Access to justice: A Development Challenge in India ?

What does a parent from one of India’s historically marginalized castes do when his child is not allowed to sit with others in class? Or, if during the mid-day meal at school, his dishes are kept separate from others? Whom does a young mother turn to when a health worker refuses to enter her house? Where does she go when the village headman refuses to give her husband work under a mandatory job guarantee scheme? These are but a few examples of the harsh reality of everyday life for millions of poor and marginalized people in India.

Clearly, development cannot be achieved without justice. While India’s government has a number of programs to improve the lives of the poor, most marginalized people don’t know what they are entitled to, nor do they have the power and access to ensure that they get it. Not surprisingly, India has been promoting access to justice for marginalized people for the past five years and is in the midst of drawing up an ambitious program to modernize its courts. These can be an exceedingly long, complex and expensive process, with cases dragging on in the courts for decades.
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Law, Justice and Development Week 2011 - Innovation and Empowerment for Development, November 14-17, Washington, DC

 

Senior officials from International Financial Institutions, international development practitioners, government officials, lawyers and judges, scholars and academics, representatives from civil society, and World Bank Group staff convened at the World Bank Headquarters for the Law, Justice and Development Week 2011 to explore how legal innovation and empowerment contribute to development. The event brought together over 800 external participants. More 

Global Forum for Law, Justice and Development

The Global Forum on Law, Justice and Development (GFLJD) will fill a gap by providing an innovative and dynamic international system of knowledge exchange to connect World Bank Regions & Networks, client countries, think-tanks, regional and international organizations, International Financial Institutions, and civil society organizations with relevant research and practice to improve development outcomes. The project provides targeted audiences a coherent, sustained program of collaborative research and special pilot projects to accelerate knowledge dissemination and use.

Thirty-eight partners (International Organizations, International Financial Institutions, Academia, Judiciary, Central Banks, Civil Society Organizations, and Foundations) have signed the letters of endorsement while many other organizations are considering joining the Global Forum by the deadline which has been postponed from December 31, 2011 to January 15, 2012. More