The Tamil Nadu Unit in Chennai was established in 2004 to help people cope with the catastrophic effects of the 2004 tsunami. Today, our relevance has extended way beyond post tsunami relief. Today, a cross section of communities – the Dalits, tribals, workers, women, children, and the disabled are the net beneficiaries of our solidarity with movements and legal intervention in the courts. The Tam
il Nadu Unit focuses on child rights, tribal rights, women’s justice, environmental justice, disability rights, labour rights, HIV/AIDS and disaster rights issues. Working in concert with the HRLN network as well as with local partners on an initiative-by-initiative basis, the unit provides legal aid and social services to the local community. As with all HRLN offices, working in solidarity with grassroots and community-based
organisations is the main principal. In recent years, HRLN Tamil Nadu has been particularly active with regards to the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, which provides a legal guarantee of 100-day employment in every financial year. Ultimately, the scheme attempts to bridge the gap between the rich and the poor and increase the percentage of women in stipulated work force. The Tamil Nadu team has made a very impressive impact in terms of its work in disaster situations and rights as well as in cases of child–trafficking. In Meenakshi vs State of Tamil Nadu, social welfare department & others, the petitioners were tsunami victims who were denied allotment of permanent houses by the state government. Later, 90 percent of them were provided with permanent houses.
