The criteria

Access to Justice is a unique barometer as statistics alone are insufficient in portraying an accurate picture. Realizing the significance of the subjective component of Access to Justice in terms of people's awareness, perception and accessibility, the creators of this index have formulated a unique division of the index criteria.

The first component is factual or quantitative. It requires a cataloguing of existing law, policies and official statistics. There are 4 categories: Government, Judiciary, Legal Profession and Legal Education. Each category aims to gauge the presence of laws, policies and precedents in providing access to justice to the people of the country.

This quantitative component also measures the extent to which each category is committed to providing access to justice and whether it's policies are oriented towards that end. Some issues emphasised on are rights redressal, legal aid, pro bono work, judicial mechanisms, the police, among others.

The second component of the index is qualitative. It aims to measure the divide between laws on the paper and in practice. It is common knowledge that implementation of laws usually leaves much to be desired. It is however lesser known that people's interaction with the state differs widely on their identity-in terms of their sex, religion, caste, socio-economic background, literacy and physical location, among other factors.

Lack of awareness and hesitation to approach State institutional mechanisms, due to perceived/actual inefficiency are common deterrents of access justice. So, the subjective component seeks to measure these barriers to access to justice. This has been carried out by on-the-ground surveys of 4 categories of people: the State (government, judicial and bureaucratic officers) he Legal Profession (advocates), Legal Education (faculty and students of law schools) and laymen. Efforts have been made to ensure large numbers as well as diversity amongst respondents. It is hoped that the index will be successful in capturing the voices of the majorities, as well as of marginalised minorities, through this process.

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