On 23^rd January 2021, the Centre for Law and Policy Research (CLPR) is organising a workshop in collaboration with CMASK on making the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 work.

In the course of its efforts in research, public interest lawyering, and advocacy, CLPR has taken various initiatives in the past that aimed at better implementation of the laws relating to caste discrimination in India, focusing on four Southern states – Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala. Even after the enactment of laws to combat caste-based discrimination, shoddy investigative and prosecutorial practices and high pendency in courts are among the chief causes for the poor implementation of these legislations. As a result, conviction rates for caste atrocity offences are low and justice for the victims of atrocities is often delayed or denied.

Therefore, the objective behind this workshop is to build the legal capacity of civil society organisations and activists working on tackling caste discrimination and increase their engagement with the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 and Rules. We hope that this workshop will help in building a coalition of civil society organisations across four South Indian States – Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu – and build a network of paralegals and barefoot lawyers who can provide basic legal assistance and improve access to justice for vulnerable groups.