India’s state-funded legal aid system, a crucial lifeline ensuring access to justice for the marginalised, is experiencing a critical weakening at its community roots, the India Justice Report (IJR) 2025 reveals. A staggering 38% nationwide decline in active Paralegal Volunteers (PLVs) since 2019 signifies a shrinking grassroots presence, raising serious concerns about support reaching the most vulnerable populations.PLVs are intended to be the vital first point of contact, bridging the gap between communities and the formal legal aid system. However, their numbers have plummeted from 69,290 in 2019 to just 43,050 by September 2024, according to IJR 2025 data derived from National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) records.This translates into significantly fewer resources on the ground. The national ratio has effectively halved, dropping from six PLVs per lakh population in 2019 to only three in 2024. (See Figure 35). The decline is even more severe in several states, with Himachal Pradesh seeing a 97% fall, followed by Goa (81%) and Tamil Nadu (73%).Compounding the issue, only a fraction of these rostered volunteers appear actively deployed. The report notes that just 14,691 PLVs were recorded as ‘deployed’ in locations like police stations, front offices, or prisons – barely a third of the total available force, further limiting practical community outreach.This decline in the volunteer force directly impacts village legal services clinics, which are meant to function like primary health centres for legal issues. The report highlights a dramatic collapse in their reach.The national average number of villages theoretically served by a single clinic has exploded nearly fourfold, surging from 42 villages in 2017-18 to a daunting 163 villages by 2024. This is driven by a sharp fall in the total number of clinics nationwide, from over 14,000 to just 3,659 during this period, according to IJR analysis.State-level disparities are extreme (Figure 37). In Chhattisgarh, one clinic notionally covers over 19,500 villages. In Jharkhand and Karnataka, the ratios exceed 1,000 and 850 villages per clinic respectively. Fifteen states now have clinics serving over 100 villages each, making effective, timely assistance practically impossible. Worryingly, Haryana and Arunachal Pradesh reported having no village legal service clinics at all.This erosion of grassroots infrastructure occurs even as NALSA reports an increase in overall beneficiaries reached and introduces targeted initiatives like the Legal Aid Defence Counsel (LADC) system for court representation. While LADC is crucial, the simultaneous, drastic reduction in PLVs and village clinics raises critical questions: Is the focus shifting away from community-level awareness, basic legal advice, and local dispute resolution – the very roles the grassroots network was designed for?