Community participation for access to justice to children: A road map for future

Abstract

Right to access to justice signifies creating an environment where people are aware of their rights and an effective remedy is available to them if any of their rights are violated. Access to justice does not merely refer to the formal mechanisms but also involve informal mechanisms which are available.Children enjoy special status under the constitution and hence are given different treatment. This is the groups which keeps on demanding new rights but are unable to claim them on their own because of immaturity in terms of their age and mental growth. For this reason right to access to justice becomes extremely important for the children. In absence of this their grievances will remain unheard and no effective remedy will be given to them. Children are responsibility of all and therefore it is all of us who should work towards protection of their rights and overall development. The present paper is built-up on the conviction that community can participate in protecting best interest of the child and make justice accessible to them. It focuses on the concept of access to justice, the normative structure for it in India and suggests few ways in which the community can participate in making access to justice reality for them.