Australian Hindu community has launched a unique Hindu Legal Helpline to support growing needs of diverse Hindu community migrated from India, Nepal, SriLanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Malaysia, Fiji, Thailand, South Africa, Indonesia and other countries.
This helpline comes into reality with a partnership between Opal Legal and the Australian Hindu Association, a newly formed body to educate, advocate and campaign issues related to Hindu community in Australia.
In a widely attended virtual program Principal of Opal Legal, Namrata Singh announced the launch of Hindu Legal Helpline.
Namrata told The Australia Today, “Persons in need of urgent legal advice can now phone the Helpline on its dedicated number, send us a text message or email with their legal questions.”
“We aim to respond to all requests immediately or within a matter of hours,”
explained Ms Namrata.
“I urge AHA members & Hindu organisations to widely publicise this very worthy initiative.”
Namrata said beside domestic violence and family disputes some examples of the situations in which Hindu Australians can seek help are;
1- Being evicted from home
2- Being dismissed from employment
3- Being served with a legal demand (eg, bankruptcy notice)
4- Being arrested by police; Police searching your home
5- Real Estate dispute
6- Custody issues during divorce proceedings
(these are the common issues clients ring lawyers about).
Australian Hindu Association President Amendra Singh told The Australia Today, “We want to provide localised Hindu Legal Helpline in most capital cities and towns which have significant Hindu population.
“We would like to request legal professionals to contact Australian Hindu Association on the given phone number incase they would like to be part of Hindu Legal Helpline on a pro-bono basis,”
said Mr Singh
At the launch program of Australian Hindu Association (AHA) Deputy Lord Mayor of Parramatta City Council, Councillor Sameer Pandey expressed the importance of digital and social media to communicate the aspirations of Hindu Australians into the future.
The AHA digital platform suite including website, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to interact with it’s members and wider community.
Councillor Suman Saha of Sydney’s Cumberland City Council is a proud Bangladeshi Hindu.
He told The Australia Today, “We should have a say in the policy-making of our community than only we will have a say in the policy making of our country.”
“I stress every Hindu in Australia to please participate in the social issues which will define the future of coming generations in Australia,”
said Mr Saha.
AHA Secretary Bharti Kundal said one of the most important pillars of this Hindu Advocacy group is to provide a platform to Hindu women to discussed their issues and find an appropriate scalable solution.
Hindu Women have highest participation in workforce however they are most neglected lot when it comes to representation in decision making bodies of Not for profit or State/Federal Government Boards.
“We are here to change this situation by advocacy and awareness campaigns. Our aim is to establish a range of Hindu women leaders in multiple sectors as voice of Australian Hindu community,”
explained Ms Kundal.
Vice President of AHA Yogesh Khattar told The Australia Today, “There is a lot of misinformation spread about Hindus and Hinduism, some of it is deliberate attempt by foreign players via their local front organisations.”
“One of the important work of Australian Hindu Association will be to expose these divisive forces and their agenda.”
Mr Khattar says, “Anyone who want to be member of Australian Hindu Association can fill this form.
Application for Membership of the Australian Hindu Association.
