PART III Action Research & Resource Centre
We are a collective of lawyers, researchers, social workers, and community engagement fellows. We believe that the fundamental rights in Part III of the Indian Constitution shouldn’t remain a promise on paper but rather a lived reality for everyone, every single day.
Our core work is to uphold the rights guaranteed by the Constitution and address gender-based violence and violence against marginalized communities. Our aim is to empower them to actively participate in building an inclusive and accessible justice system.
We do this through –
- Providing legal aid;
- Conducting legal awareness & capacity building trainings of stakeholders;
- Conducting research, including participatory research with community stakeholders;
- Strengthening community ecosystems by nurturing the leadership of women and youth from marginalized communities through community resource centres.
We are based in Delhi and Bihar, and we work closely with community-based organisations in Uttar Pradesh.
Direct legal support in cases of gender and identity-based discrimination and violence
We provide legal aid to survivors of identity- and gender-based violence and discrimination. This includes representation from the trial court to the Supreme Court, legal advice, documentation support, lawyer referrals, and coordination with District Legal Services Authorities and District Welfare Departments for rehabilitation needs of survivors.
What kinds of cases do we undertake?
Gender-based Violence
- Domestic Violence Cases
- Sexual Violence Cases
- Sexual Harassment Cases
- Acid Attack Cases
- Matrimonial Cases
- POCSO cases
Identity-Based violence
- cases of sexual violence and sexual harassment of a person based on their identity;
- cases of violence against minors
- cases of violence against people from marginalized communities.
- Displacement and Rehabilitation-related cases
We also file RTIs across a wide spectrum of issues to support our legal aid work and to monitor the functioning of authorities and institutions responsible for addressing gender- and identity-based violence.
Training, cross learning, and capacity building
We conduct legal and rights-based capacity-building trainings with women, Dalit youth, members of grassroots organisations, and community leaders across socio-economically marginalised districts of Delhi, Bihar, and Uttar Pradesh.
What Kinds of Trainings Do We Undertake?
We conduct legal and rights-based trainings for members of grassroots organisations, paralegal volunteers, women leaders, domestic workers, Dalit youth, and other community members. These include:
Legal Literacy & Procedure
- Training on key laws like:
Domestic Violence Act, SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, POSH Act, and POCSO Act - Training on the rights of people, protections under the law, and understanding the responsibilities of public authorities
- Step-by-step sessions on filing FIRs & RTIs, navigating police stations, and court mechanisms
Documentation & Evidence-Building
- Training on how to do fact-finding and write a fact-finding report
- Understanding medical, physical, and digital evidence
- Training on drafting complaint letters to various authorities
Gender Sensitisation & Social Justice
- Unpacking gender, caste, class, and labour-based discrimination
- Identifying violence in different spaces – home, workplace, and community
- Training on how to build collective responses and community support systems
Develop Accessible Training Material
We also develop accessible and practical training materials based on our field learnings. These materials ensure that communities can use the law even after the training ends, without having to depend on intermediaries – check training materials here.
Strengthening the community ecosystem through Resource Centres
We nurture leadership among Dalit women and youth as community engagement fellows and build an ecosystem of support for survivors and community members in some of the most socio-economically marginalised rural areas of Bihar.
Areas we are currently working in –
- Danapur
- Phulwari Sharif
- Sampatchak
- Patna Sadar
Work Undertaken
- regular field visits
- community meetings
- community-led surveys
- Capacity-building sessions
- Community-led action projects
- Community-run resource centre
Resource Centres
Savitri Bai Phule Community Resource Centres (Tolas/Bastis)
These centres act as shared neighbourhood spaces where survivors, community members, community leaders, local stakeholders, and community engagement fellows and educators come together. They support families with their cases while strengthening the survivor’s ecosystem – linking it with Collectives, Vikas Mitras, Youth groups, and others who document incidents, navigate legal and governance institutions, connect them to welfare schemes, and follow up on cases.
Since gaps in reading, writing, and language often limit people’s ability to engage with the justice system, the centres also function as co-learning spaces guided by community educators. Here, along with running bridge courses for children to close the learning gap, women and young people learn about law, documentation, evidence-building, and legal processes guided by this network.
Together, they build a local ecosystem where justice is easier to understand, monitor, and pursue – and where the community has ownership over the process.
Part III Online Resource Centre
The Online Resource Centre contains easy-to-understand legal resources. These resources are based on learnings from grassroots and court, documented by our lawyers, social workers, and community engagement fellows, making it accessible to all. Insights from case work, guidance on navigating government systems, and information collected through RTIs and legal processes are available here. It serves as a shared platform where field experience is transformed into practical, usable knowledge for anyone working toward justice – check our online resource centre here
Research, Evidence Building, and Publications
We focus on turning everyday practice and community experience into knowledge that strengthens the justice system. Through the annual Part III Samvidhan Series, we explore how India’s constitutional courts define and defend our fundamental rights. Each volume focuses on a key issue – free speech, protest, equality – and examines how judicial decisions affect people’s daily freedoms – read samvidhan series here
