Enhancing Accessibility to Legal Aid Services in Rural Jaipur, Rajasthan: A Survey-Based Study

Abstract

Thus, legal aid is a right guaranteed by law in India and is mainly targeted at delivering access to justice for marginalized and disadvantaged people disregarding their socioeconomic status. However, due to ignorance, the proximity of their dwellings to the rural setting, limited budgets, and concern over the quality of services, rural folk face great hurdles when they seek to make use of these services. This paper takes recourse to primary survey data to examine the utility and accessibility of legal aid services across rural Jaipur District, Rajasthan. It thereby identifies major issues that confront rural populations-the relative lack of awareness about offered services and practical barriers, such as the cost of transport and travel distance to legal aid clinics. Some of the reservations concerning the competency of legal aid attorneys might act as a disincentive to utilizing legal aid service. The report provides with the recommendations including setting up mobile legal aid clinics in the remotest parts of the country and raising the education level of the legal aid attorneys with funds for traveling as possible solutions to these concerns. This data was graphed out in pie charts to visually present survey data and outline patterns that are pivotal to understanding why these changes are necessary to improve access to justice by rural residents in Jaipur.