A Study of Nari Adalats and Caste Panchayats in Gujarat
Operating as informal, conciliatory, non-adversarial ‘courts’ with complete lay participation, the Nari Adalats and their variations have initiated a new regime of justice for women.
“We came to the courts and are trapped
We have come mid-way and are stuck
My sisters, find me a way out
We fear the courts, we fear the police
My sisters, find me a way out.”
T he energetic and voluble ‘judges’ of the Nari Adalats (women’s courts) sing this song during review meetings, imitating the tone of the victims—often members of their sangh (collective)—who come to them. They remind themselves, through the song, that they have a special place in the hearts of these victims and in the arena of gender justice. Decentralized, local, alternative dispute-resolution systems in the realm of social justice have, in India, developed from the traditional and existing forums of village panches, caste panchayats and gynati panchayats into more recent platforms focused on ‘justice for women’ such as Nari Adalats, which emerged in the mid-nineties from a rural women’s collective as a spontaneous response and reaction to domestic violence and gender abuse.