common legal terms of
such laws, information on jurisdictions and,
sometimes, visits to courts.
The second part of the training would
concentrate on skills for practice as well as
procedure. The thrust would be on documentation
and drafting skills. Documentation would comprise
recording case histories and case records,
obtaining written consent of parties and developing
a resource base.
Drafting would include
developing skills in preparation of complaints, first
information reports and compromise agreements.
The third session of training would be on
feminist perspectives of law and human rights. This

15

training would critically examine the link between

law and social norms, ideology, structural and
systemic discrimination. The discussions would
be usually concretised in relation to civil liberties,
gender-based violence, sexuality, communalism,
globalisation among other issues. The attention
would be on integrating issues that impact on
marginalisation.
PLD holds an Annual workshop for all its
partners -- organisations, lawyers and para-legals
-- to learn, share and identify needs in order to
improve. The workshop is distinctive as the

spotlight is on debating and discussing concepts

related to law in development. Moving away from
individual programmes, it forces concepts to the
centre stage so that both PLD and its partners
contextualise their disparate areas of work in a
common framework and move beyond sectoral
narratives to identify common threads of law, rights
and social justice in their work. They lend an
opportunity to discuss approaches and
methodologies of work, their individual strengths
and limitations and their relevance to current
outreach programmes. The workshop is also used
as a forum to sharpen an understanding and gain
clarity on rights-based approaches to field work.
Prominent PLD workshops include: Role of
Law in Development (2000), Law and Social Action
(2001), Human Rights: Concepts, Law and

16

Challenges (2002), Common Property Resources

and the Law (2002) and Rights-based Approaches
to Development (2004) among others.
In short, PLD's real contribution lies in building
and strengthening local identities in social justice
law. Its strength lies not in embracing the work of its
partners as its own, but rather in providing impetus
and resources that add value to community action
and strengthen local identities. It is making
possible a movement for using law for social action
that is its true achievement. 14

ARENAS OF CHANGE

hat does taking law to the people mean?

How does it help strengthen rights-based
approaches on the ground? How does
change occur in a particular area? How does this
change manifest itself? This section attempts to
provide answers to these questions. It gives an
overview of the areas in which PLD partners, the
nature of its inputs and the impact of its work. The
description of PLD's work is along thematic lines to
draw attention to the range of its interventions and
the change it has initiated. It also provides glimpses
into the change makers; the people who made a
difference in the field.
WOMEN'S RIGHTS
The common factor of almost all PLD
partnerships is the issue of women's rights and that
of violence against women. To address the issue of
violence against women, PLD focuses on
establishing systems to build capacities of existing
informal interventions. It means developing skills
as well as knowledge and perspectives on law and
women's rights for local lawyers and community
workers. In addition, it involves initiatives like
providing legal aid, counselling and informal
dispute resolution mechanisms.
The partner organisations use these inputs in a
range of community level strategies as well as in
direct case interventions. In addition, the partners
use their knowledge of field realities to highlight
broader concerns on violence against women and
the general apathy of the authorities towards it.
The Shakti cell is an instance. It is a citizen's
initiative to provide an alternative forum to women
for resolution of disputes that was spearheaded by
Aradhana Nanda of FARR in Kalahandi, Orissa.
PLD supported an advocate Pratap Chandra
Pradhan to strengthen the Shakti cell with his legal

he partner organisations use

these inputs in a range of
community level strategies as
well as in direct case
interventions. The partners use
their knowledge of field realities
to highlight broader concerns on
violence against women and the
general apathy of the authorities
towards it.

knowledge. He began helping document the cases

that came to the cell and raising legal awareness
among women. With his efforts, he soon
established a unit similar to the Shakti cell at the
gram panchayat level.
Shakti cell is an interesting amalgamation of
the non-formal approach with the formal structures.
The cell holds weekly meetings in office of the
District Collector of Bhawanipatna. It has official
support and assistance despite being a wholly
informal intervention carried out by a group of
eminent citizen's consisting of lawyers, social
activists and a school principal.

17

The cases they receive show how difficult is the

process of resolution. Nonetheless, the cell has
managed to overcome barriers and negotiate
resolutions that are in the best interests of the
victims, who in most cases are tribal and poor
women. This case is illustrative of the challenges. It
involved a man and woman who belonged to
different castes and eloped to marry. Their
communities refused to accept the marriage. The
man left the woman and returned to his village. The
woman went back to her village but her family
refused to accept her. Deserted and shunned by all,
she approached the Shakti cell for help. After
mediations between the parties, the boy's family
was compelled to give some financial support to the
woman. The man married again but continued to
provide shelter and maintain a relationship with his
first wife. Despite mediation, the rights of the
woman have been compromised in this instance.
But the fact is that there were no viable options
available to the woman for her survival through the
criminal justice system.
In Jaipur, PLD supported lawyers associated
with The Academy for Socio Legal Studies (ASLS)

anangana also makes

effective use of folk media
such as street plays and
pharr to initiate dialogue with
the community on gender
discrimination.

who apart from providing legal aid as part of the

partnerships programme also engaged in legal
counselling, conducting workshops and assisting
other movements through legal support. The
lawyers also provided legal counselling in the
Mahila Salah Suraksha Kendra (MSSK) which is a
unique initiative undertaken by a few NGOs based
in Jaipur in collaboration with the police. The
Kendra is located within a police station and helps
women file complaints. It also offers a range of
support services like mediation, counselling, legal
advice and services, psychological and
rehabilitation support. Going beyond what is
provided in law, the Kendra makes available a host
of gender-sensitive services to women from a
single centre.
Efforts to bridge the gap between the nonformal and the formal system to adequately
address the problem of violence against women
within a framework of rights is manifested in the
experience of Vanangana, an organisation based
in Karvi in Chitrakoot district of Uttar Pradesh.
Surprisingly, the initiative to collaborate came from
the police and resulted in the setting up of a unit
called 'hamsafar' in a police station in the Banda
district.
Besides financially supporting the lawyer and
the para-legal, PLD worked to develop capacities
of the Vanangana team of about eight members, on
law and gender. This strengthened their
programme on violence against women.
Documentation and monitoring of work (on the
basis of PLD reporting guidelines) has enabled this
team to firm up their understanding on the issue of
violence against women as well as develop skills to
proceed with individual cases. As their work now
stretches far beyond issues relating to women to
encompass other contentious issues like caste
violence, the name of the unit has undergone a
change. From being called a 'Violence Intervention
Unit', it is now known as the 'Manav Adhikar Ekai'
(Human Rights Unit).
Vanangana also makes effective use of folk
media such as street plays and pharr15 to initiate

18

dialogue with the community on gender

discrimination. A play titled Mujhe Jawab Do (Give
Me An Answer) raises questions about patriarchy,
gender discrimination, women's rights and the role
of State / non-state actors in addressing such
violence. It deals with a young woman killed as a
result of domestic violence and highlights the
general apathy of the law enforcement agencies. It
shows how even her own family uses her death as
an opportunity to make profit. It is often strategically
performed in front of houses of families known to
have been abusive to the daughter-in-law to exert
pressure and cause social embarrassment.
PLD has also supported two counselling
centres in Kerala -- Anweshi at Kozhikode for a
period of two years and Sakhi at
Thiruvananthapuram in the earlier years of the
partnership programme. Sakhi, a women's
resource centre, used the partnership to provide
legal counselling, documentation and building legal
awareness with the attachment of a local lawyer.
Anweshi, on the other hand, primarily a women's
counselling centre, used the partnership to go a
step ahead and offer legal aid, support and legal
education. It now adopts a multi-pronged approach
to deal with violence against women to also provide
shelter through its recently opened short stay home
for women survivors of violence. It has, also, over
the last two years, worked with PLD to hold a series
of network and capacity building workshops of
lawyers in Kerala on women's rights.
Prasanta Kumar Jena is an advocate who was
supported by PLD, to provide legal support to
Adhikar, an organisation in Bhubaneshwar, Orissa.
Being an experienced lawyer, his placement as a
legal resource person by PLD resulted not only in
providing legal counselling as part of Adhikar's
services but also in organising legal awareness
camps for police, lawyers, judges, NGOs and
women. Prashant has also raised the issues of
Burmese repatriates and compensation for injuries
during the Super Cyclone through public interest
litigation. More recently, he has mobilised a
network of young lawyers to discuss and work on
issues of social justice. His efforts have resulted in

the formation of a group called 'People for Justice

and Human Rights' (PJHR) in Cuttack, Orissa.
Geeta Devi, a lawyer, was attached to a PLD
partner - the Institute of Women's Development - in
Ganjam District of Orissa. She worked on women's
rights and took up cases relating to child marriage,
dowry, domestic violence, desertion and adultery
under the matrimonial law and criminal law. While
handling such cases she was rendered helpless
when men denied the existence of marriage. In
such cases, women were unable to secure
alimony, maintenance and other matrimonial
benefits. The research she undertook along with
PLD indicated that under the Orissa Gram
Panchayat Act of 1965, the local panchayats were
empowered to register births, deaths and
marriages but there was no awareness of these
powers. The Institute for Women's Development
similarly found that the lack of a policy on
registration of births and marriages was a great
handicap in bringing sexual offenders to book as
well as in asserting matrimonial rights. In the case
of a 13-year-old girl raped by her brother-in-law, the
absence of proof of age made it difficult to establish
statutory rape. Similarly, a married woman in the

WD found that the lack of a

policy on registration of births
and marriages was a great
handicap in bringing sexual
offenders to book as well as in
asserting matrimonial rights. The
partners intensively lobbied with
the local authorities that resulted
in the District Collector issuing a
circular authorising all
panchayats in the district to
maintain a register for recording
all births, deaths and marriages.

19

absence of any proof of marriage was denied the

right to residence and maintenance upon
desertion.
The partners intensively lobbied with the local
authorities that resulted in the District Collector
issuing a circular in Oriya authorising all
panchayats in Ganjam district to maintain a register
for recording all future births, deaths and
marriages. The panchayats were also directed to
undertake an exercise to register all existing
marriages taking the help of ward members as
recorders. By this process, a focal point emerged
for mobilisation of local women, panchayat
functionaries and the bureaucracy.
Shakti Vardhini in Danapur, Patna, Bihar,
grapples with another grave issue - female
infanticide. Since this is a difficult issue to tackle
directly, the NGO has set up delivery homes to
provide medical services for expectant mothers.
This not only facilitated the identification of mothers
but more importantly helped narrow down the
search to mothers who might kill their female
babies. The NGO attempts counselling and
provides arrangements for adoption to reverse this
practice. Several children have been saved this
way.
CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE
The problem of child sexual abuse is a serious
one but it is largely unreported and ignored in the
country because of the silence that surrounds it.

One significant reason for this culture of silence is

the lack of appropriate laws that recognise the
specificities of child sexual abuse. Though India is
a signatory to the Convention on the Rights of the
Child, there are no clear laws on the issue of child
sexual abuse. PLD joined hands with a women's
research and resource organisation called
Sandarsh in Goa to highlight the severity of the
social crisis through legislative advocacy and with
Vanangana in Karvi in Uttar Pradesh that
supported a campaign on a particular case of child
sexual abuse.
Sandarsh with the help of PLD collaborated
with a lawyer activist Albertina Almeida to research
and bring into public attention the nature of child
abuse prevalent in Goa and the inadequacy of
substantive and procedural laws to deal with the
problem. The efforts of this partnership contributed
to the drafting of the Goa Children's Bill and the
incorporation of some its elements into the Goa
Children's Act.16 This is a remarkable achievement
in light of the fact that the State government had in
the past denied the existence of the problem.
Vanangana, on the other hand, led a campaign
against State apathy towards a case of child sexual
abuse in the Karvi in Chitrakoot district of Uttar
Pradesh. The State authorities refused to act on the
complaint of Ila Pandey against her husband for
sexually abusing their daughter. The campaign
assumed significance for two reasons. One, the
issue drew the attention of the public not only in
Uttar Pradesh but also in the states of Rajasthan
and Madhya Pradesh and the capital New Delhi.
Two, the jansunwai (public hearing) organised in
Karvi as part of the campaign elicited wide
attendance and support.
Huma Khan, the legal resource person with
Vanangana says, "We were able to do this only
because PLD was extremely supportive of all our
campaigns and activities. They gave us directions
and helped us forge links with many other
likeminded organisations."17

20

ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
The partnerships on environmental justice
have been directed at building documentation
through research, field surveys and monitoring
impact. The common concern in all three
partnerships in this area has been to stem
ecological exploitation and to protect lives and
livelihoods of tribal, forest and rural communities.
PLD worked with the Citizen Consumer and
Civic Action Group (CAG), in Chennai, on
environmental protection. While the law prohibits
the cutting of trees in sanctuaries, national parks
and other protected areas under the Indian Forest
Act (1929), Forest Conservation Act (1980) and
Wildlife Protection Act (1972), trees within the cities
are not protected under any policy or law. Taking
advantage of this legal loophole, felling of trees had
become rampant within the city limits. The CAG
with the support of PLD undertook research to draft
a tree policy to prevent reckless felling of trees in
Tamil Nadu. P. Selvi, a lawyer, dedicated time to
examine available legal and policy frameworks in
addition to providing legal counselling to support
the ongoing civic and consumer redress cell of
CAG. PLD helped forge links and facilitate travel to
access resources in Delhi.
Extraction of medicinal plants is another severe
ecological problem that needs to be addressed as it
seriously threatens the country's biodiversity. PLD
teamed up with Navrachna, an organisation in
Himachal Pradesh, to curb widespread cutting
down of medicinal plants in the region. By
supporting Shomona Khanna, a lawyer, PLD
provided her the opportunity to examine the
existing laws and policy on extraction of medicinal
plants and evolve an alternative policy framework.
The aim of this initiative was to ensure that the
extraction process is sustainable in nature and the
gains of extraction reach the local people who
should be the true beneficiaries of profit. The
partnership efforts led to the drafting of a policy
document on medicinal plants. This was used for
awareness-raising locally and in the formulation of
a critique of the draft of Joint Forest Management

LD was extremely
supportive of all our
campaigns and activities.
They gave us directions and
helped us forge links with
many other likeminded
organisations.

- Huma Khan, legal resource,

Vanangana

Rules prepared by the State government.

Another partner organisation, Legal Aid Trust
to Women and its legal resource person A.
Gandhimathi, tackled ecological concerns
emerging from pollution by coal-based thermal
plants. In its work with coastal communities in Tamil
Nadu and Pondicherry, this organisation found the
coal-based thermal power projects polluting the
coastal region and seriously affecting the health
and livelihoods of the communities living along the
coastline. To confront this issue, it joined hands
with the Coastal Action Network (CAN) and the
Campaign Against Shrimp Industries (CASI).
Together, they lobbied with State government and
the media and used the Courts to bring about
changes in the local and national policy as well as
laws relating to coastal regions. PLD's support

21

focused on documentation of damage and the

study of the impact of pollution. This provided the
knowledge base to challenge State policy in
Courts, facilitate lobbying with policymakers and
highlight the issue with the media.
COMMON PROPERTY RESOURCES
The rural poor in India depend on their
immediate environment both for their survival and
livelihood. Forest dwellers, for instance, have
nurtured and protected forest tracts over centuries
for food, shelter and livelihood. But over the years,
these communities have been losing control over
natural resources with increasing restrictions and
regulations by the State that preclude their access
to these resources. The fall-out of this has been
deepening confrontations between the State and
the local people, especially marginalised
communities.
The exercise of power by the State under the
Land Acquisition Act is a case in point. The State
has very often violated the rights of people and
more often than not the brunt of this law has been
borne by the poorest. Ignorance about the law and
the lack of power to question the authorities and
exercise their rights force the poor into a situation of
disadvantage and powerlessness.
The Constitution in its Fifth Schedule provides
for the protection of Scheduled and Tribal Areas.
But this provision has been breached with
increasing regularity over the years. Nonimplementation of the laws18 that protect tribal
areas has emerged to be a matter of grave concern.
It has resulted in the displacement of tribals and led
to the complete destruction of their lifestyle which is
inextricably linked with their habitat and livelihoods.
The Common Property Resources programme
of PLD focusses on ensuring rightful access and
claims of local people over their natural resources.
It uses a rights-based approach to take its
programme forward. PLD along with Ankuran, an
organisation based in the Rayagada district of
Orissa, supported the recovery and restoration of

22

he Common Property
Resources programme of
PLD focusses on ensuring
rightful access and claims of
local people over their natural
resources. It uses a rightsbased approach to take its
programme forward.
tribal land through the use of law. PLD contribution
lay in capacity building and developing a network of
tribal and dalit lawyers in the state to study,
document and provide legal services for the
recovery and restoration of tribal land. The effort
began with Pradeep Dash, a lawyer supported by
PLD. He managed to successfully interest other
lawyers and para-legals and this led to the
formation of a network called 'Lawyers in Action'.
PLD invested significantly to build capacity in
Vanangana to initiate community strategies
relating to water. PLD secured technical assistance
to object to the mass notices of eviction served on
homes located on land classified as 'ponds.' These
lands were allotted to landless and lower caste
persons by the panchayats under the Uttar
Pradesh Zamindari Abolition and Land Reforms
Act about 30 years back. In addition to countering
the notices, PLD together with Vanangana helped
the persons threatened by displacement through
the notices understand their rights and legal status

through a jan sabha.

PLD also organised
discussions to gain clarity on the limitations of
Swajal, a locally initiated World Bank project on
water. It closely guided the documentation
undertaken by Jageshwar, a para-legal, as part of
its effort to build both perspective and skills in
relation to common property resources.
Support to Vanangana to build organisational
capacity on common property resources happened
through workshops, documentation and training
sessions. There were also exposure trips to
organisations grappling with similar concerns in
other states so that the Vanangana team could
adapt and incorporate learnings from comparative
field experiences into their work.
In an effort of a different kind, Manna Ram
Dangi, a PLD partner and lawyer working with
Astha Sanstan, an NGO based in Udaipur,
Rajasthan has creatively used the tool of public
interest litigation (PIL) to secure justice. He took up
the case of 56 families who were displaced due to
the proposed construction of the Kodiyagaun dam
in Dungarpur district in Rajasthan. He along with a
team of para-legal workers first conducted a fact
finding mission in the affected area, assessed the
problem and mobilised the affected families.
Armed with the fact finding report, Dangi used
litigation as a strategy. He and his team developed
a comprehensive survey format that contained
detailed information regarding the displaced
persons and their property to file a PIL in the High
Court.

that was filed in the High Court. The other grounds

of challenge were that the proposed transfer
amounted to transferring tribal land to non-tribals,
that the land was close to wild life sanctuary and
that the factory was enormously damaging the
environment. The petitioners also identified an
alternative site for the factory. What is of
significance in this case is that several strategies
were used prior to and alongside the litigation.
These ranged from generating awareness among
the community through meetings, campaigns as
well as exposure visits to other factory sites to
demonstrate their potential damage. Finally, they
were successful in obtaining a stay of the
acquisition in 2003.

upport to build
organisational
capacity on Common
Property Resources
happened through
workshops,
documentation and
training sessions. Also
conducted were exposure
trips to organisations
grappling with similar
concerns in other states.

Bhanwar Singh, also of Astha Sansthan, was

part of a larger effort to challenge the acquisition of
300 acres of tribal lands by a company for the
construction of a factory after fixing the
compensation at Rs 55 lakh rupees. He, along with
a team, conducted a detailed survey of the
demarcated land to calculate its holistic value that
included its environmental, social and economic
value to the community and arrived at a figure of Rs
9 crore as against Rs 55 lakhs that was offered by
the company. This formed the basis of objections
under the Land Acquisition Act and the writ petition

23

CHANGE AND CHANGE MAKERS

elping partners integrate a law and rightsbased approach in their rural outreach is
among the primary objectives of the
partnerships programme. Of equal significance to
PLD is building the identities of people who spur
change. PLD is keen that these change makers
gain local recognition; and they gain a national
profile to become agents of change of a larger and
more cohesive social movement at the national
level. This section, therefore, turns the spotlight on
the change makers on the ground - the focus is both
on their organisations and their personal
contribution.
As mention earlier, there have been 19 partner
organisations and 30 lawyers/ para legals in the six
years of this programme. While each partnership
has contributed to the overall growth of the
programme, it is not possible to profile each of the
partners. This section, hence, selects a few
partners whose partnership with PLD has been
steady over a continuous period of time, or those
that have demonstrated concrete outputs, as in the
case of Sandarsh. A tabulation of the
organisations, lawyers and para-legals with a
timeline provides the comprehensive list of
partners associated with PLD. (See Appendix)

ANKURAN
Ankuran works on community empowerment in
Rayagada district of Orissa. One of the main aims
of the Ankuran-PLD partnership has been to set up
systems to enable tribals recover possession of
land allocated to them under the Orissa Land
Reformation Act. India's tribal population, despite
having a special status under the Constitution,
remains highly exploited and vulnerable.
In its partnership with Ankuran since 2001, PLD
has supported five lawyers, four of whom are from

24

n its partnership with

Ankuran since 2001, PLD
has supported five
lawyers, four of whom are
from the tribal community.
the tribal community. They are Pradeep Dash,
Anadi Charan Kilaka, Iswar Gomango, Sadan
Majhi and Jagannath Saraka.
Pradeep Dash has conducted legal literacy
programmes for the gram sabhas (village councils)
encouraging women's participation in them and
raising awareness about the laws. He has also
been involved in documenting the alienation of
tribal land and has made a comparative analysis of
PESA (Panchayat Extension Act for Scheduled
Areas) with the State law. The other four partners
have been organising legal awareness camps,
developing booklets on laws relating to land,
networking with other NGO's in the area and
campaigning against forest eviction.

ANWESHI
Based in Kozhikode, Kerala, Anweshi primarily
deals with marital disputes and violence against
women. Its approach is mediation and direct
intervention. It assists women file cases in courts
when mediations fail. PLD's partnership with
Anweshi aims to strengthen and sustain its legal
and counselling support to women. PLD does this
by supporting legal resource persons; providing
training; and other capacity building components
for its staff. Till date, PLD has supported four legal
resource persons -- Savithri K.K, Preetha,
Vasantha and K Ajitha, the founding member of
Anweshi. With support from PLD, Anweshi has
been able to continue its work with its legal aid cell
and conduct legal literacy classes.

FRIENDS' ASSOCIATION FOR

RURAL RECONSTRUCTION (FARR)
FARR which works in Kalahandi in Orissa has
been supported by PLD in two ways: first as a
partner organisation and then as a leading member
of Human Rights Network Orissa (HURINEO).
FARR's programmes essentially focus on
mobilising on and fulfilling immediate development
concerns of the tribal communities, such as food,

ith PLD's support,

FARR was able to
expand its
programme on women to
address the issue of violence
against women and marital
issues. The 'Shakti cell', a
citizen's initiative led by
FARR was used to address
matrimonial and violence
against women cases
through mediation.

political participation at the community level and

credit to facilitate livelihood. As part of this work,
FARR has been involved in a campaign to secure
the right to food for people in Kalahandi. As part of
the campaign, it disseminated information on
government-run programmes, organised public
hearings to enable an interface between the people
and the government officials and also, facilitated
the participation of gram sabhas in the campaign.
Its work on women includes having mobilised
more than 6,000 women through Self Help Groups
(SHG) and secured Rs 58 lakh as a bank loan.19
This money has been used for income generating
activities to increase women's economic
independence and decision-making within the
family. Some SHG members have even been
elected as sarpanchs and ward members in the last
elections to the gram panchayats. This now makes
it possible for them to have a say in decisionmaking at the village-level as well. To enable
women access their right to health and
reproductive rights, FARR has trained tertiary birth
assistants (TBAs / midwives) in every village. This
has helped improve the health status of women
and reduce infant mortality rates.
With PLD's support, FARR was able to expand
its programme on women to address the issue of
violence against women and marital issues. The
'Shakti cell', a citizen's initiative led by FARR and
supported by the District Collector's office
(discussed in the previous section on Women's
Rights) is used to address matrimonial and
violence against women cases through mediation.
FARR also initiated local women in Bhwanipatna,
to form the Kalahandi Women's Cell. This takes up
cases where compromise or reconciliation is
desired and for following up on issues and cases.
The relevance of these interventions must be
understood in the context of women, particularly
poor women, who cannot afford to approach the
formal legal systems or allot the time needed for
redress of grievances. While the 'settlements' of
the Cell may not match human rights standards of
justice, it certainly provides immediate relief and

25

support to the victims when they need it most. In the

period of the partnership with PLD, more than 600
cases have been addressed by the Shakti Cell and
their details documented. Pratap Chandra
Pradhan, a lawyer with FARR has played a major
role in this initiative.

HUMAN RIGHTS NETWORK ORISSA

(HURINEO)
HURINEO was established in 1997 with the
help of three organisations -- FARR (Kalahandi);
Adhikar (Bhuwaneshwar); and the Institute of
Women's Development (Berhampur). It aimed to
draw in strengths of diverse groups in Orissa to
work on some common human rights concerns. To
begin with, the network prepared a manual in Oriya
on certain basic rights called 'Ain Kanoon' (Our
Laws) and conducted trainings for grassroots
workers as para-legals20. The membership of the
network increased by 16 more organisations in
1999.
However, due to difficulties, including a
resource crunch, the network had to discontinue its
activities for a few years. In 2003, PLD forged a
partnership with HURINEO to help revive the
network, consolidate its activities and increase its
outreach in Orissa. The network was revived at a
time when human rights issues in Orissa gained
national prominence because of starvation deaths,
displacement of tribals on account of land
acquisition and rising communalism. There was a
need at this time for a strong human rights network
in the state to sustain and initiate action locally.
In its period of partnership, the membership of
the network has been revived to 12 member
organisations and one associate member. The
present coordinator of the network, D. Singh Babu
remarked, "support rendered by PLD through this
partnership was a lifeline for HURINEO and it was
able to bring establish a culture of human rights."21
The network, which has so far been an informal one
is now assuming a formal structure with an
executive body consisting of the following
members: ANKURAN (Rayagada); Lawyers In

26

he network was revived

at a time when human
rights issues in Orissa
gained national
prominence because of
starvation deaths,
displacement of tribals on
account of land acquisition
and rising communalism.

Action (Rayagada); LASK (Bhawanipatna); Centre

for Community Development (Paralakhemundi);
ANTODAYA (Bhawanipatna); KARRTABYA,
(Chhoriagarh, Kalahandi); KIRDTI (Keonjhar);
FARR (Kalahandi); AYAUSKAM (Sinapalli);
AHEAD (Khariar); Institute of Women's
Development (Berhampur) and Seva Bharati
(Phulbani).
During the course of the partnership with
HURINEO, PLD organised a state-level orientation
workshop on the Convention on Elimination of All
Forms of Discrimination Against Women' (14-17
November 2003) for lawyers and activists in Puri. In
partnership with PLD, the network in turn organised
three para-legal trainings from 26-28 July 2003 in
Khariar, from 30 July-1 August 2003 in Koraput and
from 29-31 January 2003 in Gajapati. Around 105
social activists and members of the civil society
benefited from these para-legal trainings. In
addition, the partnership also allowed the network

resources to support revision and additions to the

manual 'Ain Kannoon'. Four more booklets on the
Indian Constitution, Land Rights, Human Rights
and Women's Rights got added to the series.

facilitated by PLD. As part of this study, Deepti was

based for a short duration in Vanangana, Karvi, and
with MSSK in Jaipur.

LEGAL RESOURCE CENTER

INSTITUTE OF WOMEN'S
DEVELOPMENT (IWD)
IWD works with women on socio-economic
issues in Berhampur, Ganjam district of Orissa. It
also helps form community groups for the judicious
management of water, land use and food security.
The para-legal, Deepti Praharaj, has designed a
format for documenting cases, monitoring cases of
violence against women in the district and taking
forward legal awareness programmes. She has
also organised trainings on human rights for
pressure groups and been in contact with the police
to raise awareness about problems in her area and
cases of violations of human rights.
PLD partnership aimed to strengthen IWD's
capacity in women's human rights and integrate a
rights-based approach and law in outreach work.
Deepti has been part of the para-legal trainings of
PLD. In addition, a study trip to provide on-site
training through exposure was organised and

LD partnership aimed to
strengthen IWD's capacity in
women's human rights and
integrate a rights-based approach
and law in outreach work.

PLD supported Shomona Khanna during her

stay in Palampur, Himachal Pradesh, as the legal
resource person to Navrachana. After a year of
collaboration with Navrachana, Shomona
established the Legal Resource Centre. The idea
was to make available materials on law, feminism,
alternative development, human rights and
alternative lawyering for use by local groups. She
also provided inputs to local campaigns on
contentious issues under the Cooperatives Act, the
land reform movement in Himachal Pradesh and
on community control over forests. Together with
local groups, she studied the Himachal Pradesh
Cooperatives Societies Act and its rules to assess
the potential of cooperative modes of production as
they are democratic and economically viable.
The Legal Resource Centre closed
subsequently with Shomona's re-location to Delhi
in 2002. However, she continued to provide legal
support on common property resources to PLD and
its partnership programme.

SANDARSH
Sandarsh, a partner of PLD, is a research and
resource organisation in Goa. In the wake of
increasing reports of pedophilia and child abuse in
Goa, Sandarsh was keen to contribute to legislative
advocacy on the issue. Initially, Sandarsh wanted
to work towards preparing a comprehensive bill for
children encompassing substantive and
procedural provisions. But after the
recommendations of PLD, it narrowed its study to
child sexual abuse. This became the primary focus
of its partnership with PLD.
Developing a legal framework on child sexual
abuse was important in view of the increasing
reports and the absence of laws to effectively
respond to the crime. The Indian Penal Code

27

makes no distinction between sexual abuse of a

child and an adult except in the area of 'consent'.
Criminal law does not use the term sexual abuse
but only uses the term 'rape' or 'outraging the
modesty'. During the partnership, Sandarsh
worked on mapping a comprehensive legal
framework that included: making clear the
definition of child; synchronising the age of a child
under all laws (for example, the valid age of
marriage of a girl is 18 years, whereas the age of
valid consent for a girl under the provision of rape in
the Indian Penal Code is 16 years); defining
offences like incest and paedophilia; and
establishing linkages between the support and
implementing agencies (such as the Courts,
police, public prosecutor, doctors, forensic
experts, lawyers, victim assistance units, service
providers and others). This work fed into the state
level campaign for a special law, following which
the Goa Children's Act was adopted, in which
elements proposed by Sandarsh were
incorporated - fulfilling a clear and quantifiable
objective of the partnership with PLD.

VANANGANA
Vanangana,22 an organisation based in Karvi
district in Uttar Pradesh, works to empower women
through awareness-raising and livelihoods'
training in non-traditional and technical skills. With
support from PLD, the organisation's ad hoc
interventions in cases on violence against women
have been transformed into a full-fledged
community-based programme managed by a unit.
This unit has outreach strategies that include
awareness raising on gender discrimination and
rights, mediation and legal support, case follow-up
and capacity building through trainings to
community groups on request.
Vanangana also has a natural resource unit
working with issues such as water and land rights.
With the help of PLD, Vanangana has also been
able to build staff capacity and skills and raise
community awareness about issues such as
shelter and water.

28

PLD has supported three legal resources for

varying lengths over the five year period of the
partnership programme: Huma Khan and Urmila
(women's rights unit) and Jageshwar Prasad
(natural resources unit). The support has been
crucial to build the capacity of the organisation.
Jageshwar has organised a public hearing on
ponds and has been responsible for getting
villagers to identify their water resources and
collating the information for a primary database.
Huma has used her learnings from trainings and
field exposures to develop a core team of paralegals within the organisation. Urmila has
strengthened and sustained the organisation's
community intervention on violence against
women in Banda district. The organisation is
currently also working in collaboration with the
police. Alongside her work, Urmila is now pursuing
the study of law.

5
Prem Krishna Sharma
Academy for
Socio Legal Studies,
Jaipur, Rajasthan

The Academy was started in 1995 with the

intention of attracting lawyers to human rights work
and developing their skills at advocacy. After years
of working with dalits, marginal peasants,
minorities and women, Prem Krishna Sharma, a
senior advocate, founding member and secretary
of the Academy, is convinced that the justice
delivery system in the country is not designed to
serve the poor. Even a positive judgement is of little
value in light of the long delay in the delivery of
justice. Prem Krishna Sharma, therefore,
advocates that problems of justice delivery for the
poor be "attacked openly and publicly."23 In relation
to critiquing the justice delivery system, he valued
the contribution of PLD in co-organising a
workshop with the Academy and the Law College,
University of Rajasthan, Jaipur, on The Legal
System and Social Justice (January 2003). The
workshop provided a forum for lawyers, activists
and persons working with marginalised groups to
discuss issues relating to law and social justice
apart from raising awareness of legal practitioners
on the barriers within the legal systems for the
socially marginalised, the vulnerable and the poor.
These discussions facilitated space to renew and
strengthen alliances. In addition, it drew attention
of lawyers to their role in promoting and protecting
social justice concerns through the legal system.

Partner Profiles

and Perspectives
The Academy has developed a concept called
"people's jurisprudence" with the aim of making the
judiciary more accountable to the people. Lawyers
attached to the Academy work on a range of human
rights issues. PLDs supported four lawyers from
the Academy who worked on violence against
women, family law, labour law and criminal law.
The support allowed them to dedicate substantial
time to social justice work and particularly to the
Mahila Salah Surakha Kendra, run jointly by
several NGOs and the police. "PLDs support of
legal resource persons has been of great value to
us," acknowledges Sharma. However, he feels that
PLD must take on programmes that radically
challenge and critique the formal justice delivery
system, an area of concern to the Academy.

Dharmeswari
Academy for
Socio Legal Studies,
Jaipur, Rajasthan

Dharmeswari has been a practicing lawyer

since 1999 working on cases relating to women in
family law and criminal law. She heard about PLD
from Kailash, another PLD partner. Talking of her
experience as a legal resource person,
Dharmeswari says, "PLD's workshops have
changed my perception of gender. I had no idea of a
gender perspective while dealing with women's
issues. I have learnt how to write reports and
meticulously record details for future learning. My

29

partnership has also motivated me to read more

about human rights issues."
Dharmeswari was struck by the training
methodology of PLD's para-legal workshops on
Gender and the Law.24 "The trainers started with a
story and then went on to discuss a whole range of
issues from sex and gender, to criminal law to
Constitutional rights. The Nyay ki Seedi,25 (Ladder
of Law) study material has been extremely useful to
gain a perspective. Even though I was already a
practicing lawyer for two years before I became a
PLD partner, the years spent in partnership has
given me incredible clarity. I am carrying forward
the concepts that I leant from the partnership in my
work."

Snehlata Sharma
Academy for
Socio Legal Studies,
Jaipur, Rajasthan

Snehlata, a lawyer, also heard of PLD from

Kailash. When she first attended the PLD
workshops, she explains, "I was not sensitised to
gender perspectives. But watching the plays in the
PLD training workshops helped me understand this
approach to law. Lawyers also generally do not use
communication skills such as stories and plays to
generate awareness. I learnt about this mode of
communication at the PLD workshop. It has been
an eye-opener and an enriching experience. My
partnership with PLD has also added to my skills in
drafting reports and counselling women at the
Mahila Salah Suraksha Kendra. It was important for
me to understand what women think of themselves
and why they think the way they do. PLD's training
on gender gave me immense clarity on how
discrimination operates."

30

Tejkumar Sharma
Academy for
Socio Legal Studies,
Jaipur, Rajasthan

Tejkumar has always confronted injustice

having been witness to many such instances as a
practicing lawyer in Bharatpur district of Rajasthan.
Tejkumar heard about PLD at a meeting. Apart
from his practice as a lawyer on human rights
issues with the Academy, Tejkumar is interested in
demystifying the law.
He says, "While I was conscious of civil and
political rights violations, I had no idea about
violations of women's rights. I dismissed violence
against women as an unimportant issue. But when
I went for the second training workshop at
Rishikesh, I discovered a change in myself. I began
questioning everything that I learnt and believed in.
PLD motivated me to give more thought and time to
human rights issues. The inputs and information on
domestic violence and women's human rights were
extremely valuable and so were the modules."

Kailash Chand Khumbhkar

Academy for
Socio Legal Studies,
Jaipur, Rajasthan

Kailash was involved in the right to campaign

with Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sanghatan (MKSS) and
travelled extensively in rural areas. During a
protest in 1997 he got involved with the criminal
justice system and met Prem Krishna Sharma. On
his persuasion, he joined the Academy as a lawyer.

Kailash observes, "Nikhil De of MKSS told me

about PLD and the support it lends to young
lawyers. I participated in one of PLD's annual
workshop. It taught me how law and the Courts
could be used to address issues related to
development. I have persisted in attending PLD
workshops on sexual harassment and gender and
law as they open up fresh avenues and uncover
nuances of gender discrimination within the legal
system. PLD workshops also help me learn and
develop a rights-based perspective."
He adds, "PLD's link with the Academy has
helped it address issues such as gender, women's
human rights in a far more meaningful and effective
way. It has also allowed its members network with
other groups. I personally have used the tools learnt
from PLD to address many other issues such as the
campaign on right to food, both within the Court and
outside." At present, Kailash works on cases
relating to violence against women, industrial
disputes, child abuse, rape and human rights.

Madhavi Kukreja
Vanangana, Karvi,
Uttar Pradesh

Madhavi, a founding member of Vanangana, in

Karvi, Uttar Pradesh, together with her team of local
activists and community workers, has
institutionalised the use of a rights-based approach
to deal with women's issues. She has initiated and
sustained collaborations that have developed
Vanangana's capacities in more than one arena.
The team's efforts have also made Vanangana a
dynamic community-based organisation that uses
a combination of strategies to address
empowerment and livelihood concerns of tribal and
dalit women. With the help of PLD, the organisation
has strengthened its work on women's security and
justice and built programme capacities on violence
against women and on common property
resources.

"PLD's interaction with Vanangana has lasted

over six years. Apart from the financial support it
gives us, PLD has helped in applying rights-based
approach in our work. Its inputs on training,
campaigns and drafting reports are invaluable,"
Madhavi says.

Huma Khan
Vanangana, Karvi,
Uttar Pradesh

Huma started her work with the Mahila

Samakya programme of the government at Karvi in
Uttar Pradesh. Huma has always been interested
in using law for social action. She became a PLD
partner in 1997 after attending a training workshop
of PLD. She says, "PLD exposed me to
international human rights norms and feminist legal
theory which I have sought to use in my work. I got
an opportunity to participate in national and
international forums and work with the rights
perspective. PLD has also been instrumental in
highlighting a case of child abuse and harassment
and getting national recognition for the problem."
A lawyer and a social worker by training,
Huma's participation in regional training
programmes were facilitated by PLD to enhance
her capacities. She has attended a training of
trainers on the United Nations Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against
Women (CEDAW) organised by International
Women's Rights Action Watch (Asia Pacific); the
regional training programmes on Feminist Legal
Theory and Practice, and that on Human Rights
Documentation for Gender-based Violence
organised by Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law
and Development. Her competence in human
rights makes her a resource person for groups and
forums beyond Vanangana. She has contributed to
PLD's para-legal trainings as a resource person

31

over the last two years and to justice initiatives in

Gujarat. Huma is currently in the United Kingdom
for a Masters programme.

Jageswar Prasad
Vanangana, Karvi,
Uttar Pradesh
Urmila
Vanangana, Karvi,
Uttar Pradesh

Urmila learnt about PLD in 1997. "We were

told that we could improve our work if we attended
a para-legal training workshop organised by PLD.
For the first time I learnt about using law for social
action and realised that the status of women was
unequal and subordinate to men even within the
framework of law. I was also trained in drafting a
First Information Report and how to approach the
police. The training workshop also taught me
strategies to challenge the gender bias in the
system. In my case, the system is the police who
refuse to register a case when it relates to violence
against women. The training workshop gave me
the confidence to persist in enforcing compliance
in recording statements and rights of the victims
and those who approach the system for justice
despite police resistance."
Urmila has been a trainer in PLD workshops.
She is currently co-coordinator at Vanangana and
works on issues related to violence against
women. Urmila's interest and experience as a
para-legal has motivated her to enroll for law
studies which she is currently pursuing. As a PLD
partner, Urmila has strengthened the
organisation's community intervention on violence
against women and each of its components by
organising street plays and phads (a folk medium
of communication). She has also provided
valuable inputs in state-level campaigns on
violence against women.

32

Jageshwar has worked on a variety of social

issues for more than 20 years. He came in contact
with PLD in 2001 when he attended their paralegal workshops on Gender and the Law (in Delhi
and in Karvi) and the annual workshop on
Common Property Resources and the Law
(2002). In 2003, he was supported to build his own
and his team's capacity on common property
resources. During this period he participated in
organisational trainings, jan sabhas (people's
court) and exposure visits to similar organisations
addressing concerns relating to water.
"The workshops exposed me to the wide gaps
that exist between the law and the ground realities
on issues like jal, jungle and zameen (water,
forests and land). It helped me understand
judgments of the Supreme Court in relation to
persons residing in areas surrounding dry tanks
and ponds. I challenged a government notice sent
to 107 poor families who were asked to vacate
these sites immediately because of a Supreme
Court judgment." In this period of partnership,
Jageshwar organised a jan sabha on ponds and
has been responsible for getting villagers to
identify their water sources and collate the
information for a primary database.

D. Singh Babu
FARR, Kalahandi
and HURINEO, Orissa

Singh Babu has been involved with

development issues for more than 20 years. As an
activist and a founder member of FARR that began
in 1983, he works on issues concerning tribals,
small farmers, landless labourers, women and
children. As a PLD partner with HURINEO, Singh
Babu has been engaged in a study of
displacement, a campaign on right to food and
livelihood, networking with other organisations and
preperation of educational material in Oriya on the
Indian Constitution, human rights, women's rights
and land rights.
Working in the drought-hit region of Kalahandi,
Singh Babu has had to identify programmes
suitable for the area. "Initially we did not give
priority to issues and followed an ad-hoc, need
based approach. But soon we realised that this did
not secure people their basic rights. For instance,
we started a non-formal education for girl children
in the Year of the Girl Child. But we realised that
there were far more complex issues than this and
that education by itself does not have any meaning
in the face of abject poverty. We realised that our
approach needs to be holistic and address a variety
of inter-related issues."

CEDAW, in particular, has opened up new

avenues for the participants. The course
sharpened their understanding of women's human
rights and taught them to use the provisions in
CEDAW to address the injustice meted out to
women."

Minati
Institute of
Wo m e n ' s D e v e l o p m e n t ,
Berhampur,
Ganjam District, Orissa

The Institute of Women's Development

became PLD's organisational partner in 1998.
Registered in 1993, its objective is to improve
women's socio-economic condition. It also works
to increase awareness on legal processes,
strengthen women's capacity by starting self help
groups and documents case studies on unjust
practices that negatively impact women. The
Institute also establishes community groups for
management of water and land use and focuses on
food security.
Says Minati, "We came to know of PLD in
1998. Over the years PLD has helped develop
capacity of our organisation. PLD has also helped
us evolve a sound methodology to document our
work. PLD greatest contribution has been the
recognition it has given to the para-legal. It has
shown how a para-legal, a person without formal
educational qualifications, can work ably on rights."

He continues, "FARR was one of the founding

members of HURINEO in 1997. This is a network of
human rights organisations in Orissa. With the
support of PLD, we have been able to train groups
of para-legals in law. The groups in Orissa have
also greatly benefited from workshops organised
by PLD on various issues. PLDs technical support
in terms of training and mutual learning has been
extremely effective for the network. The training on

33

Pratap Pradhan
Advocate / FARR,
Bhawanipatna, Orissa

Pratap has been involved with Shakti Cell, an

informal dispute resolution forum run by citizens
located within the District Collector's office at
Kalahandi. Pratap has counselled disputes,
produced legal materials on women's issues in
Oriya, conducted legal awareness classes for
women and has a written a status report on the
women of Kalahandi. In addition, he has also been
involved in capacity building of the women's cell at
the gram panchayat level.
"PLDs workshops have helped me put my work
in perspective. Their state-level workshops in
Orissa have also had a positive impact on other
lawyers who have participated in them. As the
government legal aid system is not effective, a
group of lawyers at Bhawanipatna town have got
together and started the Voluntary Action of
Lawyers for Advancement (VALA) with the active
encouragement of PLD."

Nabin Chandra Chhinchani

Lawyers - in - Action/
Centre for
Social Development
and Research, Rayagada,
Orissa
The Centre has been working since 1990 in the
Rayagada district of Orissa on education, health
and human rights violations relating to tribals and
dalits. A network of Lawyers in Action (LIA) was
created to generate awareness.

34

Nabin has not been a direct partner of PLD. His

connection with PLD has been through its
workshops, which have helped him use a rightsbased approach to ensure land rights for the tribals.
He says, "The Centre's association with PLD
began in 2000. Four lawyers have been supported
by PLD under the LIA and we have started a
network called "Sangram" that concentrates on
research. I am grateful to PLD for encouraging
young lawyers and giving them a direction on the
rights perspective."

Pradeep Dash
Ankuran / Sangram,
Rayagada, Orissa

Pradeep Dash is a human rights activist. The

focus of his work and activism since 1980 has been
forests and tribal issues. In 1987, he started a
movement to restore land to tribals which forced
him to grapple with bureaucracy and the
authorities. He, therefore, decided to study law and
human rights and enrolled as an advocate in 1994.
He continues to fight for the rights of the
underprivileged.
"After becoming a PLD partner, I have had
access to a rich database of information on land,
forests and policies on them. PLD has helped me
use law as an instrument of social change."

Vasantha
Paralegal, Anweshi,
Kozhikode, Kerala

K.Ajitha
Anweshi,
Kozhikode, Kerala

Anweshi works in Kozhikode, Kerala, on

women's human rights. It works on the issue of
violence against women and has recently created a
temporary shelter for women victims of violence.
Anweshi got in touch with PLD in 2000.
"We in Anweshi have been sensitised to carry
forward the work of the legal aid cell. PLD's training
methodology is very effective, friendly and
informal. It makes the participants open up and
voice their opinions without reservations or fear."

Vasantha is a community worker who has

through her partnership with PLD undertaken the
role of a para legal. She follows up on court cases,
assists with mediation, drafted applications to
government authorities, maintains the case records
and documentation for Anweshi. Her view of the
partnership programme is that "PLD's support to
me and to other partners is in reality support to all
those poor people who come to an organisation in
search of justice."

Albertina Almeida
Sandarsh,
Goa

Preetha
Anweshi,
Kozhikode, Kerala

Preetha, a practicing lawyer since 1999 assists

in mediation and files cases in courts on behalf of
women who have come to the organisation. In
addition, she also conducts legal literacy classes
for the staff and others involved in Anweshi's work.
"I use the knowledge gained from PLD's
workshop on gender in the legal literacy classes.
PLD has changed my life because it has allowed
me to interact with State lawyers and other
activists. Working with both PLD and Anweshi has
fired me with an ambition to take up issue-based
cases," she maintains.

A lawyer based in Bardez, Goa, has worked on

women's issues with Bailancho Saad a women's
collective in Goa. Her experience had alerted her
to the injustice perpetrated by absence of law on
Child Sexual Abuse. She teamed with Sandarsh
and PLD to undertake research on the theme
"Towards Child - Friendly Laws". The partnership,
she says, provided quiet research space & support
for collecting necessary and related information to
probe the law, critique it and evolve suggestions.
"PLD thus played a part towards providing me with
the impetus to be involved in drafting the Goa
Children's Bill"26

35

Taking Stock and

Looking Ahead
Madhu Mehra*

he progress of PLD's partnerships programme

has not been in terms of successive
achievements or pitfalls. Its progress, in fact,
cannot be measured in such conventional terms as
it has followed a path uniquely its own and
attempted to create a space for law practice
outside the formal system of law and within that a
role for lawyers. There certainly have been
challenges along the way. But at the end of six
years of the programme what reflects clearly is the
confidence among the partners and a commitment
to carry forward the partnerships programme on
their own.

IMPACT
The success of the PLD's work can be
determined by its impact on the three parties of the
partnership. Using impact as the real indicator of its
success, this section looks at the effect of the PLD
partnerships on:
l
NGOs (what the partnerships have meant
to community organisations)
l
Lawyers/ para-legals (what the
partnerships have meant to lawyers /
para-legals)
l
PLD's programme development

NGOs or Partner Organisations

The projects that PLD have helped
conceptualise have today become integral to the
work of the partner organisations. Most of them
have begun actively using law and a rights-based
approach for social action and have woven the
legal components into many of their current
*This section draws upon internal review and
reflections of PLD together with the feedback given
to Geeta Ramaseshan by the Programme Partners.

36

here certainly have

been challenges along
the way. But at the end
of six years of the
programme what reflects
clearly is the confidence
among the partners and a
commitment to carry
forward the partnerships
programme on their own.
outreach programmes. These components have
been institutionalised to a fair degree and will,
therefore, be sustained in the years ahead. Its
partners will continue to weave the component of
law into their outreach programmes and use it for
interventions on development even after the term
of partnership has formally come to an end.
In many cases, the work of the partner
organisations has gone much beyond local
interventions and has expanded to support to
other organisations and networks. The examples
listed below show how many community
organisations and network partners have gone
beyond integrating law as intrinsic part of their
community work to develop and assume roles of
leadership in using a rights-based approach.
Take ASLS in Jaipur that has a dedicated group of
lawyers who provide not just legal advice and
services at the MSSK but also provide support
other movements. Similarly, FARR has moved
beyond its role of taking the lead to revive
HURINEO to coordinate para-legal trainings for
PLD's other partner organisations in districts
outside of Kalahandi. Anweshi likewise has taken
the initiative to organise state-level lawyer

meetings and trainings to generate greater

awareness and commitment towards women's
rights. Vanangana also offers training
programmes for community organisations on
gender and the law.

Legal Resource Persons

While some lawyers / para-legals continue
to remain associated with the partner NGO that
helped them become part of PLD, others have
joined different NGOs or begun to work
independently. Regardless of where they work,
each legal resource person demonstrates a
continued commitment to the PLD method of
using law for social action. A partnership with
PLD has provided them not only space and
technical orientation but also a validation of their
work within the community. To quote Shomona
Khanna, who was a legal resource person with
PLD in Himachal Pradesh, "PLD gives both a
sense of direction and belonging to what would
otherwise be a struggle in isolation. Support
from the PLD has mainly been at the conceptual
level and its greatest contribution has been in
helping perceive the negative experiences in a
positive light. Alternative lawyering is a new
concept and PLD has made enormous efforts to
popularise it. It should persist in gaining the
confidence of many more NGOs and convince
them to use this approach." 27

he partnership work
plans in 2003, for
instance, show that the
work plans of partner
organisations have gone
beyond mere organisational
work to cover new areas
either within the same
organisation or outside the
organisation.

While many of the legal resource persons

admit to finding PLD workshops immensely useful
in developing a perspective and an orientation on
the rights approach, they give credit to the work
plans of organisations (developed with the help of
PLD) for making their field level work experience
possible and rewarding.

PLD's Programme
The impact of PLD's partnerships programme
can also be measured by the way law is used in
community programmes. Most of the PLD partners
have moved away from an ad hoc use of law in
their outreach programmes to a systematic use of
law. Their work reflects a planned integration of
law-based systems into community work and has
come to include maintenance of case records,
systems and the use of procedures and guidelines
for handling cases. The staff of community
organisations now has a basic knowledge of the
law, particularly in their area of work.
In most organisations, the first legal resource
person whose capacities were built through
partnership with PLD has successfully trained a
second legal resource person and in many cases
several others. This has happened in Orissa,
Jaipur, Kerala and Karvi. Many of the legal
resource persons are also contributing to PLD as a
'lateral resource pool' in the training programmes.
Huma, Urmila, Shomona and Kailash were part of
PLD's resource pool from 2001-2003.
Finally, impact can be measured through the
expansion of work of the partner organisations.
The partnership work plans in 2003, for instance,
show that the work plans of partner organisations
have gone beyond mere organisational work to
cover new areas either within the same
organisation or outside the organisation. For
example, in Orissa, Rajasthan and Kerala, the
projects have crossed existing boundaries to
guide state-level networks. In Uttar Pradesh, the
programme on violence against women has
developed in two ways - the Manav Adhikar Unit on
the one hand undertakes field-based interventions

37

and addresses problems at the grassroots level

and on the other serves as resource group that
offers capacity building on request to other
community groups. With the success of this Unit on
violence intervention work in the community,
Vanangana forged a fresh partnership with PLD to
replicate the rights-based approach in its work on
common property resources.

CHALLENGES
To initiate and sustain an unconventional
partnership between three actors with different
strengths and roles is not easy. It is particularly
challenging to maintain a balance between the
roles and responsibilities of community
organisations and the local lawyer. Speaking from
a lawyer's perspective, Prasanta Kumar Jena
says, "While the PLD partnership demands a
balance between the partners, it must be admitted
that the role of lawyers who use law for social action
is far more important. All NGOs must carve a role
for law and lawyers in their community outreach
programmes for true change at the field level."
Expressing similar sentiments, Jena Jose, who
provided legal support to Sakhi in Trivandrum,
says, "Very often, the entire burden of integrating
law into social action falls upon lawyers as NGOs
do not fully understand the process of law." In
contrast, Singh Babu, a founding member of FARR
and the coordinator of HURINEO, argues that

PLD has trained paralegal teams

in Vanangana and helped them
develop a perspective in law but
this effort needs to become a
large scale movement. More
lawyers need to understand the
possibility of law in social action
if change is to happen.
Madhavi, Vanangana

38

NGOs have far greater role to play. He says "While

working with tribals we realised that the law did
have a role to play in helping them gain land rights
but its contribution was minor. This has resulted in
an uneasy relationship with lawyers. We also feel
uncomfortable with their rigid work culture. We
have now come to the conclusion that their
association will be a short one and the work of
people and the NGOs must continue beyond their
work." 28
Recognising the need to define roles and
responsibilities, Aradhana Nanda, a founding
member of FARR comments, "PLD should devote
time to clearly distinguish the roles of partners as
there are areas where misunderstandings
persist."29 It is clear that PLD's role in outlining
partner roles and responsibilities and maintaining a
harmonious relationship was a difficult one, not
always accomplished successfully. In fact, the
endeavour of transforming formal lawyering
practices to those based entirely on alternative
principles can realistically be described as work-inprogress, a process that is an ongoing one and one
that relies upon serious engagement from all the
parties of the partnership.

LOOKING AHEAD
PLD has effectively promoted non-formal law
practices and built the capacities of lawyers and
para-legals over the last six years. In the course of
doing so, a small community dedicated to practices
of combining social justice and law at the
community level has been created.
All partners reiterate the contribution of the
programme at the field level. Kamlesh, from
Vanangana says, "My work with disadvantaged
groups has shown that law has a tremendous role
outside the courtroom. Knowledge of the politics of
law is important. The right to information is a case in
point. It has brought people together to fight for their
rights."
Similarly, Sudha of Shakti Vardhini,
30
Patna, reports, "With the help of PLD, our
organisation has been able to create a core group

of lawyers who attempt to expand the purview of

law."
Partners are clear that the change PLD has
brought about needs to be sustained. This, they
say, can happen only with continued support.
Minati of IWD, Behrampur, feels that "PLD should
concentrate on building capacities of para-legals."31
Madhavi of Vanangana, says PLD's outreach must
be widened to go beyond the present partnerships:
"PLD has trained para-legal teams in Vanangana
and helped them develop a perspective in law but
this effort needs to become a large scale
movement. More lawyers need to understand the
possibility of law in social action if change is to
happen."32
Partners are also keen that PLD takes on
additional roles and activities. One suggestion is
that PLD "links partners through the regular
publication of newsletters and other
communications so that there is awareness of
everyone's initiatives" (Aradhana Nanda, FARR).
Another suggestion is for PLD to "take on the
mantle of advocacy seriously and lobby with the
government to use law in all its programmes for
social change" (Albertina Almeida, Sandarsh). Yet
another, that PLD contest the hurdles to justice for
the poor within the formal justice delivery system.
(Prem Krishna Sharma, ASLS).
All partners also agree that PLD's core
competency -- its work on women's rights -- needs
to be strengthened. There is also the realisation
that PLD can no longer afford to address requests
for training and technical assistance in an ad hoc
manner. Both PLD and its partners realise that for
PLD to be an effective resource organisation there
is a need for structured programme built around
clearly identified needs in the sector of work
combined with its recognised strengths.
PLD's role as a resource centre is a vital one
and documenting the specifics of the non formal
law practices to fill in knowledge gaps, highlight its
value and encourage their replicability is a
significant task. The lack of accessible education

LD will continue to provide an

external impetus to the partners to
sustain the pace of change
triggered by the partnership
programme. PLD will always endeavor
to bridge the gaps between the formal
legal system and the informal arena of
justice; human rights standards and
legally enshrined rights and between
the social justice actors in civil society
and lawyers.
materials is particularly worrisome. Partners are
keen that PLD take on the challenge so that its
outreach extends far beyond its partnerships.
PLD will continue to provide an external
impetus to the partners to sustain the pace of
change triggered by the partnership programme.
But to sharpen its achievements, PLD needs to
look to new horizons. Future directions for
programmes would need to be based on its vision
of itself as an organisation. PLD would have to
consider organisational designs and models that
are sustainable and those that best fulfill its
objectives. PLD will have to chart its future path
with care. A combination of external needs, internal
strengths and organisational vision would help
determine its choice of growth - be it in terms of
scale or quality, or a combination of both.
What is certain, however, is that PLD is
committed to building capacities, developing
perspectives and using a rights-based approach to
development, particularly in the arena of women's
rights. PLD will also always endeavor to bridge the
gaps - between the formal legal system and the
informal arena of justice; between issues
characterised as civil political and those perceived
as social, economic and cultural; between human
rights standards and legally enshrined rights; and
between the social justice actors in civil society and
the lawyers.

39

Notes
1

htttp://www.unhchr.ch/development/approaches04.html

16 Report by legal resource Albertina, dated

31st July 2004

Article 19

See for instance, Jolly George Verghese and Anr.

Vs. Bank of Cochin, AIR 1980 SC 470 ; Francis
Coralie Vs. Administrator, UT of Delhi and Ors, AIR
1981 SC 746 ; M.C.Mehta Vs. UOI, AIR 1987 SC
1086 and 1090 ; Bandhua Mukti Morcha Vs. UOI,
AIR 1984 SC 802 ; Olga Tellis Vs. State of
Maharashtra, AIR 1986 SC 180 ; Paschim Bengal
Khet Maazdoor Samiti and Ors Vs. State of West
Bengal and Anr, AIR 1996 SC 2426

17 Report to PLD by Huma Khan, legal resource,

November 1998 - October 1999, pp 7, 8

19 Presentation by Aradhana Nanda during

'Orientation Workshop on Convention on
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against
Women,' 14th- 17th Nov' 2003, Puri.

See for instance, Nilabati Behara Vs. State of

Orissa, 1993 2 SCC 746; Vishaka Vs. State of
Rajasthan, AIR 1997 SC 3011

Article 15

20 "Community based activists with particular skills,

who assist at the village level the victims of human
rights violations. These para-legals have a quasilegal functions . . . ," Final Report submitted in May'
2003, p. 1.

The Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987

21 Final Report submitted in May' 2003, p. 5.

UNDP Human Development Report 2000

Order 32A Code of Civil Procedure; and also,

Section 20 Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987

22 Annual workshop on Law and Social Action,

July 2001 pages 17,18

Aradhana Nanda
quoted in Role of Law in
Development, Workshop Report, PLD April 2000 pg
56

10 Unreported Judgement Crlop 28886/03, Rajendran

and 11 Ors. Vs. All Women's Police Station Musiri
11 Huma Khan, in personal communication
12 Prashant's quarterly report for the period May to
October 1999
13 Aradhana Nanda , FARR, quoted in Role of Law in
Development, Workshop Report, PLD April 2000
page 56
14 Usha Ramanathan, in personal communication
15 A folk medium of story telling that uses pictoral
depictions accompanied by songs and dialogue.

40

18 The Orissa Scheduled Areas Transfer of Immovable

Property (By Scheduled Tribes) Amendment
Regulation, 2000

23 In personal communication
24 She participated in the two para legal workshops
held in May and September 2003 in Rishikesh.
25 A lucid and well illustrated booklet on legal
procedure produced by Mahila Samakhya, U.P.
26 Mail to PLD dated 31.07.04
27 Annual Workshop on Law and Social Action ,
July 2001, page 45
28 In personal communication.
29 In personal communication.
30 Annual workshop on Law and Social Action,
July 2001
31 In personal communication
32 In personal communication

Appendix
S.No

Organisation

Legal Resource

Partnership Term

Astha Sansthan,
Udaipur, Rajasthan

1. Manna Ram Dangi

November 1998 - October 1999

Adhikar,
Bhubaneshwar, Orissa

2. Prasanta Kumar Jena

Academy for Socio Legal

Studies (ASLS) ,
Jaipur, Rajasthan

3. Kailash Ch. Khumbhkar

June 2000 - May 2001

April 2001 - March 2002
February 2003 - January 2004

4. Tejkumar Sharma

December 2001 - November 2002

5. Pradeep Dash

October 2001 - September 2002

Ankuran,
Rayagada, Orissa

6. Anadi Charan Kilaka

7. Jagannath Saraka
8. Iswar Gomango
9. Sadan Majhi
5

Anweshi,
Kozhikode, Kerala

March 2003 - January 2004

10. Savithri K. K.

November 2001 - October 2002

11. K Ajitha
12. Preetha K.K
13. Vasantha

February 2003 - January 2004

Citizen Consumer and Civic

Action Group (CAG), Chennai,
Tamil Nadu

14. P. Selvi

November 1998 - October 1999

Friends Association for Rural

Reconstruction (FARR),
Kalahandi, Orissa

15. Pratap Ch. Pradhan

May 1999 - April 2000

February 2001 - January 2002

Human Rights Law Network,

Delhi

16. Priya Narula

March 2000 - February 2001

Human Rights Network Orissa

(HURINEO)

17. D. Singh Babu

February 2003 - January 2004

10

Institute of Women's
Development (IWD),
Berhampur, Ganjam, Orissa

18. Geeta Devi

19. Deeptimayee

May 1999 - April 2000

February 2003 - January 2004

41

42

11

Legal Resource Centre,

Palampur, Himachal Pradesh

20. Shomona Khanna

March 2001 - February 2002

12

Legal Aid Trust to Women,

Velippalayam, Nagappattinam,
Tamil Nadu

21. A. Gandhimathi

November 1998 - October 1999

13

Lokshakti, Balasore, Orissa

22. Pranabandhu Das

November 1998 - October 1999

14

Mahila Punarwas Samooh

Samiti (MPSS) Academy for Socio Legal Studies

23. Snehlata Sharma

February 2003 - January 2004
24. Dharmeshwari Sharma
25. Kailash Chand
Khumbhkar

15

Navrachna,
Kangra, Himachal Pradesh

26. Shomona Khanna

November 1998 - October 1999

16

Sandarsh,
Bardez, Goa

27. Albertina Almeida

March 2000 - February 2001

17

Shakti Vardhini,
Danapur, Patna

28. Sudha

March 2000 - February 2001

18

Sakhi Women's Resource Centre,

Thiruvanthapuram, Kerala

29. Jeena Jose

May 1999 - April 2000

19

Vanangana,
Karvi, Uttar Pradesh

30. Huma Khan

November 1998 - October 1999

February 2001 - July 2001

31. Urmila

March 2000 - February 2001

February 2001 - January 2002
February 2003 - January 2004

32. Jageshwar Prasad

February 2003 - January 2004