Training of Community Justice Workers in association with the Delhi Legal Services Authority.

MARG has developed a pool of around 100 community justice workers (CJWs) associated with Samajik Suvidha Kendras, Delhi. This has been done in collaboration with the Delhi Legal Services Authority (DLSA) with support from Oxfam India.

Under ‘Mission Convergence’ of the Government of National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, 80 Samajik Suvidha Kendras (SSK) have been set up to enable vulnerable sections of Delhi to access their rights and entitlements. Each SSK has designated one of its cadre as a Community Justice Worker for training under MARG and DLSA. These CJWs have been trained on various laws, procedures, rights and entitlements. These CJWs will serve as nodal points in the community to whom the vulnerable and the marginalized can turn for help in accessing rights and demanding justice.

Who are the paralegals selected by Delhi Legal Services Authority ?

My name is Nirmala. I am from BNS Shakurpur Basti where I am working as a help desk counselor. It is almost one and half year that I am working in this field. My responsibilities include giving awareness to community members about various schemes and their rights. Community members also ask me about their rights and it involves lots of legal issues. Before this training I was not able to answer many of their questions. But during last four months of this training not only have I felt more confident but I am also now able to tell people about their rights, refer to books and show them films. Thus I tell people about law in easy language.

I have learnt a lot about Muslim marriage. Our community is a Muslim dominant area and a large number of Muslim women feel that nothing positive can happen in their life. After getting this training I am now able to tell them that it is not the case. There are so many rights a Muslim woman has been given by law. I have told them what rights they have in property, how much property share they can get. I have also given them information about their share in their own family property and the property of their in-laws. Domestic violence law has also been useful to me. It is rampant in our society.

 I am Uttam Kumar Dutta from Stri Shakti Adhikar from Wazirpur Basti. I am working in this field for last two years. During these two years I have worked on construction workers and rights of women and children. I have joined this sector because I want to be part of the development and growth of the underprivileged class of our society.

In the course of our work so many times we face cases where we are in need of legal information. Without that knowledge it was difficult for us to perform well. In the last four months we have learnt a lot. We are now able to provide full legal information. It has helped in our work and it has given us confidence and made a good impact. The most important training sessions according to me were on sexual harassment at work place and domestic violence as they are strongly relevant to our field work. I work in Wazirpur Basti, in this area child labour and payment related issues are prevalent.

 My name is Shashi, I am working with a GRC for last two years as a Community Mobilizer. I like my work because when I go to a community I get to meet large number of people who are so much in need. There are cases that they share with us and are not able to share with anyone else. I then give them information. Earlier I was doing the same work but after the training I now have a better knowledge of law. I am able to share more information and thus help women in the community more effectively. In my area cases related to alcoholism and domestic violence are very common.

Now we tell the women that even against this they can take action. Women feel empowered. It is not one lady but a group of women who are feeling more confident thanks to this legal information and this was all due to MARG’s training. Before this training program we had some knowledge but very little and I had felt the need for more legal information. I feel that this information is going to be very useful for my work.

The content of the legal literacy training

Please click on the pdf document below for a complete overview of the training program carried out.

Detailed report on DLSA training program