Vivek Maru
Ashoka Fellow since 2014   |   United States

Vivek Maru

Namati: Innovations in Legal Employment
Vivek Maru is building the field of global legal empowerment by taking localized justice efforts, rigorously documenting their impact, weaving them into a cohesive network.
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Check out this video of Vivek Maru's work

This description of Vivek Maru's work was prepared when Vivek Maru was elected to the Ashoka Fellowship in 2014.

Introduction

Vivek Maru is building the field of global legal empowerment by taking localized justice efforts, rigorously documenting their impact, weaving them into a cohesive network.

The New Idea

Vivek Maru is taking localized justice efforts, documenting their impact, weaving them into a cohesive network, and ultimately building the field of global legal empowerment. The core of Vivek’s work, through his organization Namati, is to connect all the efforts in legal empowerment globally toRead more

The Problem

The UN estimates that 4 billion people around the world live outside the protection of the law. For these people the law is an abstraction, or a threat, but not something they can use to exercise their basic rights. As a result they can be unfairly driven from their land, denied essential services,Read more

The Strategy

Vivek draws inspiration and to some extent uses this health experience as a model for what is needed in the field of legal empowerment. He is working to change the definition of legal aid (not simply legal services to defend against a criminal accusation), to commit to universal access to theRead more

The Person

Vivek is the son of immigrant parents from India. His earliest influences came from his family’s commitment to social justice and leadership. His grandfather was a Gandhian who ran a small printing press and spoke frequently to Vivek about deeper systemic change. Both his parents instilled a deepRead more

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