ITANAGAR,  Aug 10: The Arunachal Pradesh State Legal Services Authority (APSLSA) hosted a national webinar for stakeholders today, aimed at discussing and reviewing the findings of the ambitious project titled "Synergy between Customary Practices of the Traditional Village Council System & Formal Laws of India." This initiative, referred to as a Legal Literacy cum Training project, has a profound objective of spreading legal awareness in rural Arunachal by providing training to the traditional Heads of the Village Councils, commonly known as Gaon Burahs and Gaon Burihs, on various laws and schemes of public importance.
The collaborative project, jointly carried out in the state by APSLSA and the Department of Justice, Ministry of Law & Justice, Government of India, under the DISHA initiative (Designing Innovative Solutions for Holistic Access to Justice), recently reached its conclusion. The webinar served as a platform for an insightful discussion and reflection on the learnings and outcomes of the project.
Budi Habung, Registrar, Gauhati High Court, Itanagar Permanent Bench;  Yomge Ado, Member Secretary APSLSA; and Chandra Mohiyar, Director, Department of Justice, were present at the event. Representatives from various stakeholder groups such as GBs, Women's organizations, Legal Practitioners, and the Indian Institution of Public Administration (IIPA) also participated actively in the discussions.
Throughout the event, a series of deliberations revolved around the significance of the project and the role of the GB institution in the promotion of Legal Empowerment and Access to Justice in rural Arunachal. These discussions shed light on the project's relevance and its potential to empower local communities through legal literacy.
The culmination of this national webinar signifies the successful completion of a comprehensive 2-year APSLSA-DOJ campaign titled "Synergy between Customary Practices… and Formal Laws…" which was initially announced in September 2021. The campaign's primary aim was to provide training to 500 GBs from 13 districts of the state. Impressively, the project exceeded expectations by training 554 GBs from 417 villages. Moreover, over 5000 villagers indirectly benefited from the project as trained GBs, under the "Each One Teach Ten" campaign – a parallel legal awareness initiative conducted alongside the Synergy project – imparted legal knowledge to members of their respective communities.
The webinar concluded with an address by Chandra Mohiyar, Director, DOJ, during which he reaffirmed the Department's unwavering commitment to continuing and advancing this project into its next phase.

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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