Background of the Organization Working on the Project

The proposal is for a project to be implemented by the Legal Aid and Human Rights Center (LAHRC). LAHRC is an autonomous branch of Navsarjan Trust. The following is an introduction to the work of Navsarjan in general and LAHRC in particular.

Formal Details

Name of the organization	Navsarjan Trust
Date of Establishment	12th May,1986
Registration Number (Public Trust Act)	Guj. 518-Surat; F/423/Surat
Tax Exemption Certificate Number	SRT/CIT/SIB/104/518/98-99
Exemption Valid Dates	31st March 2002
(This is renewed every three years. The application is already made for renewal.)

Origin and Activities

Navsarjan Trust was started to do social work in the slums of Surat. Navsarjan runs a pre-primary school, offers legal aid services, associations of women, etc. Later Navsarjan started working in rural areas of Surat District. Eventually an autonomous branch was set up under the name: The Legal Aid and Human Rights Center (LAHRC). It started with legal awareness and legal education programs initially.

LAHRC tried to use the legal system to redress the grievances of the tribal population and it also helped people to avoid expensive litigation and to settle their cases out of court. As it met more and more people, visited their villages and listened to their difficulties, LAHRC realized that it had to go beyond the legal system. There was a need to unite the various tribal groups into an organization that is secular, apolitical and open to all like-minded NGOs and organizations. The present proposal deals with this issue.

Names and Backgrounds of the Directors of the Organization

The activities of LAHRC were first started by S.Amalraj and taken over in 1991 by the present Director Stanny Jebamalai. Vincent Mooken, who has been involved with Navsarjan, has also contributed substantially.

All three are Jesuit priests involved in social work
Besdies religious studies, Vincent Mooken has a Masters degree in Social Welfare from the Tata Institute of Social Science in Mumbai
S. Amalraj has a first degree in Economics and a Bachelor’s degree in Law
Stanny has a Bachelor degree in Economics and a Masters degree in Law.

Contact Person in India

Stanny Jebamalai
Legal Aid and Human Rights Center,
Nr. R.T.O., Ring Road,
Surat. 395 001,
Gujarat, India
Phone No. (0261) 3475683, 3472226

Email: Navsarjan@wilnetonline.net, sanny_30@yahoo.com.

Number and Description of Staff

Administrative Staff	Field Staff
Director (1)	Area Coordinators (3)
Legal Advisor (1)	Field Coordinators (29)
Project Coordinator (1)	Part Field Workers (35)
Administrative Assistant (1)	Tribal Lawyers (24)
Accountant (1)
Driver (1)
Office Attendtent (1)
Officer Cleaner (1)

Funding Details

Annual Budget: Rs. 60 lakhs (A copy of the Annual Report is available with Suraj Jacob, suraj@stanford.edu.)

Previous Funding Sources: MISEREOR, a Germany-based funding agency, has been the major source of previous funding.