Registration Details

Committee for Legal Aid to Poor NGO Organization Members

Committee for Legal Aid to Poor Source Funds

Contact details

Committee for Legal Aid to Poor Key Issues and Operational Areas, Major Activiities & Achivements

Operational Districts: Cuttack

Operational States: ORISSA

AchieveMents: (i) Access to Justice: There is a Legal Service Centre in CLAP, which ensures access to justice. Legal Service Centre spearheads various Legal Support Services, which are aimed at enabling Legal Aid Eligible persons/communities to establish their rights and entitlements. The nature of legal support services offered by Legal Service Centre includes: Legal Aid in Court Proceedings, Legal Advice, Referral Services, Representation, and Public Interest Litigations. The CLAP also operates a Family Dispute Resolution Centre for restoring the children’s right to parental care during the dispute between the couples. This initiative of CLAP is made through Law-Based Conciliation, which offers expert mediation facilities for amicable settlement of disputes between the disputant parties considering the best interest of their children. This kind of settlement of dispute outside the court system enhances the possibility of reunionisation of the couples at the pre-litigation stage. The law-based conciliation is aimed at ensuring the children’s right to parental care in conformity with Article 9, 10, 11, 18, 20 of UNCRC, securing the safe childhood as well as providing the children a conducive family environment to grow.(ii) Realizing Rights: CLAP focuses on two programmes, which ensure the realization of rights of people living in two geographical distinctions i.e. rural area and urban area. These two programmes are called Urban Legal Intervention Programme (ULIP) based in urban set up and Rural Legal Intervention Programme (RULIP) based in rural set up. The projects of CLAP meant for urban areas find expression through ULIP. During the year 2007-08, CLAP implemented a project called Civil Registration for Children in Cuttack City for promotion of civil registration right of children living in slum areas in order to advance the Urban Legal Intervention Programme. Rural Legal Intervention Programme (RULIP) focuses on promotion of good governance in a rural setting. It takes law to the rural household and communities for protection of rural entitlement. The projects of CLAP meant for rural areas find expression through ULIP. During the year 2007-08, a project called Right Path to Education (RPE), which is in operation in Badamba block of Cuttack district, found expression through RULIP. The project focuses on access to pre-primary education, community empowerment and birth registration. (iii) Strengthening Civil Society: CLAP has a Legal Support Network with a membership base of 1000 Registered NGOs spreading all over the State of Orissa, which is considered as the largest NGO network in Orissa in terms of membership affiliation. CLAP facilitates the work of these members through providing legal support services in various forms like capacity building of its Network Members, providing legal resource materials in demystified language and by extending legal services in the form of aid and advice when critical legal issues comes up.(iv) Legal Education: CLAP advances legal education for promotion of legal literacy for creating a viable democracy and realization of human rights. The objective of Legal Education is to create awareness about public interest laws, to spread the knowledge about the laws for public education on human rights and democracy, to disseminate the information relating to law having bearing on human rights and to promote Legal Literacy. The above-mentioned objectives are conditions precedent to the Rule of Law society.(v) Legal Research and Evidence Based Advocacy: Legal Research is one of the core programmes of CLAP. The philosophy behind legal research revolves around the notion that ‘Law is a tool for social reform and issue of governance shall rest on the principles of law’. Thus legal research of CLAP aims at finding deficiencies in the existing laws as well as identifying grey areas in practice of good laws. Such endeavour provides vital inputs to pursue an evidence-based advocacy for bringing legal reform as well as practices. (vi) Campaigns and Movements: CLAP undertakes thematic campaigns, which are very much relevant in the contemporary context and based on social needs. In the year 2007, CLAP launched a specialized campaign in the nomenclature of National Campaign for ECCE Right (NCER) for creating a civil society debate and demand on giving statutory back up to Article 45 of Constitution of India. There is another such endeavour of CLAP called CRC – 7 Campaign that works for universal civil registration of children. Besides these two campaigns, CLAP spearheads a citizen’s movement called Liberated Childhood Movement (LCM) for liberation of children from all forms of slavery and restraint. Another movement based in a rural pocket in Badamba Block called Right Path to Education (RPE) is being undertaken by CLAP for promotion of access to education system and elimination of child labour practices.