Abstract :
Introduction
The term ‘empowerment’ has been used to describe a whole gamut of experiences
– ranging from increased literacy and income to self-reliance, participation
and decision-making; however, ‘legal empowerment’ is distinct from other forms
of empowerment in that the process involves the explicit or implicit use of the
law in improving poor people’s access to legal redress. Legal empowerment strategies
strive to help the poor achieve incremental changes in their lives by bringing
reforms at the state, community and household/individual levels. The principal
goal is to ensure access to justice by the poor and the marginalized through enhanced
legal knowledge and related skills to acclaim entitlements in meaningful
ways. The strategies generally utilized for legal empowerment are legal literacy,
alternative dispute resolution, legal aid and public interest litigation.
The paper reflects on questions as to whether legal empowerment projects
have been able to strike a balance between competing aspects of rights and social
justice and change prevalent structural inequalities and power relations that essentially
perpetuate disempowerment of the poor and disadvantaged groups in the
first place. In other words, do the strategies simply provide ‘quick-fix’ solutions
and promote a politically disengaged model of empowerment or do they assist
beneficiaries in developing an intrinsic understanding of the issues at hand and
the capacity to deal with them in effective ways? Additionally, the paper addresses
the problem of impact assessment and sustainability of legal empowerment strategies.
