Context: Recently, SARTHIE 1.0 initiative was launched to empower disadvantaged communities, including Scheduled Castes (SCS), Other Backward Classes (OBCs), Senior Citizens, Transgender Persons, Victims of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse, persons engaged in the act of Begging, Denotified and Nomadic Tribes, and more.

About SARTHIE 1.0

• It is an initiative intended to empower disadvantaged communities, including Scheduled Castes (SCs), Other Backward Classes (OBCs), Senior Citizens, Transgender Persons, Victims of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse, persons engaged in the act of Begging, Denotified and Nomadic Tribes, and more.

• It aligns with the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, particularly the goals focused on eradicating poverty, reducing inequality, and promoting social protection policies that ensure greater equality for all.

• The collaboration aims to bridge the awareness gap and provide legal assistance to ensure the effective implementation of social welfare programmes.

• It offers synergy between the executive and the judiciary and ensures that social justice is further strengthened.

Key aspects of SARTHIE 1.0

• Awareness Generation: Under this partnership, State Legal Services Authorities (SLSAs) and District Legal Services Authorities (DLSAs), will organise awareness camps across the country through the para-legal volunteers and panel lawyers.

• Focus Acts: The Awareness camps will focus on ensuring awareness of the five important Acts being implemented by the Department:

1. Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955 

2. Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 

3. The Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007 

4. The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019 

5. Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013 

• Legal Support: Offering legal assistance to ensure effective implementation of social welfare programs.

• Target Groups: Empowering Scheduled Castes (SCs), Other Backward Classes (OBCs), senior citizens, transgender persons, victims of substance abuse, beggars, and denotified and nomadic tribes.

• Aligns with UN 2030 Agenda: The SARTHIE 1.0 initiative also aligns with the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, particularly the goals focused on eradicating poverty, reducing inequality, and promoting social protection policies that ensure greater equality for all. 

About NALSA

• The National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) has been constituted under the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987 to provide free Legal Services to the weaker sections of the society and to organise Lok Adalats for amicable settlement of disputes.

• Mandate: It has a mandate to provide legal aid to disadvantaged groups and spread legal literacy. 

• The Chief Justice of India is the patron-in-chief of NALSA, while the second senior most judge of the Supreme Court of India is the Executive Chairman. 

• It is housed at the Supreme Court of India, New Delhi.

• In every State, a State Legal Services Authority and in every High Court, a High Court Legal Services Committee has been constituted.