Legal cases, unless they are taken up suo moto by the state, are enormously expensive. The major reason a majority of people do not seek redressal of legal violations is the fear of going bankrupt. Which is a valid fear considering the expenses involved in filing complaints, hiring lawyers, showing up at court for years on end, etc. This further encourages routine, systematized human rights abuses.

India routinely gets rapped by world human rights bodies for its human rights violations, and has been consistently featuring in the 130s among the 188 countries in the Human Development Index for the past 10 years at least. Redressal of human rights violation is of immediate need in the country. The existing laws do not adequately cover many key areas like sexual orientation and consent. Hundreds of people have lost their lives in the recent past over what they eat. As always, the minorities are the worst hit in a country that has always been deeply hierarchised. Bodies exercising power, irrespective of parties forming governments, have routinely clamped down on marginalized groups like tribals in the name of development. That we are an overpopulated country with a hopelessly understaffed, bureaucratically limited and often unsympathetic executive force doesn’t help things at all. In addition to religious violence, which is the biggest source of human rights abuse in this country, India systematically fails to address abuses like torture by police, caste issues, restrictions on freedom of expression, maladministration in sensitive regions, and most pervasively, violence against women. These failures are deliberately overlooked by governments even when there are legal provisions in place.

Under such dire circumstances, it is the need of the hour to start addressing human rights abuses in the court at both individual and public levels. However, since most of these abuses are committed against the poor or those perceived voiceless, arranging the money becomes the biggest obstacle. But things may not be no longer be so bleak with the rise of crowdfunding sites in India.

The biggest advantage of crowdfunding is that it helps overcome the social and bureaucratic constraints. This can be done at any time during the period of seeking redressal- one can go for crowdfunding and then seek a lawyer. But to save precious time, one should ideally seek out a lawyer first if one can sustain themselves in the initial stages. Anyone wishing to move court against human rights abuse can seek the help of the numerous non-profits that have come up to help the poor in such cases. Then build your profile and put it up on crowdfunding platforms in India which have a lot of credibility and popularity.

Usually, crowdfunding for cases of human rights abuses are really successful because a significant section of the society consists of abuse victims. Abuse forms better connect with potential donors. Crowdfunding India is a simple platform, and its nominal fees makes it accessible to people from all economic backgrounds. So at the end of the day, with these crowdfunding sites in India, you no longer have to fight the battle alone.

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