22-Nov-2017: Centre initiates Safe-City Plans for women in Eight Metropolitan Cities

The Union Home Secretary chaired a meeting to kick start the process of formulating comprehensive safe city plans for women in eight metropolitan cities of the country – Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Lucknow and Hyderabad. Municipal Commissioners, Police Commissioners, senior State Government officials and Civil Society representatives attended the Steering Committee meeting constituted by the Ministry of Home Affairs under the Chairmanship of Union Home Secretary.

During the meeting, the Home Secretary took a comprehensive review of the progress made and steps taken by the police and civil administration of these eight metropolitan cities regarding women’s safety. Various issues reviewed included 33% reservation of women in police, installation of CCTV cameras, deployment of women in police stations, emergency response system, police verified public transport, prevention of cybercrime, infrastructure issues, mapping of dark spots & crime-prone areas and involvement of educational institutions, among others. The initiatives taken by these cities for women’s safety were also discussed in detail. These initiatives include Himmat App, All Women Patrol Van, Shishtachar programme of Delhi police; SHE teams, Hawkeye Mobile App & Bharosa programme of Hyderabad police; Suraksha App of Bengaluru police and Power Angels of UP police. The steps taken by other metro cities including mobile counselling vans for hearing the grievances of women, lighting in the sub-urban railway station areas, complaint boxes in the colleges, dedicated helpline for women, awareness programmes organised by the police, setting up of shelter homes for women and making provisions for street lighting were also discussed.

During the meeting, it was brought to the notice that police representatives are taking steps in the direction of implementing the target of 33% reservation of women in police and gradually moving towards the set target. It was informed that more than one lakh women are using Himmat App, which has been made bilingual by Delhi Police. The use of social media platforms for women’s safety was also emphasised during the meeting. The representatives also discussed various measures which can reduce the response time and thus ensure better results. The setting up of norms for standardisation of luminosity for CCTV cameras was also discussed by the participants.

The Home Secretary said that independent analysis and feedback system should be institutionalized to assess the perception of women on ground regarding their safety issues. Their feedback and suggestions on various issues can also be incorporated after independent survey and our approach to women’s safety can thus be fine-tuned. Rajiv Gauba emphasised on ‘targeted intervention’ by the police and civil administration, which will have larger impact on women’s safety. He also emphasised on Integrated Command and Control Centres and on collaborative monitoring by police and privately installed CCTV cameras. This integration should be in a time-bound and phased manner, he stressed.

It was decided that the police and municipal corporations of these eight cities will frame a plan of action. The plan will be forwarded by the respective State Level Committee headed by the Chief Secretary of the state. The plan of action to be submitted by these cities within a month will be assessed by the Steering Committee headed by the Union Home Secretary, which will make suitable recommendations.

11-Jun-2017: Tele-Law through CSCs To Mainstream Legal Aid in Rural India

The pilot to be rolled out across 1000 Common Service Centres (CSC) in Uttar Pradesh & Bihar. This initiative will also serve as an opportunity to build capacity of 1000 women Para Legal Volunteers (PLV). Training of VLEs across 1000 Common Service Centres (CSC) able to effectively operationalize the tele- law services

In its effort to make legal aid easily accessible to the marginalized communities and citizens living in rural areas, the Government of India has launched the ‘Tele-Law’. The Ministry of Law and Justice partnered with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), which anchors the Digital India programme, to provide legal aid services through its Common Service Centres (CSC) at the panchayat level, spread across the country. In the first phase, the ‘Tele-Law’ scheme will be tested as a pilot across 500 Common service Centres (CSC) in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar to understand the challenges and make necessary corrections to the scheme before it is scaled up and rolled out across the country in a phased manner.

Under the scheme, a portal called ‘Tele-Law’ will be launched, which will be available across the Common Service Centre (CSC) network. This will connect the citizens to legal service providers with the help of technology enabled platforms. ‘Tele-Law’ will enable people to seek legal advice from lawyers through video conferencing available at the Common Service Centres (CSC). Additionally, law school clinics, District Legal Service Authorities, voluntary service providers and Non-Government Organisations working on legal aid and empowerment can also be connected through the CSCs anywhere and anytime, in order to strengthen access to justice for the marginalized communities. The National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) will provide a panel of lawyers from State capitals, who will be available through video conferencing to provide legal advice and counselling to the applicants, across the 1000 Common Service Centres (CSC). A robust monitoring and evaluation system is also being designed which will help in assessing the quality of legal advice provided and the ensuing benefit to those accessing it.

In addition to this, under this scheme, every Common Service Centre (CSC) will engage a Para Legal Volunteer (PLV), who will be the first point of contact for the rural citizens and will help them in understanding the legal issues, explain the advice given by lawyers and assist in further action required in cases as per the advice of the lawyer. Women PLVs will be encouraged and trained under the Scheme. One thousand women PLVs will work for mainstreaming legal aid services through the CSCs. The aim is to promote women entrepreneurship and empowerment and ensure women participation. The selected PLVs will also be provided with relevant training to fulfil their responsibilities effectively.

A trained PLV will be available in a CSC for ten days in a month under the Scheme. These PLVs will help the applicant connect with a lawyer through the video conferencing facility at the CSC and will keep a track of the progress of the applicants’ cases and grievances and maintain a record. They will also submit the records maintained to the District Legal Service Authority every week. The National Legal Service Authority (NALSA) will provide a panel of lawyers who will be sitting in the State capitals and will be available through video conferencing to provide legal advice/counselling to the applicant at the CSCs.

This scheme comes as a continuation to the Access to Justice Project for Marginalized Persons which is being implemented by Department of Justice and United Nation Development Programme (UNDP). The Access to Justice Project partnered with CSC-E-governance Services India Limited to mainstream legal literacy through common service centres in Jharkhand (10 CSCs in 3 districts) and then through 500 CSCs across 11 districts in Rajasthan. Under the program, 500 VLEs in Rajasthan were trained on social justice legislations such as fundamental rights, the right to information, citizen rights vis-à-vis policing, gender laws, child rights and labour laws.