ICTs for Enabling Access to Justice:
Voice-based Information Kiosks
Terms of Reference
Government of India and UNDP Project
Access to Justice for the Marginalized People
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The Department of Justice, Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of India is inviting
proposals from organizations to create voice-based information kiosks. These kiosks
will be placed in the States of Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. The proposals are invited in
the context of the GOI-UNDP “Project on Access to Justice for Marginalized People”.
Background
The Department of Justice, Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of India is
implementing a Project on “Access to Justice for Marginalized People” with UNDP
support in the States of Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa,
Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. The Project focuses on the one hand on improving
institutional capacities of key justice service providers to enable them to effectively
serve the poor and disadvantaged and on the other hand, on directly empowering the
poor and disadvantaged men and women to seek and demand justice services.
Using ICT for legal awareness: voice-based information kiosks
The Project aims at exploring innovative ways of leveraging ICTs to enable access of
marginalized people to key information and awareness on legal issues. The belief is that
access to key information, together with support from CSOs and networks would enable
marginalised sections to demand their legal entitlements and seek speedy and
affordable justice services.
The idea of using ICT for development has been successfully tried by the Ministry of
Rural Development, Government of India (MoRD, GoI). MoRD has initiated an
innovative pilot project “Knowledge for Community Empowerment and Enhanced
Livelihood Opportunities”. Central to this innovation is the information kiosks that
provide bio-metric access to real-time information to MNREGS workers on entitlements,
job cards, availability of jobs, work status, wages accrued and received. To overcome
the barrier of literacy, the information is delivered in text and audio modes; and is
activated through a touch screen user-interface with graphics based icons. The user-
friendly icons and voice based interaction in the local language enable MGNREGA
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workers to record their job demand, print the dated receipt, pay slip and generate the
Muster roll.
The Access to Justice Project seeks to adapt this above-mentioned idea by establishing
voice enabled info-kiosks in the select Legal Services Authorities as a pilot for
increasing legal awareness of the marginalised communities.
Proposed features of the voice-based information kiosks
The voice-enabled information kiosks will be placed at the State, District and Taluka
Legal Services Authorities in select districts (total Number of Kiosks needed is 100).
The kiosks will combine an innovative deployment of ICTs through the integration
and strategic use of touch-screen computers and internet. They can serve as a
single-point access station for all legal information and entitlements for select
marginalized groups – women, SCs, STs, children etc.
The info-kiosks need to use local language enabled touch screens computers
connected to the internet and capable of transforming text based written information
into audio format and delivering in voice mode.
A person visiting the info-kiosk should be able to access information on legal issues,
including information on rights and legal entitlements and also how to access justice
delivery system.
The internet-connected kiosks should have feature for regularly updating with the
latest developments on laws and justice related issues, schemes, news and events
on legal awareness, and opportunities and announcements.
Being an audio-visual interface, kiosks need to assist in legal education of rural
communities through various pictures, audio and video, and presentations, as well
as other resources and links, for eg: multimedia guidelines on legal procedures like -
how to file an FIR, how to get free legal aid, what are the provisions of important
laws related to marginalised sections etc.
Objectives to be achieved
The objectives of the „ICTs for Enabling Access to Justice‟ initiative include:
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1. Directly empowering the marginalised sections to seek and demand justice through
the information kiosks
2. Enable access of key information and raise awareness on legal issues and
entitlements of the marginalised sections through the information kiosks
3. Enable marginalised sections to seek support from CSOs and networks working on
Access to Justice and rights of marginalised sections
Expected Outputs
1. A prototype of touch screen will be created of the information kiosks, which is
capable of providing information and awareness (in both, written and audio-video
formats) on legal issues directly to the marginalised sections of the society. These
information kiosks should have provisions for battery back-up. The content to be
uploaded on the kiosks will be provided by the Project Management Team. Its
simplification and translation into local language will be the responsibility of the
selected organisation. The final content and its presentation will be finalized in
consultation with the Project Management Team. The final software prepared in this
respect will be the sole property of Government of India, which may use it in any
manner that it sees fit.
2. Based on the approved prototype, functional touch screen information kiosks will be
created, which should be capable of providing written and audio-video information
on legal issues directly to the marginalised sections. These information kiosks
should have provisions for battery back-up. They shall be placed at select Legal
Services Authorities as a pilot.
3. The selected organisation will be expected to maintain the kiosks for a period of 2
years from the date of installation and assist the Legal Services Authorities in
maximising their usage by popularising these with the ordinary people and assisting
them in using these.
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Reporting and Monitoring Arrangements
The organizations will be required to produce:
1. Detailed plan of action with specific steps to be undertaken and timelines
2. A mid-term progress report on the project progress, achievements and challenges
faced in achieving the project objectives.
3. A Project Completion Report within a month of the completion of the project.
Criteria for selection
Minimum three years working experience in the field of ICT and using it for
awareness generation. Preference would be given to those organizations that have
some experience of working in the development sector.
Qualifications and experience of the proposed team members.
Experience of working with non-profit making organizations, international funding
agencies, Government Departments, and community-based projects.
Quality of the proposal submitted and alignment of the proposal with the Terms of
Reference, project objectives and deliverables.
Proposal Format: The proposal must be submitted in the prescribed format along with
a completed organization profile. The financial bids must be submitted in a separate
sealed envelope.
The technical proposal must include the following information:
1. Project Title
2. Name of the Organisation
3. Contact Details
4. Brief Background of the Organisation
5. Collaborating Partners (if any)
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6. Project Description:
Project goal
What is the duration of the project?
Expected impact on empowerment of women and people belonging to
marginalized groups (SCs, STs, minorities, children, disabled etc.)
Detailed methodology
Activities to be undertaken
Time schedule with milestones - The time frame should include specific timelines
for the completion of each component along with its testing and reporting to
Project Management Team.
Plan of action for maintaining the kiosks for a period of 2 years, with specific roles
and responsibilities.
Is the project co-funded by any other source?
What are the likely risks to the project?
7. Essential Criteria: The proposal must indicate which of the above-mentioned
selection criteria does it fulfill and how?
8. Technical Competence
a. Briefly describe your organizational capacity to produce this kind of project
(e.g. staff strengths, experience, office locations, physical space etc.).
b. What type of team will be assigned to this project? What will each
person‟s role be? Please include a brief background summary for each
key staff member assigned to this project, along with his/her technical
competencies and experience.
c. Please discuss any partnerships with other organizations for technical
support.
d. Please provide brief details of prior projects on using ICT for awareness
generation activities.
e. Provide reference information for three former or current clients, if any.
9. Project Evaluation and Monitoring Indicators. Tools to be used for monitoring the
progress?
10. Key deliverables of the project.
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11. Copy of the organization‟s Registration Certificate.
12. Names and contact details of 2 funding agencies that have supported the work of
the organization in the last 3 years.
Project Duration
4- 6 months
Proposals shall be sent by registered post to:
Ms. Swati Mehta, Project Manager, Access to Justice for Marginalized People, Room
No. 34, Jaisalmer House, 26 Mansingh Road, New Delhi – 110011.
Or by email to:
swati.mehta@undp.org. In case proposals are sent by email only, the technical and
financial bids must be in separate documents and the financial bid should be password
protected.
Deadline for submission is 30 April 2011, 5:30 PM, India time.
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