The Congress party has opened legal aid cells at each of its State units to reach out to women undertrial prisoners languishing in jails across the country.
“The State has mechanism of providing legal aid, but it hardly reaches the affected women because of lack of awareness or lack of resources. So, as a party, we felt we have additional responsibility other than our political duties,” Rajya Sabha MP and President of Congress’s Legal, Human Rights and RTI department Vivek Tankha told The Hindu.
The legal aid cells — first of a kind for the party — have become operational from last month. “We are approaching each State’s bar associations too, to chip in. We were in Chennai on Monday to open the cell,” he added.
The move follows urging from Congress president Rahul Gandhi. In a letter to the legal cell last month, Mr Gandhi expressed concern especially at the plight of undertrial women prisoners.
“The women and children born to them in prison are extremely vulnerable to the human rights violations and therefore Mr. Gandhi urged us to reach out to them,” Mr Tankha added.