Legal aid clinics to benefit HIV positive persons in 16 districts

[Guest guest]

Legal aid clinics to benefit HIV positive persons in 16 districts

CHENNAI, February 10, 2010 . With 11 more legal aid clinics for the HIV

infected to come up in the State on Wednesday, positive persons in 16 districts

of the State will be served by free legal services and counselling.

The districts in which one clinic each will be inaugurated on Wednesday are

Chennai, Dharmapuri, Villupuram, Krishnagiri, Salem, Tiruchi, Tirupur, Karur,

Theni, Tuticorin and Kanyakumari.

To be set up by the Tamil Nadu State AIDS Control Authority in association with

the Tamil Nadu Legal Services Authority, the centres will be manned by an

advocate and counsellor appointed by the latter. Each clinic will be set up at a

cost of Rs.2 lakh, received as funding from the National AIDS Control

Organisation.

The clinics are meant to directly address issues of people living with HIV/AIDS,

especially widows, destitute women and children, with sensitivity. They are a

step in the direction of providing easy access to legal services wherever anyone

has been wronged, or there is a denial of services, according to the policy

note.

" Completely free services will be provided at these clinics. There has been a

great demand from the districts for such clinics, especially since the first

five clinics were able to redress the grievances of people who were infected

with HIV and could not afford legal services, " S. Vijayakumar, Project Director,

TANSACS, said. Mostly, cases concerning property disputes, alimony and

inter-familial disputes come up at the clinics.

So far, the five clinics already set up in Namakkal, Dindigul, Madurai,

Cuddalore and Tirunelveli districts have received a total of 1,913 non-legal and

432 legal petitions. Of these, 270 legal petitions and 1,011 non-legal cases

have been settled, according to official figures. A substantial percentage of

the clients at the legal aid were women. In several instances, disputes have

been settled at the mere instance of the counsellor, even before taking the

legal route, according to officials.

http://beta.thehindu.com/news/cities/Chennai/article103983.ece

[Guest guest]

Dear FORUM,

Re: /message/11169

Would be a good idea to integrate these services in our ICTCs/CCCs? a part-time

advocate visiting and providing legal advice.

Vimla

www.tiss.edu

------------------------------------------------

Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, India

[Guest guest]

Dear forum

Re: /message/11169

I do also agree with the responses regarding the subject.

I have also witnessed the Legal Aid services of SAMPARK coalition (Which Mr.

Pawan has mentioned). Based on those, I do believe that Civil societies can give

effective results in a minimized time frame.

But, unfortunately the persons known to the civil society are only accessing the

services. If SACS and Govt. officials will look the possibilities to create a

referral mechanism for accessing counseling services at Civil societies and

vice-versa for other services to ensure all the needy people can access the

services.

Regards

K. Santosh Kumar

Orissa

+919777503575

e-mail: <santoshsocialworker@...>