Srinagar: Enhancing legal literacy at grassroots can go a long way in transforming the lives of people, Vice-Chancellor of University of Kashmir Prof Talat Ahmad said on Wednesday.
Inaugurating a two-day legal literacy orientation programme, organised by the varsity’s State Resource Centre as part of its Legal Literacy Project (LLP), Prof Talat said that equipping common masses with broad know-how of legal rights and processes is an important way to promote legal literacy at grassroots. He said the topics chosen for the two-day deliberations, including domestic violence, drug de-addiction and consumer protection, call for greater awareness among the masses to enable them to avail legal remedies at hand as and when required.
“Lack of awareness among people about their legal rights and duties, and the legal processes in vogue, is often seen as an impediment to the access to justice,” the Vice-Chancellor said, urging the resource persons to disseminate information about legal literacy among the masses.
KU Registrar and Director SRC Dr Nisar Ahmad Mir underlined various literacy and awareness programmes underway at the SRC which, he said, is primarily mandated with providing technical and academic support to literacy programmes in Jammu and Kashmir.
“This two-day programme is an interactive one to equip the district-level resource persons with knowledge of legal literacy tools and practices for onward dissemination of the same among the masses, and also to address the difficulties, if any, they face in the process,” Dr Mir said.
He said the SRC has already conducted several literacy programmes and activities across Jammu & Kashmir.
Post-inaugural session, Head and Dean Faculty of Law, Prof Muhammad Ayoub and Dean School of Open Learning Prof Mushtaq Ahmad delivered special lectures on various aspects of legal literacy and its importance. The LLP has been assigned to the SRC in 2017 by the Department of Justice, Ministry Law and Justice, Government of India, for providing legal access to justice to the marginalised sections of the society.
