The South India Level workshop on PoA Act was conducted for activists, lawyers, academicians, students from among and/or working for the empowerment of the marginalised communities. 23 young participants enriched one another through sharing of their experiences, challenges and opportunities. The collectives came together for the strengthening of the network and building collaborative efforts for effectively implementing PoA Act.
The Chief Guest, Mr B T Venkatesh, senior advocate, High Court of Karnataka addressing the participants said, “We follow Ambedkar but it is more important to read his writings”. He stressed on the importance of building knowledge on Ambedkar’s writings. He inspired and motivated the participants by sharing his own experiences of becoming advocate through facing many hardships in life. The workshop aimed at empowering dalit lawyers to become competent in order to fight against caste atrocities.
Adv Sivamanidan and Dr Siddharth lead the young participants for deeper discussion case studies. It helped the participants actively engage in learning new things by asking questions and also sharing their own experiences of handling caste atrocity cases. There was increased interest among the catalysts throughout the workshop. The resource persons also took a session on how to assist in the interrogation. The focus was on taking the victim into confidence, providing legal assistance and taking all necessary measures in empowering the victim.
The open session with Adv Shriram V, Special Public Prosecutor (SC/ST Atrocity cases) was really beneficial to the young activists and lawyers in clarifying their many doubts in handling atrocity cases in court room. Another important resource person, Adv Rahul Singh, General Secretary, NDMJ-NCDHR explained to the participants on ‘Model Advisories’ which is a guideline book for the various government departments to effectively implement PoA Act. The participants realised the importance of promoting these model advisory guidelines in order to bring justice to victims of caste atrocities.
Fr Francis Balaraj SJ
Social Inclusion & Democracy Unit