The National Commission for Women (NCW), along with the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) on Saturday launched a pan-India Legal Awareness Program for Women titled “Empowerment of Women through Legal Awareness” to impart practical knowledge about legal rights and remedies provided under various women related laws, thereby making them fit to face the challenges in real-life situations, said a press release by Ministry of Women and Child Development.
Speaking on the occasion, Rekha Sharma, Executive Chairperson, National Commission for Women, said, “a large section of society is still unaware about the forms of aids that are available to them and we seek to rectify this situation with one step at a time or in this case with one camp at a time covering all the districts in the country.” She added, “It has become quintessential for women to be aware of the rights bestowed upon them by the constitution and the procedure to remedy the situation or seek justice if they are infringed upon.”
Justice UU Lalit said, “women empowerment will come through such awareness programs and I am very proud to say that in association with the National Commission for Women, NALSA has been organising these awareness programs for women.”
“The nature of these programs initially has been that we are training the teachers those who in turn will be training various women in cross-sections of the society and will make them aware of their legal rights,” he added.
The programme aims to cover all the states and union territories across the country through regular sessions to make women aware of the various machinery of the justice delivery system available for redressal of their grievances.
The project will sensitise women and girls about their rights as provided under the various laws including the Indian Penal Code.
The project will also make them aware of the procedure of approaching and utilising various channels available for the redressal of grievances, that is, the Police, the Executive, and the Judiciary.
Earlier, the Commission had launched a pilot project ‘Legal Awareness Programme’ in collaboration with NALSA for women at the grass-roots level on 15 August 2020. The pilot project had covered all the districts of eight states: Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Assam.
The programme was launched on Sunday in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh by Supreme Court judge Justice UU Lalit, and Rekha Sharma, Executive Chairman, NALSA, Chairperson, National Commission for Women in the presence of Supreme Court judge Justice DY Chandrachud, and other dignitaries.