Jayalakshmi

Alumni

Jayalakshmi graduated from National Law School of India University, Bangalore with B.A. LLB (Hons.) in the year 2017. Subsequently, she worked in the field of medical law for almost a year and practiced commercial areas of practice for a brief period of about four months under a senior counsel.

Her interests lie at understanding intersectionality of social identities such as class, caste and gender contributing to the systematic oppression and role of policy making and law towards social transformation.

Publications

Blog

Tackling Caste Discrimination Through Law: A Policy Brief on Implementation of Caste Discrimination Laws in India

March 14, 2020

This Policy Brief reviews the status of implementation of the three important legislations addressing caste discrimination in India namely, the Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955, the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, and the Prohibition of Employment of Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013 in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

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Tackling Caste Discrimination through law – Lawyer’s learning session for better Law

December 26, 2019

On 30 November, 2019, we hosted ‘Tackling caste discrimination through law’, a lawyers’ learning session in collaboration with the Advocates Association, Bangalore at the Karnataka High Court (see the full agenda here) The workshop aimed at enabling and facilitating learning of caste discrimination laws such as the Schedule Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, The Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955, The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013 and the Karnataka Devadasis (Prohibition of Dedication) Act, 1982.

Fact Finding Mission: Gundlupet Dalit Atrocity

October 14, 2019

On 21.06.2019, Pratap, a Dalit man in Gudlupete, Karnataka who went to fetch water from a temple, was tied to a tree inside the temple, brutally assaulted and paraded naked on the highway by the villagers, including a policeman. This incident yet again throws the issue of caste discrimination into sharp focus. It is a testimony to the pervasiveness of caste discrimination in India and the prevalence of the practice of untouchability.

Review of Data on Survey and Identification of Manual Scavengers

June 26, 2019

The practice of manual scavenging was first criminalised in 1993. Since then, it has been replaced by a new act in 2013, which is wider in scope as it provides for rehabilitation and compensation, and imposes stricter penalties. Rehabilitation measures under Sec. 13 of the Act are applicable to a person identified as a manual scavenger under Sec. 12 of the Act. Since identification is the first step towards rehabilitating them, state agencies are required to collect reliable data on the total number of dry latrines (that require manual cleaning) and the number of people engaged in manual scavenging within their jurisdiction. However, it has been 6 years since the introduction of the Act, and the survey and identification of manual scavengers is still not carried out well in many Indian states and there is a mismatch between the number of insanitary latrines and manual scavengers identified.