Lawyers as catalyst for development - Laws Around Us

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." — Martin Luther King, Jr., Baptist minister and civil rights activist

The single-most universal phenomenon creating a constant constituent that surpasses all boundaries and nations is… poverty. Hitherto there isn’t a universal definition of the same. Nearly 49 million people across globe are expected to plunge into ‘extreme poverty’ – 12 million of them in India – this year due to COVID 19 pandemic.

How poverty is defined influences the modus in which it is addressed. Some have tried to define poverty simply in monetary terms. Others have argued that poverty is more than low income, but rather a deprivation of basic freedom and the capability to enjoy life. Another approach is that poverty is a multi-dimensional phenomenon, deeply embedded socially in complex and varied ways.

Anthropology shows the importance of recognizing the processes that have created poverty and the relationships that people have with the structures around them. This information will enable the best identification of appropriate responses in both policy and practice.

Lawyers as catalysts of change in their communities: interstitial figures with the knowledge, skill, and trust to help resolve disputes, move beyond logjams, dissolve tensions, and otherwise bring people and possessions together in productive solutions.

In India, lawyers who have been instrumental in transforming the roles of legislators are cognizant of the socio-economic realities of their societies i.e. socio-legal transformation through drafting and implementation of welfare legislations. The legal system is impending enough to serve as an instrument of socio-economic change through social engineering.

Law has the cure to safeguard people from the adversarial flagrancies carried out by governments, businesses and individuals. These actions can perpetuate or cause poverty. Used adroitly and proactively law has the capacity to enhance the societal welfare through the exculpation of poverty and there are existing players that have used the same to ameliorate poverty to a fair degree which can be elucidated in the form of case studies.