Legal awareness or legal consciousness or to say legal literacy may be understood as empowerment of individuals regarding issues involving law which will enable them to demand justice , accountability and effective remedies at all levels.But in the Indian context where basic literacy level is abysmally low,  the goal of attaining a healthy legal literacy rate is still  a long journey to complete, and more so in the case when it comes to women.And from Kashmir to Kanyakumari or from Arunachal to Rajasthan our women live through a state of certain social evils , similar and ceaseless. 
If it is domestic violence inside our homes , outside it is sexual harassment at work place and the newly flourishing sexual crimes against the girl child.  These are all pervasive features and the news of women atrocities could be found strewn over our newspapers in every single day- in corners in inside pages or in the front page in cases of Nirbhaya-like ones where outrage is too loud to disregard. Laws are enacted, get amended after fierce debates in parliament to keep in tune with the changing parameters of crime , but when it comes to  ground level implementation, the picture is the same old. Our women are not simply aware of the remedies and shields our legal framework has to offer and thus  by the process, the very intention of any protective legislation  for them is nullified.
 Legal awareness programmes by the Arunachal Pradesh State Commission for Women ( APSCW), AP State Legal Services Authority and District Legal services authority must keep its tempo to achieve legal literacy.
As we are existing in a male dominated society it would be better to accept the reality that injustice are meted out to our women and will continue. It would be better to wake up from our utopian  dreams of having an equal society and rather arm our women with the legal shields. Seminars, workshops, and things alike perhaps can go a long way in spreading the much needed legal consciousness among women of our state . Basics  like filing a police complaint and what goes into an FIR and a chargesheet or the popular provisions available for  harassments must be made available in a layman’s language , avoiding the legal jargons consciously. That there are a plethora of  legal provisions  is certainly good, sharpening these legal arsenal  at appropriate times is better and best would be to make our womenfolk aware and updated of all these. 

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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