The Government of India has launched the ‘Tele-Law’ programme, aimed at providing legal aid services in rural areas through digital technology.
The Ministry of Law and Justice partnered with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), which anchors the Digital India programme, will be providing legal aid services through its Common Service Centres (CSC) at the panchayat level, spread across the country. The programme is a continuation to the Access to Justice Project to Marginalised Persons implemented by UNDP in 2008.
In the first phase, the ‘Tele-Law’ scheme will be tested as a pilot across 500 CSCs in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar to understand the challenges and make necessary corrections to the scheme before it is scaled up and rolled out across the country in a phased manner.
Under this scheme, every Common Service Centre will engage a Para Legal Volunteer (PLV), who will be the first point of contact for the rural citizens and will help them in understanding the legal issues, explain the advice given by lawyers and assist in further action required in cases as per the advice of the lawyer. Women PLVs will be encouraged and trained under the Scheme. One thousand women PLVs will work for mainstreaming legal aid services through the CSCs. The aim is to promote women entrepreneurship and empowerment and ensure women participation. The selected PLVs will also be provided with relevant training to fulfill their responsibilities effectively.
