& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

Directorate to provide legal aid for poor soon

Says law minister

Staff Correspondent
The government is going to set up a directorate soon to provide legal assistance for the poor people who truly deserve the aid.
With the name of 'Directorate of Legal Aid’, it will work under the law ministry as a regulatory body to provide legal assistance for the poor across the country.
Law Minister Shafique Ahmed revealed this to reporters after a panel discussion on legal framework to combat violence against women and girls tided 'Women and girls 1st! Combating violence, ensuring rights' organised by Dutch embassy at a city hotel yesterday.
All the measures to set up a directorate of legal aid under the law ministry’ have already been taken. The directorate will provide legal assistance to the people who don't get their legal rights due to economic hardship,” he said.
Elaborating the matter, the minister said the directorate will have all die necessary things that a directorate should be and will have their committees in every courts of the country under the district judge.
“Legal assistance that were given earlier was an unwritten arrangement and now it will be given under this directorate so that there will be a day-to-day monitoring on the matter,” he added. It has been done to give an institutional shape, he added.
“This has been done in order to get a feedback about how many people are being given assistance, who are getting assistances and which sort of assistance is being given,” he said, adding that several NGOs are helping them in establishing the directorate.
Speaking on the occasion as the chief guest, Shafique said most of the women, especially the niral ones, are not aware of their legal rights and even many of them do not want to seek legal aid whatever the magnitude of the torture they face.
“The reason is basically economic," he said, adding that violence against women will not stop until the society achieves progress in education and have a sound economic development.
The minister further said that there are many law’s in the country, but the question is how effectively the laws are being
implemented.
He said an initiative to provide marriage registration for Hindu women is underway as the women of the community often fail to enforce their marriage rights legally due to absence of die registration system.
Hie Netherlands Ambassador Bea ten TUsscher said violence against women is a universal phenomenon and it transcends all boundaries and comes at exorbitant human and economic costs.
“It lowers economic productivity, drains resources from public services and employers and reduces human capital formation,” she said, adding that violence against women is widespread in Bangladesh, though many efforts are being undertaken to address the problem.
Bea urged the government to endorse the draft Domestic Violence Bill and Guidelines for Sexual Harassment' as an important step forward in the fight to end violence against women.
Barrister Sara Hossain presented a keynote paper at the discussion moderated by Maheen Sultan of Brae University