Why Legal Aid is Important

[Music]

hello

when i was in school i was used to

participating in a lot of competitions

be it essay writing

education painting sports you name it

and i was there not that i was good at

each and every

uh competition but i made a point to

participate in every

every competition when i was 10 or 11

years old i realized a lot of students

around me

started talking about making a career in

the competitions they were good at

students who were good at sports started

talking about being a sports person

students who were good at dancing

started talking about being an artist

i wondered i’m good at public speaking

i’m good at writing

what career i can make out of it but

one thing i was very sure about that i

wanted to do something what i was

talking about

and the primary reason for that was the

topics that i was talking about or which

were given to me

was very inclined towards social

causes and that’s the primary reason why

i had this

instinct of doing something good for the

society

interestingly we never had a debate

competition in our school

and my name was enrolled in an

inter-school debate competition

i was told about it only an hour before

i had no idea of what a debate is

i started preparing myself but i had

very little time

for a kid to go in front of 50 odd

audience

and to talk about something who has no

who has no idea about it

was very difficult but yet i prepared

myself

while my partner was speaking i jotted

down the arguments in my head

and while he stopped i thought i spoke

about it

by the end of the competition it so

happened that we won it

and i realized that this particular

strategy of mine

really worked very well i got interested

in these competitions

and i started participating in more and

more debate competitions

and that is when i realized that being a

lawyer

is something i am made for i studied

hard

and i got into a law school now this is

what happens in law school

you’re very motivated you’re very

passionate you get into the school

and then you realize that there are a

lot of other students

who are as passionate as you are now

this is the thing

about law students we love rules we are

like sheldon coopers in our own way

yes so i started studying and then i

realized that there are a lot of

committees in my college

to other to each and everyone’s passion

in some of the other sense

be it research writing magazine

committee cultural committee

legal aid etc etc now i had this

knack of doing something good for the

society from the talent or the

interest that i have and that is when i

decided

to be a part of the legal aid committee

now the

purpose of legal committee is to help

those

who are fighting the legal battles but

do not have enough resources for it

maybe they’re economically backward

physically differently able

or their minorities and facing some of

the

other social problems i was helping

these people i was trying to file as

much as pro bono lawyers i can

and i was kind of spreading awareness

among them

but there was one particular incident

that happened with me

which changed my entire perspective of a

legal aid committee

one day it so happened that i was

sitting in a canteen with my friend

and having a cup of tea the cup slipped

from the waiter’s hand

and the words he uttered were my

boss will cut this from my salary

that is when i realized that

people who are seeking for legal

services are of course

illegal are the kind of people legal aid

should help

but there are an awful lot of people out

there

who do not know that something wrong is

happening to them

what about them if you are hungry and if

you tell someone that you want food

they will give it to you but if someone

doesn’t know that you’re hungry

how are they supposed to give you food

so addressing the problem

is the key solution for uh eliminating

that problem from the society now this

is not the only reason why people are

afraid from going to

courts or filing their complaint there

is a lot of shame attached

to the fact that someone is going to a

police station

if you file an affair if you go and go

into the police station

for any given reason there will be a lot

of name calling

and uh a lot of problems that will

that you have to face in the society so

people will prefer

staying at home suffering but not going

to the police station

because that means double the suffer

according to them

be it the shame be lack of awareness

we all know that the justice system in

india takes

a lot of years there are a lot of

pending cases of course

there are some convicts or some

criminals who get punished after 30 40

years

people also wonder that so much of

weight

is it worth of getting justice is

getting justice after so much of your

actually called as justice this is the

primary reason

why people start thinking about the

alternatives

they can use to satisfy their

anger their rage which is uh caused

because of injustice that is done to

them

it is a very sad part of a reality

if we talk about legal aid and give

giving services to people

economically or paying for their court

fees it is one part of the problem

but if we do not address the people who

hesitate

reaching the court who has it expressing

their problems

then only i will say the half

portion of the problem is solved and not

the first half

that is one part which legal aid

committees or legal aid clinics

throughout the country should look at

that is addressing the problems people

are so

tired at the end of the day with their

work with their professional life

better daily wage earner or a middle

class person

that they do not have effort they do not

have enough energy

to take the effort to go to the court

and fight for the justice

each day every day can someone afford

giving up their daily wage salary and

coming to the court even if someone else

is paying for their court fee

no he will obviously choose going to

work and earning for his family

men will address all these issues and

solve this and also help people who

approach the court of law

it is then there will be a balance or i

would say it is then

that we will start working towards 100

percent

helping or aiding people who are facing

problem

in getting justice access of justice is

not just about court fees

access of justice is also making people

realize

that they need the access to justice and

this is what my dear friends

is what i think the aid that we require

before taking legal services

or helping people in accessing

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