Nari Adalat: Justice for Women and Women for Justice
Positioned as a social justice system between wronged village women and the formal legal mechanism, the Nari Adalat plays a significant role in bringing about conflict resolution within families, ensuring that the voice of the woman is heard and she lives a life of dignity
Introduction: Towards social justice
M any forms of judicial proceedings exist in India, creating a decentralized system of justice. Alternative local dispute resolution in the sphere of social justice has been practised since historical times—some of these still exist such as the panch, the jati panchayat and the khap panchayat.
In 1950, the concept of nyaya panchayats emerged along with the traditional panchayats. Unlike traditional panchayats, the nyaya panchayats were designed to follow statutory laws, rather than indigenous practices. Other than these, Public Interest Litigation (early 1980s), Lok Adalats (1982), Family Courts (1984), and Legal Services Authority (1987) also emerged gradually.
Lok Adalats were first conceptualized in Gujarat in 1982. Members of the legal profession, college students, social organizations, charitable and philanthropic institutions and other similar organizations are associated with Lok Adalats. The salient features of this system of dispute resolution are participation, accommodation, fairness, expectations, voluntariness, neighbourliness, transparency and lack of animosity. After studying a case, Lok Adalats try to resolve simple differences through mutual understanding and compromise—differences that otherwise may have farreaching consequences.
In 1985, the Government of India constituted the Department of Women and Children and, in 1986, the National Education Policy demonstrated a level of progressiveness with its policy of ‘Education for Women’s Equality’. The Mahila Samakhya Programme, which began in three States, was a direct consequence of this policy. It was influenced by the realization that equality and equity for women could not evolve only through economic development of poor women but had to stem from a process of socio-political empowerment that made women themselves the main agents of their transformation.