Why our legal aid system needs more female paralegals, better monitoring

Nearly 80% of India's population qualifies for legal aid, but since 1995, only 15 million have been provided legal services and advice by the Legal Services Institutions

In a small town in Jhansi, around 300 km southwest of Uttar Pradesh’s capital Lucknow, 14-year-old Seema* was sexually assaulted in February 2019. Instead of filing a case, the police tried to settle it through a discussion between the family and the accused. A First Information Report (FIR) was filed only after the accused raped Seema a second time, but the FIR was weak and did not include the relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) and the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Under India’s legal aid law,