The National Commission for Women (NCW), along with National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) has launched a pan-India Legal Awareness Program for Women, "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.

The programme was launched today in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh by Hon'ble Justice UU Lalit, Judge Supreme Court of India and Executive Chairman, NALSA, Chairperson, National Commission for Women Ms Rekha Sharma in the presence of Hon'ble Justice DY Chandrachud, Judge, Supreme Court of India and other dignitaries.

In his address, Justice UU Lalit mentioned the importance of legal awareness programs in promoting women empowerment. He 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," said Justice Lalit.

Speaking on the occasion, Chairperson, NCW, Ms Rekha Sharma 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 said that It has become quintessential for women to be aware of the rights bestowed upon them by constitution and the procedure to remedy the situation or seek justice if they are infringed upon.

The programme aims to cover all the States and Union Territories across the country through regular sessions to make women aware of the various machineries of the justice delivery system available for redressal of their grievances. The project will sensitize 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 utilizing various channels available for the redressal of grievances, i.e., 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-root levelon August 15, 2020.The Pilot project had covered all the districts of 8 States, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Assam.

BY/AS