Legally Empowering Women in Bihar: Nyaaya steers capacity building training of Jeevika team members in Patna
Leading up to International Working Women’s Day this year, Nyaaya’s Bihar team conducted a three-day legal capacity building training for Team Jeevika in Patna. Jeevika is Bihar Government’s Rural Livelihoods Promotion Society which designs grassroots level interventions to transform the lives of women and girls of the state. Currently, through multi-tier and diverse formats of initiatives including self-help groups, employment schemes, skill development, support in case of violence and abuse, Jeevika has reached 1.3 crore women in Bihar. Nyaaya and Jeevika have been partners since the inception of Nyaaya’s work in Bihar and this training was one of our first flagship collaborations.
The training comprised comprehensive modules on the Constitution, Criminal Law, Labour Rights, Family and Gender Rights, Child Protection, Rights of Senior Citizens, Protection from Domestic Violence, Laws on Cybersecurity and Effective Communication for Legal Awareness which our Samvidhaan Fellows designed and facilitated to district level programme managers of Jeevika from all 38 districts and the central team of Jeevika.
The knowledge and skills shared in the training is aimed at legally sensitising the programme managers who are often the first responders to complaints and grievances from the grassroots communities. Through simple, actionable, reliable and accessible legal (SARAL) information on the above mentioned areas of law, Nyaaya empowered Jeevika’s team to address issues raised by aggrieved community members in their respective fields of operations and become a legal champion in further cascading the awareness of the legal rights and remedies and helping them navigate justice delivery systems effectively. The training sessions included interactive tools like songs, skits, videos, games to make the knowledge transfer more recallable and contextual.
“Such training is the need of the hour for us because while working on livelihood promotion work in remote parts of the state, we often come across stories of violence and abuse that our Jeevika didis routinely endure. Thanks to Nyaaya, now, we will at least be able to guide them accurately towards the right legal recourse. This is just the start of many joint initiatives between Jeevika and Nyaaya,” said, Mr. Niraj Kumar Singh, Project Manager, Jeevika.
Abhishek Kumar, an advocate at the Patna High Court and a Samvidhaan Fellow stated, “This training gave us an opportunity to hear the stories from the ground and gauge the reality of the state of affairs here by listening to the inputs from Jeevika’s team. As Samvidhaan Fellows, we will now be able to design more pertinent and contextual interventions through awareness programmes, pro bono case filings and answering legal questions for every specific region in Bihar where Jeevika works. We hope to legally empower every woman and young girl in India through this collaboration.”
Nyaaya’s Bihar based mentor and Chanakya National Law University’s Professor of Law, Fr. Peter Ladis said, “ My congratulations to Nyaaya’s Samvidhaan Fellows for their dedicated efforts to further the cause of access to justice in Bihar through initiatives like the training for Jeevika.”
Since August 2023, Nyaaya has expanded its mission to make justice accessible for all to Bihar. Currently housed in the Chanakya National Law University’s Legal Aid Clinic, Nyaaya’s Samvidhaan Fellowship consisting 7 district level lawyers from different parts of Bihar, offers pro bono legal support to anyone in need. Through the fellowship, the lawyers work with Nyaaya’s partner community-based organisations to deliver high-quality legal assistance to underserved communities in selected districts.
Following a three-tier approach, the fellowship aims to raise awareness of citizens’ rights, address queries, and resolve grievances, culminating in pro bono litigation and filing support for specific distress cases. In the last two years, Nyaaya has reached 3000 women and children through in-person legal awareness sessions, collective action litigation and response to legal queries and grievances registered at the clinic.
Nyaaya is India’s first open-access resource that provides simple, actionable, reliable, and accessible legal (SARAL) information to help Indian citizens navigate their lives and solve legal problems. It is incubated in Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, India’s leading law and policy think-tank. Nyaaya’s digital content simplifies legal knowledge and can be accessed and actioned by anyone online through our website and social media channels. This is complemented with on-ground legal aid and support that is accessible to citizens in vulnerable socio-economic milieus, thus closing the loop.
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