NALSA Scheme, 2015
The National Legal Services Authority has a scheme that outlines the necessity of providing access to justice to children known as the - NALSA (Child Friendly Legal Services to Children and their Protection) Scheme, 2015.
It says “"It cannot be questioned that children are amongst the most vulnerable sections in any society. They represent almost one-third of the world's population, and unless they are provided with proper opportunities, the opportunity of making them grow into responsible citizens of tomorrow will slip out of the hands of the present generation......" The said observation made in Salil Bali Vs.: Union of India (UOI) and Anr, 2013VIl AD (S.C.) by Supreme Court goes on to show that it is our obligation to the young generation to open up all opportunities including the legal services for every child to unfold its personality and rise to its full stature, physical, mental, moral and spiritual."
The scheme mandates providing for 'legal awareness' for all children through trained, last mile workers. To support them in this mandate and to allow effective execution even in last mile situations, we would encourage the use of secure, publicly-crafted digital public infrastrucutre such as BBS that can enhance inclusion and implementation to unlock scale.
Additions
Expansion of scope of content to proactively support children's mental health and emotional well-being that can otherwise lead to conflict with law: In addition to Legal Awareness resources, the content shared can be expanded to include resources that would support the overall growth and development of the minor such as mental health awareness and welfare schemes available for children - all of which can act as preventive steps for children at risk of being in conflict with the law.
Additional channels of dissemination of information using technology: The current channels of Legal Awareness can be expanded to include AI interfaces built on the Database (among other validated sources) to share age-appropriate, context-specific information on Children’s rights and support systems available to them pre and post filling. This can enable real time translation of content into all Indian languages for voice or text dissemination, and reduce the burden on human resources necessary.
Leveraging the existing ecosystem to support strained human resources: The designated child welfare officers and other human resources working to assist children, can be supported by the large existing ecosystem of child therapists, counsellors, and frontline responders, who children can anonymously connect with in order to receive the help they need without fear, favour or shame.
Reducing the burden on SLAs, police stations and victims: The burden on SLAs to ensure a safe, smooth experience for minors needing to file cases and interacting with the police can be reduced by allowing pan-India eFilling of FIRs for high urgency cases where the life and safety of minors are threatened, to reduce chances of non-reporting due to fear, favour or shame.
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