Covering 314 tea gardens with 564 legal awareness programmes, LCHR has enhanced legal capacity of 14,435 tea plantation labourers in Assam.
LCHR has organized workshops, trainings and consultation programmes on various rights of the people.
LCHR has provided legal consultancy, settled cases of poor and has assisted women in litigations to restore justice to the needy.
Through PIL, LCHR assisted to restore rights of 10,000 forest dwellers in Karbi Anglong district of Assam.
LCHR in collaboration with Assam State Legal Services Authority organized International Human Rights Day and legal awareness programmes on anti-ragging laws, mediation, different welfare and social security schemes, PC-PNDT Act, PWDV Act, human rights and legal rights of persons affected with HIV/AIDS etc. in various places of Assam.
LCHR trained 125 minority women in five villages under the programme, “NAI ROSHNI”, a programme sponsored by the Ministry of Minority Affairs, Govt. of India.
LCHR in association with District Legal Services Authority, Kamrup organized awareness programmes on availability of health care schemes and PC-PNDT Act in 15 villages under Kamrup district of Assam. 686 participants benefited from this programme.
LCHR has created and strengthened advocacy capacity of over 40 voluntary organizations in Northeast India to employ rights based approach to development.
Publication of legal awareness series of LCHR has educated masses in different ways.
In collaboration with the Guwahati High Court Legal Services Committee & District Legal Services Authority and UNICEF, LCHR spread legal awareness among rural people especially on RTE, RTI and others.
LCHR in collaboration with North Eastern Social Research Centre organized a consultation programme on the Armed Forces (Special Power) Act.
LCHR organized many seminars and workshops on Human Trafficking and Public Distribution System.
LCHR had facilitated 3 public hearings in Assam in collaboration with Assam State Commission for Protection of Child Rights.
LCHR assisted 300 educational institutions to obtain Minority Status Certificate from National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions.
LCHR in collaboration with Department of Justice, Govt. of India has been training and sensitizing 400 lawyers empanelled with Legal Services Authorities of 8 States of North East India.
1. The Rajaali Tea Estate is situated 20 kilometers away from Duliajan in Dibrugarh district of Assam in India.
In every ‘Durga Puja’ festival, the management deducted Rupees 40/- from every garden labourer without their consent. It was not just as to take away Rupees 40/- from a labourer whose daily wage was slightly more than a US dollar but was also like making the whole family go hungry for a day. This was going on for several years, which is called “Table Cut”.
The intervention of LCHR made the people aware of their legal rights. With the support of LCHR these people repeatedly went to the manager, expressed their concern over this unlawful act and submitted a memorandum.
Thus, the constant effort of LCHR along with the people and their struggle came out fruitful. The people were confident that this act would not be repeated again from the following year.
2. This is the story of New Adabari Tea Estate which is located in Sonitpur district of Assam in India.
The people of this tea estate were denied of a school bus for their children to go to school. The LCHR visited this place and made the people aware of the fact that, as per the provisions of the Plantations Labour Act, it is their legal right to get access to all the facilities and it is also the duty of the management to provide proper facilities to the labourers’ children so that they could avail of their basic right to education.
The visit of LCHR to this area spread awareness among the people and thus, 85 men and women went to the management and placed their demand for a school bus for their children. They made the manager understand their actual condition and forced him to get the work done. The manager could not further deprive them from getting their basic facilities. After some time, the manager had to listen to them and had to abide by the law by providing them the facilities which they very rightfully deserved.
3. This is a story from the state of Tripura in India.
A Para-legal Person trained by LCHR and one of the Coordinators of LCHR went to the office of Block Development Officer to check the name list of Indira Awas Yojana (IAY) house beneficiaries of the year 2011. They saw that two houses under IAY were sanctioned in the names of two persons but were not received by them. The beneficiaries were neither informed about it by the authority. The Para-legal Person and the Coordinator returned to the village and informed the persons what they had found. Both the persons met the Secretary of the Gaon Panchayat and demanded their houses. The Secretary out of fear told them to open bank accounts in their own names. Soon after opening the bank accounts, Rupees 15,000 each as the first installment were credited in their accounts. The constructions of both the houses have been completed. The names of the beneficiaries were Sunil Debbarma and Mihir Debbarma.
4. The plantation labourers of a tea estate at Ledo in Tinsukia district of Assam experienced exploitation through unlawful deduction of money from their wages.
Further, they were not told by the manager of the estate why their salary was being deducted.The labourers with the fear of losing their job did not bother to enquire about it. LCHR’s interaction with the labourers found out that the labourers were also not aware of the calculation of provident fund scheme. Moreover, they also never got the provident fund statement at the end of each financial year. According to the law, they are entitled to provident fund statement at the end of each financial year.
Thus, LCHR helped them to be aware of their right, i.e. to know the status of their provident fund annually.
5. Inspired by the training of LCHR, Mr. Premnath Sahraj made an attempt on his part to find out how many number of people of Diju Valley Tea Estate got essential commodities under the Public Distribution System.
He wrote an application under the provision of Right to Information Act to the Public Information Officer of the office of Deputy Commissioner, Nagaon district. His application was forwarded to the office of Kaliabor Sub-Division. He collected the information regarding APL, BPL and Antodaya, and found that there were gross anomalies in the system. Mr. Sahraj with the help of other people organized an awareness programme for this purpose. Immediately, after the programme the shopkeepers of the fair price shops changed their attitude. They started giving 3 litres of kerosene oil instead of earlier of 2 litres. Once, Mr. Sahraj went to Mrs. Chombari Ganju’s house and asked her whether she got rice being a BPL card holder. She replied that she had not received anything since the last two years. Mr. Sahraj intervened in this issue and found out from the agent of ration shop that someone else used to take her rice under her card. After the inquiry, the agent of the fair price shop made Mrs. Chombari Ganju avail the BPL card number and also the rice.Thus, it was all due to the intervention of LCHR and its Para-legal Person Mr. Premnath Sahraj that a helpless lady like Chombari Ganju was able to get her due right.
6. In a village called Chatinithol in Tripura state of India,
A mini tube well was installed by the Government but the villagers could not get water from the tube well as it was not connected to electricity. There was no electric transformer for the tube well to function. It remained useless for 6 to 7 months. A Para-legal person trained by LCHR, Mr. Pholchand Santal filed an application under the provision of RTI Act in the electricity department on 21 October, 2011. In within 10 days they got the transformer. Now people can collect water from the tube well.