DIGITAL JUSTICE FOR THE MARGINALIZED: BRIDGING INDIA’S LEGAL AID DIVIDE

This Blog has been authored by Ms. Shreshta and Ms. Jeevitha C (Tamil Nadu National Law University)

Introduction:

Access to Justice is a significant perception to be embraced by the administration, while the
core objective of a welfare state is to ensure all persons are treated equally. When access to
Justice becomes a problem to certain classes or sections of society, the picture of legal aid to
such vulnerable classes enters the scene. Being a lifesaver of economically weaker sections and
socially backward classes, Article 39Ai of the Indian Constitution strives to shield them from
the inaccessibility of legal services and ensure greater as well as wider protection of those in
need. The recent digital drive of legal aid services across the nation has sparked deliberations
on the efficacy and competence of justice delivery to the disadvantaged.
Digital legal aid, apart from its benefits and advanced technologies, needs to be seen from the
perspective of the vulnerable and victimized. One such group, for instance, the tribal
communities, deserves to be drawn attention to, because of the depleting legal aid services to
the tribal population, and the sufferings faced by them. The National Legal Services Authority
(NALSA), in its suggestions in the NALSA (Protection and Enforcement of Tribal Rights)
Scheme of 2015ii, had recommended the deployment of efficient advocates paid well by the
Government, as legal aid advocates for the Tribal people.

Shortcomings in prevailing schemes:
Digitalization of legal aid services has been struggling to meet the needs of the tribal population
in India, and the institutional efficiency is staggeringly low in terms of implementation. The
immediate question that arises next is what the existing Government’s initiatives are to raise the
numbers. The launch of virtual legal aid through Para legal Volunteers by the Government of
India is practically not workable enough. Initiatives including Digital India Initiative, Pradhan
Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan for rural India digital divide, Internet Saathi Program
and many more attempts to bridge the digital divide between rural and urban populations.
However, few efforts are the efforts undertaken for raising digital literacy as well as awareness
among the tribal population of India. It is argued in this article that these initiatives are not
effective enough to address the needs of the vulnerable. It takes the stance that the mere
existence of the schemes does not yield anything, and their implementation has to be taken care
of, on a serious note. For example, in the Nyayabandhu scheme launched by the Government
for legal aid, data is unavailable for a few states, like Tamil Nadu. Similarly, the Tele Law
initiative launched by the Department of Justice, Government of India, covers all kinds of
people, yet the number of registered cases, though great, is not really diluted to tribal population
in the nation. For example, in Tamil Nadu, the Tele law scheme contains data for the
“aspirational districts” in the country, could be effectively extended to tribal belts regionally,
so as to benefit the disadvantaged and improve focus on tribal community empowerment. Data
depict that the Government has launched several Common Service Centers (CSCs) in the
certain districts of each state, which are classified as vulnerable or backward districts. The
criteria for such a classification not being known, it becomes difficult for the people in other
districts to access the services of legal aid.

CSCs in India moreover, are as much as 2.5 Lakhs, and 1.4 Crore cases have been registered
under Tele law till date. Notably, CSCs are centers established for generic purposes including
aadhar activation and similar digital assistance irrespective of the client, yet narrowed down
neither to legal aid services nor for exclusive tribal benefits, suggesting that implementation of
schemes is a standstill. Even more worrisome is the appointment of legal aid advocates at legal
aid clinics across the CSCs of the country, especially in tribal areas where such advocates are
essential to be passionate as well as paid enough in order to perform their jobs.

However, this persists to be a problem till date, due to the systematic obstructions and hurdles
to appoint such advocates. Relying on the survey taken at the Surguja Tribes at the State of
Chattisgarh, it is found that advocates are being appointed for the Legal Aid Clinics only
through the district bar, thereby leaving no scope for passionate lawyers and interested
advocates across the state. The fact that there are no incentives for individual applications, and
the applications are being confined only to the bar is something that needs to be rethought. This
discourages the advocates from duly representing the vulnerable section, and one could strongly
say that several of the pending cases concerning illegal arrests and detention among tribal
population contain this as a primary problem.

Aftermath Review:
Having the aforementioned issues in mind, one needs to delve into the aspect of what
consequences such issues could lead to, when existent in tribal and vulnerable spaces of the
country. Basically, tribal groups in India remain one of the most vulnerable populations that
struggle to live a peaceful life in today’s world. Illiteracy, unfamiliarity with regional as well
as official languages, unawareness about their rights and duties, geographical as well as
logistical hurdles and many more factors undoubtedly contribute to the issues faced by such
people. An alarming number of maternal deaths, rapes, cannibalism etc. come of the lack of
efficient legal aid in remote areas. In this scenario, digitalizing legal aid, i.e., digitalizing a
system which is already ineffective, renders the entire purpose of the Legal Services Authorities
Act defeated. Chief Justice Surya Kant had recently appraised a mobile app for legal aid,
which is currently under development, claiming that the phone app will facilitate efficient
measures to protect the legal rights of vulnerable communities, including tribals and laborers.
He had emphasized the pros of developing an exclusive app for tribal minorities, where voice,
video and text appear in every scheduled language and explain rights and entitlements. He
focused on the inclusion of AI-based technological drive, which would enable legal aid by
connecting para-legal volunteers and advocates across. Yet the aspects of low digital literacy,
availability of internet, fund allocation by the Centre, etc., are poignant to be endorsed.

Strategic Interventions:
Digital legal aid is a necessary platform to bring better access to legal justice for the tribal
communities. When looking into the digitalization of legal aid on a global level, it is seen as a
way of diminishing existing injustices and biases across the world. Technological advancement
plays a crucial role in day-to-day activities across the globe. Effective steps are being taken by
the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to develop the digitalization of legal aid
in several countries. The UNDP’s work on the area of rule of law and human rights emphasizes
that digital tools can improve justice sector efficiency, transparency and access to justice.

i)Incorporation of AI tools:
According to the Press Information Bureau (PIB) 2025 Tribal Day report, 10.42 crore is the
population of the tribal community residing in India. While catering to individualistic needs of
each indigenous person is strenuous, use of emerging AI tools could be incorporated in the
service models, thereby rendering a personalized and flexible legal aid services to the
disadvantaged, through collaborations with Information Communication and Technology
Companies such as Arctic IT and effectively utilise Tribal Co-operative Marketing
Development Federation of India (TRIFED)’s tech for tribal initiative to provide legal aid. AI
tools feature exclusive facets inclusive of language specific variations, personalized settings
etc. making it easier for tribals to access the portals. At primary levels, the Jharkhand State
Legal Services Authority (JHALSA) initiated incorporated Legal Literacy Clubs at school
levels to help the children access legal services without strenuous mechanisms. Similar Legal
Literacy Clubs are advised to be manifested in each school of every tribal belt in the nation,
which could educate on the use to ensure vulnerable students are elevated to an advantaged
position.

ii)Strategic expansion of SAMVAD scheme:
awareness and provide legal services in Tribal areas. Through this scheme legal awareness
programme, legal services camps and legal literacy sessions are conducted based on the motto
of door-to-door outreach. It is highly recommended that NALSA promotes digital justice along
with legal aid awareness enumerated via SAMVAD. The operational frameworks of this scheme
incorporate several campaigns for aspects of legal aid, however, keeping in mind digitalization
drive, special campaigns on digital legal aid would help promote effective legal aid services in
digitalized mechanisms. This would help to achieve the objective of the scheme as well as to
empower digital awareness of tribal population. According to the India Justice Report 2024
2025, the share of legal aid in the justice budget is 00.43 %. For 2024-25, NALSA has allocated
the states only 37% of funds out of the funds. The rest 63% of the funds, exclusively allocated for
legal aid, is not depicted anywhere in the data, raising serious concerns about accountability and
misuse.

iii) Mobile legal aid:
The concern of remote accessibility of legal aid services, both digital and physical accessibility,
deserves attention in this regard, wherein mobile legal aid services could be introduced in
regional levels. Inspiration is derived from states like Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, which
constantly follow mobile legal aid at local levels, enabling tribal populations to access legal aid
at their doorstep. Apart from digital legal aid, mobile legal aid services consisting of mobile
vans along with mobile courts could positively benefit the interests of the vulnerable. An
increase in the number of legal aid centers is one option, while providing access to digital legal
aid to even remote areas could surpass the difficulty of executing the former suggestion, which
also goes in accordance with the preamble of Legal Services Authorities Act affirming the
commitment to ensuring equal opportunities and access to justice for all deserving individuals.

iv) Digital literacy:
Besides, mobile apps such as the mobile app of the National Human Rights Commission do not
feature vernacular languages, except Hindi, making tribal citizens of the nation clueless,
thereby hopeless. Such a scenario being in existence, the introduction of digital legal aid aiming
to cover all regions of the country defeats its own purpose. Insofar as the tribal population is
concerned, there is almost zero awareness or digital literacy. For example, Tripura’s literacy
rate is around 97 percent, yet the digital literacy percentage is less than 7%. According to data
from Dattopant Thengadi National Board for Workers Education & Development Ministry of
Labour & Employment, Govt. of India, only 38% of households in India are digitally literate.
The 78th Round of National Sample Survey indicates that the digital literacy is only 21% on
average for men and women in India. Notably, the community/group having the least digital
literacy is the Scheduled Tribes (ST) community, wherein only 15% of the tribal population in
rural areas are digitally literate. This being the scenario, setting up of proximate and remotely
accessible e-seva centers coupled with user-friendly legal aid advocates would empower
confidence among the indigenous groups on justice delivery mechanisms.

Conclusion:
India’s legal aid policies could very well derive inspiration from other well-performing nations,
say Ukraine, wherein digitally enhanced mobile apps provide services specific to the
contemporary developments across the region. Users are given the opportunity to click for legal
aid whenever and wherever they require. They frequently conduct Zoom conferences to assist
people on how to use the portals. This being the current framework, the test of beneficial
operations of digital legal aid schemes and policies undoubtedly shows a negative result. It is
even advisable to frame effective policies exclusively for digital legal aid, coupled with
guidelines and handbooks on procedure to apply, compliance mechanisms, accessibility
regulations etc.

i INDIA CONST., art 39A.
ii National Legal Services Authority, NALSA (Protection and Enforcement of Tribal Rights) Scheme, 2015.
iii Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987.