Hello: As guest-editor of a forthcoming issue of *InfoChange Agenda* themed 'Access to Justice in India', I am writing to invite contributions to the issue.
*InfoChange Agenda *has been conceived as a quarterly dossier that informs civil society on crucial issues of sustainable development and social justice, diversity and pluralism issues that are being pushed into the margins. It is designed to enable concerned citizens in India/ South Asia to marshal salient information, facts, figures, perspectives and reportage, so that they can clarify their ideas and participate in drawing up their own agenda for a more equitable and sustainable world. You can find more information on *InfoChange Agenda* and access the previous issues at www.infochangeindia.org The innovation of the marvel called ‘Public Interest Litigation’ (PIL) in the 1980s revolutionized the idea of ‘access to justice’ in India. It marked a moment in India’s judicial history that recognized the ways in which marginality adversely impacts on people’s ability to make use of the law to safeguard their rights. In the last two decades, how has the idea of PILs generally, and access to justice specifically undergone a transformation, in the face of an India that opened up to Liberalization, Privatization and Globalization from 1991 onwards? Have we been able to build on the innovation, or has it been abused/ subverted in the name of facilitating the poor and disadvantaged to more effectively engage with the law? Has the liberalization of the economy broadened the gap between the marginalized and the law? This issue of *InfoChange Agenda* will attempt to provide a background to the development of PILs and legal aid in India since the 1980 and then trace the contours of its development post liberalization. It will document the various strategies that human rights groups, lawyers and people’s movements have employed to use this tool to address rights concerns across a whole gamut of issues from prisoner’s rights to the environment. It will also address the rise of bodies like Khap Panchayat’s as perverse forms of extra-constitutional adjudication mechanisms that have received both societal and state sanction. Finally, the volume will address the question of the futures of access to justice in India looking at innovations beyond the PIL like fast-tract to virtual courts, arbitration, jan sunwais, lok adalats, the RTI and the recent Gram Nyayalay Act. Indicative themes are as follows: 1. 1. *Public Interest or Private Interest? PILs today* 1. *Poverty and Access to Justice: Legal Aid in India* 2. *Should “Terrorists” be defended?* 3. *Marketing Justice: The Privatisation of Human Rights* 4. *Access Denied: Law and Marginality* 5. *Righting Wrongs: Access to Justice and RTI* 6. *The Tragedy of Criminal Justice Reforms* 7. *Whither Judicial Activism? The Crisis in the Courts* 8. *NHRC: All Bark, No Bite?* 9. *30 million and counting: How do we climb the mountain of backlogs? Innovations in enhancing Access to Justice* 10. *Death Penalty: Suffocating Access to Justice* 11. *The Supreme Court’s ‘Conservative Turn’: Supporting the Market, Disadvantaging People* 12. *Tort Law: Is Compensation good enough remedy?* 13. *Litigating the Environment* 14. *Post-conflict Justice: Peace, without Rights?* 15. *SMS Justice: The Use of New Media* 16. *Good Governance: A panacea to inacess?* 17. *Indigenous Justice: Primitive or Progressive?* 18. *Strategy Talk: How to use access legislations like the NREGA or DV Act?* 19. *How to file a PIL: an ordinary person’s guide* The themes are not limited to these. You are welcome to write on anything else that is connected with the broader theme of 'Access to Justice in India'. Since *InfoChange Agenda* is not an academic journal, I request you to use minimal footnoting and make the pieces journalistic or feature-like. Please try and stick to a word limit of 2000-3000. The Centre for Communication and Development Studies (CCDS) that publishes the journal will be happy to pay an honorarium of Rs. 2000 for selected contributions. Please note the following timeline -- *Abstract Submission Deadline: June 30, 2010 Announcement of accepted abstracts: July 30, 2010 Article Submission Deadline: October 30, 2010 Tentative date for publication: February 2011.* Email your submissions to [email protected] with 'Agenda: Access to Justice' in the subject line. For any clarifications, please feel free to write to me. Warmly, Oishik Sircar -- OISHIK SIRCAR [email protected] [email protected] -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "humanrights movement" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/humanrights-movement?hl=en.
