Mandate and Objectives

Legal assistance in this regard is primarily given to women facing domestic violence, sexual harassment at the workplace, victims of sexual assault, child sexual abuse, and discrimination faced in matrimonial matters.

  • To file PIL's and take on precedent setting cases in order to enforce human rights standards.
  • To identify discriminatory laws and practices in order to challenge them in a court of law.
  • To organise and participate in alternative dispute mechanisms, such as conducting Lok Adalats in collaboration with statutory bodies.
  • To document experiences gathered in providing legal aid in order to discern trends in patterns of violence and discrimination.
  • To create a cadre of advocates trained in the provision of legal aid and taking on social action litigation.
  • To facilitate a survivor's group to support women litigants while accessing legal remedies, generating livelihood options and providing a support base for campaigns and other advocacy initiatives towards the empowerment of women.

    • Quality legal services are unaffordable to a vast majority in the country today. Impoverished and marginalised within the family, women in India are at a special disadvantage when it comes to accessing legal remedies through a court process. The Legal Aid Cell was initially set up to bridge the gap, to the optimum possible extent, between women desirous of taking legal action and the court. The LCWRI's experience in successfully providing legal aid in the past 8 years has also demonstrated that it is impossible for a private initiative to meet the demand for legal aid. Hence an intake criterion formulated and fine tuned over the years is used to maximise the impact of the litigation taken on by the Legal Aid Cell. While the LCWRI remains committed to provide legal aid to women in distress, there is a felt need to take on public interest litigation on a broader range of issues that impact on the equality rights of women.

    The second aspect that the LCWRI seeks to build upon is their success in disposing off long pending claims by use of alternative dispute mechanisms such as the Lok Adalat. Finally, the LCWRI owes the success of its legal aid activities to a meticulous method of record keeping and documentation evolved over the years. As the LCWRI is not is a position to provide legal aid to all in need of such aid, the LCWRI's efforts shall be directed towards evolving a model code for adoption by all organisations or authorities engaged in providing legal aid, particularly in cases pertaining to violations of women's rights.