Insaaf On Ground

Insaaf on Ground is a field-based research initiative by Insaafiyat examining the gap between rights guaranteed on paper and rights experienced in reality.

Over six days of fieldwork in Sakipur, Greater Noida, the project conducted 100+ interviews with residents, documenting firsthand experiences and examining whether legally guaranteed rights are actually known, accessible, and enforceable in everyday life.

The initiative also brought together 20+ external participants, extending the project beyond the core team and enabling wider engagement with the questions emerging from the field.

From Law to Lived Reality

India has an extensive framework of constitutional and legal rights. Yet the existence of a right in law does not necessarily mean that individuals are able to exercise it in practice.

Insaaf on Ground explores this gap through direct engagement with the community. Interviews focused on people's experiences and understanding of their rights, their interactions with institutions, and the barriers they encounter in accessing protections and services that may already exist on paper.

By placing legal provisions alongside lived experiences, the project seeks to understand where implementation falls short, what prevents people from accessing their rights, and how legal awareness and institutional accessibility shape people's ability to seek justice.

The project ultimately asks a simple but fundamental question:

If a right exists on paper, but a person cannot access or exercise it in reality, how meaningful is that right?