A panchayat in Kerala is being declared as the first fully legal-literate gram panchayat in the state.
The unique status has been achieved by Chokli gram panchayat at Thalaserry in Kannur district of North Kerala.
Kerala High Court judge and Kerala State Legal Services Authority executive chairman Justice K Vinod Chandran will make the official declaration at a function to the held in the panchayat on November 20.
Over 90 per cent of the around 28,000 people of the panchayat were imparted awareness in various general and profession-related laws in the five-year-long mission that was carried out by the Kannur District Legal Services Authority and Chokli grama panchayat.
The panchayat vice president M O Chandran told DH that the larger objective of the programme was to make the panchayat litigation free by having a legally aware society.
The programme titled 'Niyama Jyothi' (Lamp of law) was launched in September 2016. In the first phase, a group of over 20 lawyers and paralegal volunteers carried out around 250 classes in the panchayat.
Apart from conducting classes on general laws, sections like traders, autorickshaw drivers, ASHA workers, housewives and students were imparted classes on specific laws concerning them, like rent laws, traffic laws, women and children related laws and anti-ragging laws.
In the second phase, door-to-door campaigns were conducted to target elderly people and women who could not move out of their homes. Finally, booklets on laws were distributed to the people.
District Legal Services Authority secretary Ramu Rameshchandrabhanu said that apart from NRIs and those working in other states, almost all the people in the panchayat were covered under the programme and hence the panchayat was being declared as the first complete legally literate grama panchayat in Kerala.
Check out latest DH videos here