Legal Literacy Program @ Marcela Free Legal Aid Cell

Marcela Free Legal Aid Cell organised an awareness program on Prevention of Child Abuse on 12th February 2017 at Panchayat Hall Amona, Amona Goa. The program was held in association with Childline, an NGO working on Child Rights in Goa.

Ms Pranita Calangutkar, MA in psychology, working at Childline as counselor, was the resource person. She was accompanied by Childline volunteer Mr. Pawan Kumar. Amona Panchayat Panch Mrs.Ujwala Sawant also attended the program.

Ms. Pranita spoke on the various rights of the child including, right to survival, rights to development and right to protection. The various abuses on children were discussed and an educational video was shown.

Mr. Tanmai Gawas, Cell Member compered the program and Ms Vignesha Shet, the student in-charge proposed the vote of thanks. Almost 70 people attended the program

Legal Literacy on Mundkar and Tenancy Law - Marcela Free Legal Aid Cell

The Marcela Free Legal Aid Cell of V.M.Salgaocar College of Law organised a legal literacy programme on Mundar and Tenancy Laws in Goa on 01 February 2016, at Talem, Betki village, Goa. The chief guest of the said programme was Mrs. Bhavana Naik, Panch of Betki and the speaker was Dr. Naguesh Colvalkar. Dr. Kim Couto, the faculty in charge of Marcela legal aid cell attended the programme.

The programme started with the lighting of the traditional lamp.

Miss. Vishaya shet (Student in charge), gave brief introduction of the cell and its activities. Dr. Colvalkar spoke on the Mundkar Act, in that he explained about how to get your name enrolled in the I & IV form as mundkar and also told about the rights of the mundkar of which the people of that village were unaware of. As the topic went further several questions were raised by the people, one of the questions from the audience was "Is there any solution to declare mundkar now as many years have passed and they have not done anything to declare themselves as mundkar?" On answering the question, He then moved to the Agricultural Tenancy Act, he explained about how the Act was enacted and also narrated the 5th amendment to the Act. Several questions were raised during this topic also, which were all explained by Dr. Colvalkar. Around 50 villagers attended the programme.

As we had decided to select a part of the village for undertaking village visits, and provide legal aid, the concept was explained to the villagers by Mr. Vithal Naik (cell member), where he told about how Marcela Cell would shift to  Talem ward and Gimona for one month and try to solve most of their problems. We got a good response for this concept of village visit and all of the audience showed interest in this village visit.

Finally Mrs. Rashmi Lambor (cell member) proposed vote of thanks. The students members certify that "Truly this was a good programme because it actually benefited the people and they were willing to help us to help them and the concept of “village visit” was very well appreciated."