Ministry of Law & Justice, Government of India and UNDP under its 'Access to Justice Project' (A2J), have commissioned a 'Pilot Project of Legal Literacy Campaign in District Barabanki' of the State and entrusted this very specialised and focused task to Deen Dayal Upadhayay State Institute of Rural Development (SIRDUP).
The objective of the pilot is two-fold, namely – (i). spreading legal literacy and awareness among general masses to access formal justice delivery system; and (ii). to avail various entitlements created by the Government of India GOI and/or the State Government through various social legislations, laws & rules and the like. The coverage of the Legal Literacy Project spans 10 Development Blocks in district Barabanki of Uttar Pradesh.
The coverage of the Legal Literacy Project spans 10 Development Blocks in district Barabanki of Uttar Pradesh, as elucidated below ---
1. Block Banki : 62 Gram Panchayats
2. Block Masauli : 56 Gram Panchayats
3. Block Dewa : 88 Gram Panchayats
4. Block Harakh : 76 Gram Panchayats
5. Block Fatehpur : 99 Gram Panchayats
6. Block Haidergah : 72 Gram Panchayats
7. Block Sidhaur : 96 Gram Panchayats
8. Block Nindura : 88 Gram Panchayats
9. Block Trivediganj : 66 Gram Panchayats
10. Block Ramnagar : 76 Gram Panchayats
The project conducted in three stages; Preparatory, Implementation and Assessment & Validation
The first step of the project was to conduct Base Line Study for Gap Identification and Needs Assessment in district Barabanki. The sample size was 800 respondents including households, grass root workers and PRIs etc. The objective was to assessing the level of legal, procedural & entitlement awareness among masses, Identifying gaps hindering the spread of legal literacy among the masses and Demarcating benchmarks with regard to various aspects. The second step was to Prepare and Customize the Training Modules, Literature and IEC Materials. Keeping in view a State level Validation Workshop was conducted for finalization of training and IEC material was develop.
The beginning of the implementation phase will be with a State Level Launching Workshop, with the purpose of bringing about awareness among the stakeholders and sensitize them about the objectives, strategy and methodology of the Legal Literacy campaign. The second step will be District Level Launching Workshop of district level officials, legal practitioners, PRIs, NGOs/ CSOs, etc. A five days ToT of District Level Resource Persons will be organized at SIRD, who in turn will train the Village Level Resource Persons (VLRP) at Block level.
Based on the Base Line Survey, bench marks for various activities have been fixed, mass education and awareness literature and other materials consisting of booklets, pamphlets, hand bills, brochures, posters, street plays, docudramas, short films and theme song have been prepared. The strategy and methodology of the campaign have been designed which will consist of mass awareness activities through well equipped mobile van and live performances apart from distribution of literature and other material in all 686 Gram Panchayats of the project area. Additionally 100 Mass Awareness Events of the duration of 3-4 hrs each, will be organized at central places in groups of 8-10 Gram Panchayats.
At the end of the campaign, a Draft Performance Report out lining achievements against various milestones will be prepared, and submitted for Impact Assessment / End Line Study Team. On the basis of assessment report, the second draft performance report will be presented, and presented in the final Validation WS proposed to be organized at SIRD for developing a replicable module. After due deliberations in the WS, the Replicable Module will be finalized and submitted to Ministry of Law and justice, Department of Justice, Government of India.