Women Courts: An Alternative Justice System for Women

Abstract

Several initiatives have been undertaken by the Mahila Samakhya Programme to em-
power rural marginalised women. Rigorous process-oriented interventions are made to
enable community women emerge as defenders and activists of women’s rights. Some
of these women run the Nari Adalat, a fórum to seek justice for women. This paper
focuses on the emergence, structure, operational processes, effectiveness and limita-
tions of Nari Adalats run by illiterate or semi-literate women of rural India.