One of the great gifts of retirement – after your kids are off the payroll – is that it allows you to spend more time getting in touch with reality. Spending time with NGOs and communities living on the edge gives you a real sense of the injustices in this world and makes you appreciate how privileged you are. And when you meet folks from the Lawyers’ Initiative Forum (LIF) in Indore, as I did in early April 2018, you meet the real but unsung heroes are!
All this happened because as a part of Paul Hamlyn Foundation‘s India Advisory Committee, I got to spend 3 days around Indore visiting partners of Jan Sahas, an NGO founded by the visionary and charismatic yet unassuming Ashif Sheikh. This visit for me was one of those learn-a-minute ones that brought me in contact with some of the most disadvantaged women I have ever met. And if these were stories of despair, there was great hope too. And LIF is one of those stories of hope.
What is well known is that Dalits, Adivasis and Muslims, especially women, are subject to unimaginable levels of violence all the time – ranging from very Indian inappropriate term “eve-teasing”, to rape and murder. And when the perpetrators are from the so-called upper castes, their only hope for justice and reparation is the legal system, not the high courts or the Supreme Court but the so-called lower courts – the tehsil, sessions and district courts. It means filing First Information Reports or FIRs and following the case through this corrupt and inefficient legal system where these communities are severally disadvantaged – because of their social standing, their inability to access money to level the playing the field and inability to access quality legal aid.
A reality check on the last. The way a newly qualified lawyer learns the ropes is by working under a “senior” who is meant to be a mentor. Since the feudal system is alive and well in most parts of India, this system is loaded hugely against lawyers from Dalits, Adivasis and women. They are often reduced to carrying files, making tea and sometimes sweeping floors! A limited survey done by Jan Sahas revealed that most of these courts do not even have toilets for women – given the torturously long process in these courts, one can only stand and admire a woman lawyer who survives these multiple challenges. Then there is the challenge of accessing a law library, prepare for the bar and paying the license fee. And if the young Dalit lawyer manages to do all this, she has to pay for the gown, collar and all the paraphernalia that goes with being a lawyer, which many of them struggle to afford. So, the number of practising lawyers from these disadvantaged communities are a precious few.
Jan Sahas realised that providing justice to women survivors of violence requires the help of committed, competent and empathetic lawyers. Here is where LIF comes in. Set up in 2011, the purpose of the Forum is to support lawyers from disadvantaged communities and women who are also willing to set aside some time to fight cases that Jan Sahas and its partners take up. The Forum has a membership of around 1,050 lawyers (with the ambition of growing to over 10,000!) spread across 26 districts in 7 states. Of these, about 200 are women. An overwhelming proportion of the male and about 40% of the women members are from Dalit communities. Each district forum is governed by a 11-member executive committee selected by the membership.
The Forum, with the support of Jan Sahas, provides a number of services to its members. This ranges from something as basic as training in English which is the language in which most legal literature is available and business is conducted in the higher courts. The Forum has set up law libraries in 16 of their centres where members can actually borrow books to prepare for cases and the bar exam. And since many of the members are actually first-time lawyers with very limited, if any, help from seniors, they are also trained in business development and client relations. To address the issue of finding suitable seniors, the Forum produces a directory of members along with details of where they are practising, the areas of specialisation, contact details etc. so that a freshly qualified law student can decide who to approach. There is also a revolving fund that lawyers can access to pay for their licence, purchasing the gown etc. The Forum also provides opportunities for lawyers to freely consult with fellow members which otherwise would have entailed sharing of fees. This camaraderie and commitment was palpable in the hour or so that we spent with some nine men and one woman member of the Forum.
Early successes clearly suggest that setting up such a Forum has been a stroke of genius as it has benefitted both the survivors of violence and the lawyers themselves. Some stories we heard from the survivors was truly heart-rending and too disturbing to speak about here but the gratitude expressed by the survivors and their mothers for the role played by LIF members and Jan Sahas was truly touching.
It was also interesting to discuss where LIF stands vis-à-vis other similar initiatives and what it’s ambitions are. The ambition is to increase the number of members and the coverage of districts but to stay focused at the lower courts. There is always a temptation to get involved at the High Court and Supreme Court levels as it is generally believed that the “big” impacts are made there. But then, as Ashif Sheikh says, the implementation and the violations happen at the grassroots and to a survivor, what matters most is that she gets justice, which can only be at the lower courts. So, while the LIF will look to work with others who work at the higher courts, it’s work will remain at the lower courts. It’s “big” impact will come by increasing its membership and fighting and winning more cases for survivors at the lower courts. And ensuring that the diktats of the higher courts and the laws actually get implemented where they matter most – at the grassroots.
The clarity of thinking and the ambition of Ashif Sheikh and the LIF members is astounding!
April 2018