On 14^th June 2021, in the case of Syeda Mehzebin Rahman v. Union Of India And 5 Ors, the Gauhati High Court has issued direction to the District Legal Services Authority, to locate and identify families who want assistance in the form of necessary supplies such as food grains and etc., in the slum areas which are affected by the Coronavirus.

The court has ordered the DLSA to deploy their Para Legal Volunteers to the marginalized families who live in the slum areas. The para legal volunteers need to locate and identify the families which are in need of any form of assistance in this COVID-19 pandemic. In the same light the court has issued direction to the Secretary of the DLSA, to inform the District Commissioner in regards to the identification of such families who are in the need of these necessary items including food grains.

This development came in the form of plea which raised the concerns that daily wage workers who are from Kamrup districts. The workers were not being provided with the food grains and other such supplies during the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic. Thus the court has given the State’s 2 weeks to fill and submit their reply to the court in this regard. Along with this the Court has also directed the State to brief about how the National AIDS Control Organisation shall provide the sex workers with relief in the Covid 19 phase and how will they identify the same.

– Animesh Raizada, Intern, POSHequili