IDIA: Increasing Diversity by Increasing Access to Legal Education

Internships for IDIA (INAT) Team

2011-09-28T23:10:00.000+05:30

What is the IDIA?

The IDIA(Increasing Diversity by Increasing Access) Movement started off under theleadership of Professor Shamnad Basheer of the West Bengal National Universityof Juridical Sciences (NUJS) as a movement to eliminate the inequities ofeducation. Some very disturbing statistics reflected a complete lack ofdiversity, with a majority of the students clearing the entrance tests forthese Universities hailing from the upper middle socio economic class bracket.The IDIA team set itself up, first in NUJS, and then in other National LawSchools throughout the country, as an attempt to question and change thesestatistics. The aim is to provide access to the resources required to crack theentrance exam to students from marginalized communities and regions, who wouldnot be able to get access to them otherwise.

What does IDIA do?

Local IDIAChapters have been set up in different parts of India. These local chaptershave conducted aptitude tests in the respective states, and have started anintensive training programme for those who did well, and those who areinterested in pursuing law as a career. A lot of students were found to beinitially very apprehensive about their career prospects, but enoughinformation was disseminated in this regard to convince most of them about theadvantages of this career choice.

IDIA also selectsstudents for the training program through its exam called IDIA NationalAptitude Test which is held every year in several centres across the country.

Last year INAT helped us select some of the most deservingIDIA scholars. 14 out of the 50 scholars trained by IDIA made it to variousNational Law Schools, including NLS, NALSAR, NUJS, NLIU, GNLU etc. through CLAT2011.

What Will Interning With the IDIA Mean?

Interning with theIDIA will mean being part of the teaching process for the IDIA scholars andinteracting with IDIA scholars and other volunteers. This is an immenseopportunity, more so for law students, because the IDIA Scholars are not onlyexceptionally bright, but also extremely keen to learn about the Law, andunderstand its various facets. While most students would cherish the process ofteaching in itself, the IDIA experience is that much more of a process ofself-discovery in that it deals with children who have managed to deviseincredibly ingenuous ways of learning for themselves.

This internship presents the opportunity of being part ofsomething extraordinary, something that might change the face of legaleducation in the country, but will definitely change your paradigm of life.

Requirements

All interns willbe expected to help with a wide variety of work. For instance, we requirevolunteers to help us with registration for INAT which would be conducted on 6^thNovember 2011 in 16 cities in the country. Volunteers would be required to beavailable on phone, take calls from students who have queries regarding law asa career, National Law Schools, scholarship provided by IDIA etc. They would beworking for a month as a part of the registration team for INAT, helpingstudents get registered for the exam.

Volunteers do not need to be based at any particular locationin India - they would only be required to be available on phone and emaileveryday during this one month.

No specialisedexperience or training is required and they can feel free to come up with new,innovative modes of reaching out to more students and schools across thecountry to spread the word about INAT and in turn help us select the brighteststudents as IDIA scholars.

This would be a paid internship and all interns foundto have worked in a committed manner by the end of the stipulated time periodwill be granted certificates fortheir efforts signed by Professor Shamnad Basheer, on behalf of the IDIAInitiative.

For furtherdetails, feel free to email Diptoshree Basu at dbasu3@gmail.com or call at 09831063675.

We hope to hearfrom you soon.

Diptoshree Basu

INAT Co-ordinator

Intern with IDIA, Sikkim Chapter

2011-09-28T00:31:00.000+05:30

WHAT IS IDIA?

The IDIA (Increasing Diversity by Increasing Access) Movement started off under the leadership of Professor Shamnad Basheer of the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences (NUJS) as a movement to eliminate the inequities of education. Some very disturbing statistics reflected a complete lack of diversity, with a majority of the students clearing the entrance tests for these Universities hailing from the upper middle socio economic class bracket. The IDIA team set itself up, first in NUJS, and then in other National Law Schools throughout the country, as an attempt to question and change these statistics. The aim is to provide access to the resources required to crack the entrance exam to students who would not be able to get access to them otherwise.

WHAT DOES IDIA DO?

Local IDIA Chapters have been set up in different parts of India. These local chapters have conducted aptitude tests in various chapters, and have started an intensive training programme for those who did well, and those who are interested in pursuing law as a career. A lot of students were found to be initially very apprehensive about their career prospects, but enough information was disseminated in this regard to convince most of them about the advantages of this career choice.

In addition, the IDIA has been pushing relentlessly for reforming the CLAT. These concerted efforts have resulted in the CLAT Committee agreeing to various affirmative measures—for instance, removing the section on static general knowledge, and legal knowledge completely from the paper. The rationale is to test the aptitude of the students, rather than the knowledge.

WHAT WILL INTERNING WITH IDIA MEAN?

Interning with the IDIA will mean being part of the teaching process for the IDIA scholars. The subjects to be taught include English, Logical Reasoning, Legal Reasoning, General Knowledge and Maths (grade ten level). This is an immense opportunity, more so for law students, because the IDIA Scholars are not only exceptionally bright, but also extremely keen to learn about the Law, and understand its various facets.

While most students would cherish the process of teaching in itself, the IDIA experience is that much more of a process of self-discovery in that it deals with children who have managed to devise incredibly ingenuous ways of learning for themselves. This internship presents the opportunity of being part of something extraordinary, something that might change the face of legal education in the country, but will definitely change your paradigm of life.

REQUIREMENTS

All interns will be expected to help with a wide variety of work. For instance, they may be expected to conduct weekly classes, act as scribes for practice tests, help in analysis of test results etc. The internship programme will extend to at least four weeks. All students who have graduated from school, and are currently enrolled in a course in Law or are graduates from the same, are qualified to apply. Selections are subject to the discretion of the Internship Cell. No specialised experience or training is required and you can feel free to come up with new, innovative modes of teaching and working.

All interns found to have worked in a committed manner by the end of the stipulated time period will be granted certificates for their efforts signed by Professor Shamnad Basheer, on behalf of the IDIA Initiative.

For further details, feel free to email at : jwaladthapa@gmail.com, jsphrenthlei@yahoo.co.in or call at 9593981263, 9007643825,

Second IDIA –National Aptitude Test (I-NAT) on 6th November, 2011

2011-09-06T21:16:00.007+05:30

With the successful performance of the first ever National Aptitude Test by IDIA (I-NAT) through which IDIA was able to successfully place 14 students from low income background in various National Law Universities, IDIA is all set to conduct the second National Aptitude Test (I-NAT) on November 6, 2011 at 14 cities across the country, for under-privileged and financially weak students interested in appearing in the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) 2012 and 2013.

Last April, IDIA had chosen 50 students, based on their performance in the first I-NAT, for free CLAT coaching and training by IMS, a pioneer coaching institute for CLAT. Out of these 50 students, 11 were able to make it to various NLUs with one student making it to NLSIU, Bangalore with an All India Rank of 45 in the General category. Karthika Annamalai, another IDIA scholar and a Quarry worker's daughter has made it to NLIU, Bhopal.

Every year, Increasing Diversity by Increasing Access to Legal Education (IDIA) as part of its vision of bringing diversity in law colleges, plans on choosing a few deserving, under privileged and financially weak students, interested in making a career in Law, for free training and coaching for CLAT.

The IDIA National Aptitude Test is expected to be more widespread and bigger this time, with around 19 centres across the country and estimated registrations of more than 1500 students. The cities where the test would be conducted are

New Delhi

Kolkata

Bhopal

Lucknow

Bangalore

Patna

Mumbai

Chennai

Hyderabad

Ranchi

Guwahati

Gandhinagar

Jodhpur

Cochin

The test will be on 6^th November 2011 from 10 am to 11 am ( 60 Minutes) and the questions will be related to basic General Knowledge, Logic and basic English.

All students whose combined income of parents is less than Rs. 40,000 a month are eligible to apply.

Interested students may apply for registration here: idianat2011@gmail.com or call any of the following IDIA volunteers:

Bharat Itagi : +919845442956

Anukanksha Kalkeri: +919845442924

Pranusha Kulkarni: +919164197317

All candidates will be required to send scanned copy of their parent’s income certificate to the above email ID for confirmation of their registration

The seats are very limited and is on a first come first serve basis. Everyone is requested to immediately make the registrations. All selected INAT Scholars will be given completely free coaching by IMS and there will not be any payment for the same.

Also, Please spread the word around and aware as many students you can who fit the category and eligibility for I NAT.

Sensitisation at G S Jangid Memorial School, Jodhpur

2011-08-23T12:01:00.001+05:30

IDIA Team consisting of Piyush Kumar, Gautam Nayak and Animesh K. conducted sensitisation in G S Jangid School, a residential school situated at the outskirts of Jodhpur. The principal of the school, Dr. Rekha Sankhla, was very enthusiastic about the sensitization and took an active part in it. She accompanied us to all the class rooms and introduced the team to the students. Although she had no idea about NLUs and CLAT, we could inspire her to believe in our cause after a brief introduction to law as a multifaceted career option in the present scenario.

The sensitization in G S Jangid School was on a small scale owing to the small strength of students in classes 11th and 12th. Nevertheless, it was highly interactive. The session started with a brief introduction about National Law Schools and moved on to the career options available to a law graduate from these institutes.

The response was overwhelming as students kept on asking question ranging from the pattern of CLAT to the subjects taught in NLUs. The single most important concern by the students as well as the faculty members was with respect to placement. Most of them were skeptical about placement, drawing parallels with the ever mushrooming engineering colleges which promised 100% placements but never delivered on it. It is always tough to convince an unaware crowd, especially with prejudices. However, we tried our best to give them the real picture and emphasized on the fact that one could not be lackadaisical after getting into a law school and it required a hard work before one could grab lofty pay packages. We also informed them that unlike other traditional/vocational colleges, NLUs do not have long breaks in the midst of the academic sessions and attendance was important. We also briefed them about internships which form a major part of the learning exercise in a law school. After an extensive lecture on mooting, conferences and publications, the young faces showed some amount of agreement. The rest is upto them as to the choices they wish to make.

An aptitude test will be conducted soon as a follow up.

Report Prepared by Piyush Kumar

Join IDIA – Change your life as well as others!

2011-07-29T22:19:00.011+05:30

Karthika Annamalai, Ria Shiuli, T. Andalu and Shivandu Pandey are just a few among the many names who are no less than student icons in themselves now!

Brush up your knowledge about the legal goings-on in case you don’t know who they are, these are all those real proud heroes of their lives, who have showcased extraordinary grit and courage to nip adversity at its bud and take life as it came to them! Meet the IDIA Scholars, who cracked the CLAT 2011, and are now in the premier National Law Universities in India. All of them hail from lesser than modest backgrounds, having been subjected to the harshest hardships in life. Armed with nerve-cracking guts in their blood, steering through life’s challenges, they now stand with their heads held high, among those multitudinous well-fed, well-to-do kids, who have made it to the NLUs.

IDIA is what has brought in all the difference and spark to their lives. We started out as a pan-India student movement in making quality legal education accessible to the poorest of the poor in the country, and now in the second year of our existence, are very much alive and kicking! We have met with tremendous success in our very first year, and thanks to the coverage given by various news papers, be it The Hindu, Indian Express, or the Times of India, we have received widespread applause and publicity. Our good work continues to be appreciated by all the quarters in the legal fraternity till date.

We have had an excellent set of people working with us and the success rate speaks for itself, of their wide capabilities and competencies.

The present Directors of State Chapters for the tenure 2011-12 are:

1. Aathira Menon – Karnataka Chapter - menon.aathira@gmail.com
2. Darshana Mitra – West Bengal Chapter - darshana.mitra@gmail.com
3. Apoorv Shah – Gujarat Chapter - apoorv.phoenix@gmail.com
4. Prateek Mohapatra – Uttar Pradesh Chapter - prateek.rmlnlu@gmail.com
5. Gowri Harikumar – Kerala Chapter -gowrivrh@gmail.com
6. Rachit Ranjan – Bihar Chapter -ranrachit@gmail.com
7. Srishti Aishwarya – Jharkhand Chapter - silkjutes@gmail.com
8. Abhishek Kumar - Rajasthan Chapter - abhi.nlu@gmail.com
9. Jwala Thapa & Joseph Renthlei -North East Chapter - jwaladthapa@gmail.com
10. Amartya Bag, Sayobani Basu & Vivek Jain - Orrisa Chapter - abag.kls@gmail.com

Not only the State Heads, we also have a wonderful team looking after the National Verticals. Here are their honorary mentions:

1. Research and Policy – Prajna Mohapatra (NUJS)
2. IDIA Disability – Anusha Reddy and Vaishnavi (NUJS)
3. IDIA Training – Sumitra Suresh (NALSAR) and Srishti Goyal (NUJS)
4. Core Advisory and Implementation – Raghul Sudheesh and Arnab Roy
5. Funding – Jhalak Kakkar (NUJS)
6. Admissions and Scholarship – Megha Kaladharan (NLSIU)

Call for Student Directors – State Chapters and All-India Verticals

At the behest of this second year of our existence, we are all set to spring in some fresh blood into our workforce! Now, when this is the lightening speed with which we are moving ahead, why not join us and be a part of history in the making? Why not spearhead the change you so-dearly want to see in the world? We ideally expect our IDIA Directors to possess the following qualities:

1. Should be proactive and willing to take initiative

2. Should be bold enough to take decisions under pressure of time and/or other factors
3. Should possess strong inter-personal skills and should be able to lead teams
4. Should be able to think out of the box and should be innovative
5. Most importantly, should be committed to the IDIA cause and should be able to spend a significant amount of time on IDIA consistently throughout the year.

If you think you have the above mentioned qualities, then IDIA is made for you!

We invite applications for the post of State Heads to kick-start new chapters and for following posts in the All-India Verticals:

1. Publicity and Media
2. Website
3. Sensitization
4. Mentorship

Send in your CV and expression of interest to idiadiversity@gmail.com to be a part of our team. Those of you who are interested in being a part of Publicity and Media - All India Vertical; please mail your CV's to raghulsudheesh@gmail.com

We are also looking for people to join the specific teams which already have team leaders listed; so if you are interested in joining those specific teams please email the team leaders directly in their id's listed against their names.

Join our Google Group

You are most welcome to give in your inputs as to how best you can serve our purpose and how best can IDIA be improvised. If you wish to be a part of our Google group, drop in your mails to Shambo Nandy at shambonandy@gmail.com, and stay updated with our new programs and ideas.

Anything more you want to know about us, visit our website.

My Past Can’t Tie Me Down says Karthika Annamalai – The IDIA girl who made it to NUJS

2011-06-20T12:00:00.000+05:30

I remember a time when I would sit in my neighbor’s house drinking milk that had a cloying smell. My cousin would come running in, yelping with pain and cursing in Tamil between her husky wails. “Let him go to hell,” she would shout. My neighbors would automatically lock her in one of their musty storage rooms, and we would resume our activities as if she had never come.

Her father, drunk with alcohol and staggering between his threats of murder, would stumble in with a heavy piece of firewood in his hand, asking if my cousin was hidden in the house anywhere. As the fat old woman of the house held me close and gave me a warning look not to give the secret away, she responded with a threatening disgust that my cousin was nowhere to be found. My uncle would then walk all around the village, in its sugarcane and rice fields, cursing and searching, while my auntie stood submissively in the doorway. Tears flowed down her face, hot with shame and hopelessness. I would return to their house only once my uncle was either nowhere to be seen or fast asleep. After my auntie would put me to sleep, I would lie in bed wondering what my mother was doing, where she was and if she had abandoned me. My heart was so heavy that my teary eyes would lull me to sleep.

As soon as I would get up each morning, my cousin would wash my face and my auntie would give me curd to eat my rice with. I would then follow my cousin, whom I was very fond of, to graze our cow. He would teach me to pet and feed our cow. Sometimes we would go on small adventures to our neighbor’s mango fields or we would go on top of the village rocks to eat prickly pears, not minding that they were staining our clothes pink and that the small thorns were in our hands and tongue. It was during these times that I would forget that my mother, along with my six-month-old brother, were somewhere far away searching for work. She had to give up being a housewife and look for work to support our family once my father had passed away. When I was bored, I would remember my mother with so much longing and loneliness that I would start to cry.

When I turned three, my mother sent for me. Like my aunt and uncle, she too had found work in a quarry. Our house had four granite slabs covered with mud for walls and stacks of neatly tied woven coconut leaves for a roof. After settling down here, I would walk about the feces covered mud roads with my skirt lifted shamelessly over my head to avoid the merciless sun and the rising dust and smoke from the quarry. Otherwise, I would follow my mother down the steep quarry where I would sit a few meters away, watching her frail body shatter stones with a heavy hammer. I suppose it was during a time like this, though many years later, that a piece of stone hit me on my forehead. Curious and bored, I picked it up. It was crudely shaped like a heart and had tiny specks of gold on it. It is one among the three things I keep on my bed for good luck. It is a tangible reminder of where I came from.

Two other items that are constantly present on my bed are reminders of my present, and my future: my art supplies and preparatory books. If not for Shanti Bhavan, I would have little need for – or interest in – these things.

Since being admitted to Shanti Bhavan at the age of four, the hours I spent letting my imagination run wild instead of going for physical training session has resulted in me receiving various awards and titles within my school for outstanding performance in the field of visual art. Now, drawing abstract pictures, being recommended by many teachers and classmates to make posters, and being asked to make cards for various people is a medium through which I express my passion for art. This is a talent that would not have been nurtured or encouraged had I not attended Shanti Bhavan.

The preparatory books, on the other hand, are scattered on my bed because I am soon appearing for my entry into a law college. I decided years ago that I wanted to be a human rights lawyer, fighting against the many social injustices that exist in India, more than a handful of which I have witnessed myself in my family and community. The values instilled in me at Shanti Bhavan – those of humility, honesty, and generosity – have all impressed upon me the necessity to always work to help those who are less fortunate than me in any way possible. This is where my desire to work as a human rights lawyer stems from. I also hope that working in the field of law in India will provide me the skills I need to one day alleviate poverty and injustice on a broader scale, hopefully in a political position in India. Ideally, I will one day become the Prime Minister.

Every item I cherish communicates much about me. As I reflect on the past 14 years of my life, I realize they are tied to one of my two lives – that of a village girl who grew up in a world of sadness and desperation, devoid of hope, and the other of an educated and confident woman, who was given an amazing opportunity to aspire. Both of these lives compose who I am, and equip me with the knowledge to one day change the country I live in.

IDIA needs Vibrant Team Leaders to head the Question Papers Preparation Wing

2011-06-14T15:36:00.002+05:30

IDIA urgently needs a team that will prepare exam papers for training IDIA scholars this year. The team will consist of those who will prepare questions, as also those who will then prepare exams/tests from the question bank so created. We need a strong team leader to lead the “test” preparation aspect. We also need leaders to co-ordinate the process of preparing questions for:

1. English

2. Maths

3. Legal Reasoning

4. Logical Reasoning

5. GK

We need people not only to deliver high quality questions and put together good quality tests, but to do so consistently month after month.

This will be a paid vertical for IDIA and we will pay per question prepared by you. We will also pay for the time involved in assessing questions and putting together tests. At this stage, this is only a call for folks interested in taking on leadership positions. So if any of you are interested in being leaders for any of these aspects, please drop an email to <idiadiversity@gmail.com>.

Please do send your CV to the above email ID and also list out any IDIA activities you’ve done this past year.

Sensitisation at Government Higher Secondary School, Kattappana, Kerala

2011-06-14T15:18:00.002+05:30

The sensitisation session for the XII standard students of Government Higher Secondary School Kattappana was conducted on 3 June 2011. The school is located in Kattappana, a small town in Idukki district, Kerala. The headmaster and teachers of the school were welcoming. We had an opportunity to interact with the teachers of the higher secondary classes before we addressed the students. This was of great utility as we could get a clear picture of the academic as well as economic background of the students. This is the first higher secondary batch of the school and hence the teachers have put great hopes on these students. This school was named the Government Tribal School until a couple of years back but was recently renamed as Government School since considerable number of non – tribals in the area were also looking up to this institution for education. Most of these students are from very poor economic backgrounds and hence are forced to contribute to their family income. Hence many of them work as auto drivers, labourers in pepper plantations, waiters in catering services etc after their class hours and on holidays unlike their better privileged counterparts who spend these hours in various tuition centers and entrance coaching institutes. As we spoke about IDIA, the teachers were happy that new vistas were being opened up for these students as many of them could not even dream of higher education due to financial constraints.

The session for the students began at 2:30 pm. We had 41 students from both Science and commerce batches together, listening to us. A considerable number of students were absent owing to the heavy rains in the district. Taking into account what we had gathered from our interaction with the teachers, we began the session asking how many of them were desirous of pursuing their studies after XII standard. We were shocked to find that only about 50% of the students were desirous of being graduates. Hence the first task ahead was to convince them about the need for higher education. Proceeding further on an interactive mode, it was found that only a microscopic minority had decided upon what career they wanted to pursue. None of the students had even considered law as an option. This was surprising as almost everyone in the class were keen on law and lawyers which was reflected in random questions (which included questions on self defence, murder, various torts etc) which they wanted answered as soon as we entered their class room (and we had a tough time postponing most of these questions for another occasion due to paucity of time!) and yet none of them wanted to be lawyers! This, we soon found, was in-fact due to a few misconceptions about the prospects of this profession.

They were then told about various opportunities available for a law graduate besides litigation which included working with law firms, other corporate firms, NGOs, PSUs and other entrepreneurial possibilities. This went a long way in removing their misconceptions and we found their interest growing considerably. The concept of National Law Schools and CLAT was new to them. They were briefed about the curriculum at law schools which included advanced syllabus, interactive classrooms, moot courts, internships etc. They were also told about the syllabus and question pattern for CLAT. By then we could see the enthusiasm and curiosity growing. We had queries coming up from all corners of the classroom which included the fees structure at law schools. They were disappointed when they heard about the fees structure at law schools. But they were soon relieved when we told them how IDIA could open the gates of Law Schools for them.

We wound up the session at 3:30 pm promising that we would come again to conduct the aptitude test to select students for intensive training. It was a great surprise to find a lot of students approaching us personally after the school hours sharing their hopes about reaching law schools. Many of them were determined and we are sure to see many of those faces in law schools.

Report by Shinsa PM and Telma Raju

IDIA Sensitisation Programme, K.V. Vastrapur, Ahmedabad

2011-03-05T19:59:00.004+05:30

The first visit to KV Vastrapur was made on 27th January 2011 by Aditi Sheth, Tridib Bose and Sanyukta Biswas. It was intended to take permission from the principal, Ms. Jamie James for conducting the CLAT awareness workshop for the 11th std students. She permitted and informed us to consult the Physics teacher Vandana who taught physics in 11th std, regarding the date and time of the workshop the legal and subsequent date for legal aptitude test. So to begin with, we told them the future prospective of studying law. Then we told them, the pattern of taking up streams in the 2nd year, so as to let them to know how even science can be an advantage to them. We explained the difference between an NLU and traditional law schools. We told them about the holistic approach towards legal education in NLUs especially adding the emphasis laid on projects, publications, moots, parliamentary debates, model united nations, committees etc. We finally told them about how CLAT and how to go about preparing for it. Then we told them about IDIA project. Its aim to increase cultural diversity at NlUs and efforts to draw marginalized section of students to the mainline. To touch upon humour, I had personally asked them to check good law movies such as To Kill a Mocking Bird and Erin Brockowitch.

The second visit was made on 2nd February 2011 by Aditi Sheth, Sukarn Singh Maini and Sanyukta Biswas to conduct CLAT awareness workshop. The batch consisted of 44 students from science background. The workshop took roughly 40 mins. The students made rather inquisitive and intelligent questions. 22 students showed keen interest in giving the legal aptitude test. We were informed to contact the biology teacher Moushumi who taught 11th std, for the names of those might be interested in giving the legal aptitude test.The test was conducted at K.V. Vastrapur, Ahmedabad on 9th February, 2011. 31 students appeared for the test. 4 of the team members namely, Tirth Bhatt, Shreyasi, Sanyukta Biswas and Vikrant Pachnanda conducted the test. After conducting the same, the papers were checked and 5 students were shortlisted out of which two has scored 23 on 35, two scored 20 on 25 and one scored 17 but got all her legal reasoning correct. When we met these five students in person, three said that they only gave the test to check their aptitude and that they were not interested in law. Out of these three, two also seemed not to have a problem with their income and also stated that they gave the test only to check their aptitude and that they were not interested in pursuing law. The remaining two seemed interesting and also fell within the low income bracket. However one of them has not responded back and the other is not interested in joining IMS although we did asign each of those two students mentors to assist them.

Report compiled by Sanyukta Biswas and Vikrant Pachnanda on behalf of IDIA Gujarat

IDIA Sensitisation Programme at Kendra Vidyalaya, Annanagar, Chennai

2011-03-05T15:43:00.002+05:30

The first sensitisation programme of IDIA, Chennai Chapter was conducted in the Kendra Vidyalaya School at Annanagar, Chennai on 5th February, 2011. Mr.Naveen Kumar.M, final year student of the School of Excellence in Law, Chennai addressed the students of the 11th Standard. Around 70 students attended the programme. Mr.Ramamurthy, first year student of the School of Excellence in Law, Chennai also coordinated in conducting the programme. Mr.Naveen started his address by clearing the misconceptions that the young minds had about the legal profession. It was pointed out that ‘Law’ is no more the last resort for ambitious and aspiring students in the present day. The basic set-up of the National Law Schools and other reputed institutions was also highlighted.

The speaker explained about the prospective opportunities that law students would have in the upcoming years. An insight was provided about litigationin Courts, corporate firms and L.P.O’s and also about judicial services. The students who are very keen on the pay packages were informed that as a successful lawyer, one can make money certainly more than what other professionals can earn. The students were informed about the primary goal of IDIA and encouraged to enter into the law schools instead of confining themselves in regular courses. The growth of the Indian Legal system, the lives of great members of the Bar like Palkivala, Chagla were discussed in the course of the programme. A sound message was sent that if our country is to be driven in the right direction as many right thinking people expect, it was possible only with the active support of members of the bar and the bench. Mr.Naveen also spoke about the scholarships available for poor students and the support that shall be extended by IDIA in this connection.

Further, the opportunities what a law school student could have like attending International moot courts, internships, debates and conferences was elucidated in the programme. Before the concluding remarks, the students were invited to clarify their queries. It was surprising to note that around 7 to 8 students had very interesting and thought-provoking questions. One girl student asked about opportunities for an academician in law schools. The speaker replied that if she gets into law teaching, she will certainly become one among the best law teachers of tomorrow. Most of the questions came from the girl students compared to that from the boys. The Principal and teachers were very accommodative and it is certain that the IDIA movement shall become a big success in Tamil Nadu.

Registration of the IDIA Trust

2011-02-14T11:21:00.005+05:30

Friday, the 4^th of February 2011 was a momentous day for IDIA. For this was the day when the IDIA trust came into being, comprising of:

Prof. M.P.Singh, Vice Chancellor, WBNUJS

Justice Ruma Pal, ex Supreme CourtJjudge

Shishira Rudrappa, Founder, Bar and Bench

Shamnad Basheer, Ministry of HRD Professor of IP Law, WB NUJS

The trust deed appoints Prof. Shamnad Basheer as the first managing trustee.

The first meeting of the IDIA trust was held on the very same day at the National University of Juridical Science, Kolkata. The meeting was attended by all the trustees, namely, Prof. M.P.Singh, Prof. Shamnad Basheer, Mrs Ruma Pal and Shishira Rudrappa and also by the IDIA team leaders and volunteers present at NUJS. The meeting started with Prof. Basheer introducing the trustees to some of the IDIA team leaders and volunteers and thereafter each team leader was called upon to introduce his/her chapter and team before the trustees, in order to give them a fair idea about the work that has been undertaken by each of the chapters of IDIA.

Before the commencement of the presentations, the IDIA brochure prepared by Vivek Verma and Diptoshree Basu was handed out to each trustee.

The first presentation was by Diptoshree Basu who leads the Diversity at Home chapter and North East chapter of IDIA, followed by Arnab Roy who presented on the WB IDIA team. Thereafter Kumar Kislay introduced the IDIA Jitholi chapter to the trustees, Anusha Reddy on the Hyderabad chapter and Gazala on the Kashmir chapter. Priyanka Raj and Avisha Gupta presented on the training and question banks being created by IDIA for CLAT 2011. Prajna Mohapatra who heads the research and policy wing of IDIA elaborated on the various aspects on which IDIA has undertaken research and assisted the CLAT Committee 2011 to take decisions and make welcome modifications to CLAT 2011 paper.

After the presentation, Prof. Basheer introduced the other functional chapters of IDIA (such as Karnataka, Rajasthan etc) whose team leaders were not able to attend the meeting . Thereafter, the trustees interacted with the student volunteers and asked questions pertaining to the day to day functioning of the project. Mrs Ruma Pal suggested that IDIA must provide interest free loans to the IDIA scholars instead of providing full scholarships to them, given the current status of funds for the project. She also asked the students whether they have any provision for selecting girls as a part of the diversity objective. Mr. Rudrappa stressed on the need to document all the processes at IDIA so that it is easier for future teams to co-ordinate with each other and conduct all the processes without depending on any particular individual. Prof Basheer assured them that documentationwas being undertaken by each chapter and uniform formats being used by them to make the process more homogenous.

He also put forward the proposal of appointing a full time CEO from May 2011 who will oversee the functioning of the project on an all India basis.

The IDIA team thanks Debanjan Mandal, Sourav Bhagat and Paroma Ghosh of Fox Mandal Associates, Kolkata for their help in drafting and registering the trust.

Sensitization at St.Thomas sister schools

2010-12-04T10:24:00.000+05:30

We, Neha .M.Kurian and Sachin Sathyarajan, conducted presentations on law as a career option and also about the immense opportunities in store for them at the National Law Schools. Every year a good number of students from the St. Thomas family make it to the National Law Schools. However the level of awareness about the career option is considerably low among the student community especially among science students.

We were very excited to be back at our alma mater and speak in front of our teachers and juniors. The Principals, Career Counsellor and Faculty of both schools were very appreciative of our initiative and gave unconditional support for our endeavour.

During the interaction it was evident that almost 90 % of the students still believed that they wouldn’t be on their own feet with a good paying job after earning the degree. The students were unanimous in the opinion that the profession was a very stagnant and corrupt one. Only few knew that compulsory apprenticeship under a senior lawyer and evening classes were a thing of past.

We highlighted that students from science background can fare equally well and are at no disadvantage in contrast to public perception. We further told them that students with aptitude in this field should definitely give it a shot as Many students were inspired by the example of Shamnad Basheer himself who shared the same schooling and now has made such an impact at a young age. We specifically mentioned all the national law schools in India and also that the rankings published by certain magazines were flawed and not to be trusted. As expected, the varied exposure in form of internships, moot courts , debates and seminars which they would not find in other disciplines got them very excited.

The attractive salary packages did not easily sink in and many doubted whether we were bluffing. Several civil services aspirants came forward and asked about specific benefits to them. The sheer diversity of opportunities after the law course made many engineering aspirants give it a second thought as they wanted a more socially conscious field.

Several students expressed concern over the time aspect of preparing for CLAT as many were already attending other entrance coaching. Many expressed concern over the level of General Knowledge and Math questions for CLAT. We interacted with more than 350 kids and even though only a handful of them had started out with a decision to appear for CLAT, a huge number of them from all groups expressed genuine interest in CLAT and in Law at the end of the seminar. All in all it was a very positive interaction for both the students and for us and we saw a lot of hope for the field in the St. Thomas Schools. Viva St. Thomas!!!!

Winds of Change

2010-11-16T23:43:00.002+05:30

Hey,
The IDIA blog team has been brainstorming to make this blog more helpful and entertaining for all its present and future (hopefully) readers. Watch this space for more
Much love,
The IDIA blog team

IDIA Jharkhand Sensitization Programme

2010-11-13T10:41:00.002+05:30

IDIA Jharkhand Chapter kick started its first sensitisation programme on 25^th of October, 2010 in Ranchi. Our team comprising of Nikhil Kaman and Srishti Aishwarya, firstly went to Oxford Public School. The school authorities appreciated our “IDIA” and were more than welcoming. We were allowed to give presentations in 11^th standard which consisted of Science and Commerce sections.

We first gave presentation in Commerce sections. We started on with asking students about what idea do they possess about law as a career option and what do they expect from their career. Their idea about law seemed to be limited to the traditional notion of three year course and most of them showed a preference towards the field of Management, BBA, BCA, C.S., etc.

We began with telling them that what law as a career offers them. The thought of getting empowered and financial stability and security that the profession can offer, started catching their attention and interest. We went on to explain them about 5 year law course and about the National Law Schools and other law colleges that has five years integrated law course and the job prospects after that and the alluring packages offered by law firms. Special emphasis was laid on the fact that law offers them with myriad career opportunities ranging from jobs in law firms, International Organisations, NGOs, PRS, or getting into Judiciary Services and last but not the least, going for Litigation. We further explained them about CLAT and how to prepare for it, few students even noted down the question pattern as we discussed about it.

Our purpose of going there was elucidated to them and the whole concept of Increasing Diversity by Increasing Access project and the fact that we select students from under privileged background via an aptitude test and provide them with free of cost training for CLAT in IMS. We provided them with our contact details and requested them to go to CLAT website and IDIA blog and also to Clathacker.ning for getting a detailed idea about everything.

After our presentation was over, we asked them if they had any query or question. It was wonderful to see students posing their question and showing interest, questions were raised about how to prepare for CLAT and when does the CLAT exam takes place. We gave replies to these questions to the satisfaction of students and took their leave then, thanking them for their patience and interest.

Thereafter, we waited during the recess break after which we had to give presentation in Science Sections. What was most encouraging was that during the break, two Science students of Standard 12^th came to us, asking us about CLAT and IDIA after hearing about our presentation from their peers. The interest showed by them was amusing and confirmed that our effort to sensitize is not going in vein. They went contended after getting answers to their questions about IDIA, CLAT and how to prepare for it.

After recess break we went to Science sections where all the students were either interested in Medicines or Engineering. When we talked about law as a career option, the first response was that they don’t want to get into the field in which people fight in Courtrooms!! We tried to break their stereotype views and gave them a broad idea about what law as a career is and the job prospects and opportunities. We then told them about CLAT and IDIA. The presentation went well and students were responsive, though it was hard to make them think out of the box.

After giving our presentation we thanked the school administration and Mr. Hazra who is a teacher out there and who arranged everything, for their co-operation and whole hearted support.

After Oxford Public School, our next destination was St. John High School where we went on 26^th of October, 2010. The principal was cordial enough to allow us to give presentation. We addressed the mass of around 120 students of 11^th standard, Science stream. We began with posing some question about what idea do they have about law as a career. All they knew about was the local law college out in Ranchi and seemed disinterested. Nevertheless when we began our presentation, telling them about the job prospects and other opportunities, followed by details about National Law School and other colleges like Government Law College, Symbiosis, they started evincing interest. In fact before we could move on to tell them about CLAT, question started pouring in about how to get into National Law Schools. We then told them about CLAT exam and the fields from which questions are asked in it. The major concern of the students was how to prepare for it. We suggested them to read Wren and Martin for Grammar and magazines like Competition Success Review, Pratiyogita Darpan for General Knowledge. We went on to tell them about Increasing Diversity by Increasing Access project and that we select students from economically weak background via an aptitude test and provide them with free training for CLAT in IMS.

After our presentation was over, we asked students if they had any query. Apart from question about how to prepare for CLAT, an interesting question was raised by a student who asked that how can we help people and work for their rights after becoming a lawyer. We then elaborated on the fact that they can work with NGO’S, International Organisations like UN, Amnesty International and other Human Rights Organisation. We further gave our contact details and address of CLAT website, IDIA blog so that they can make an informed choice about their career.

With this, our presentation for the day witnessed an end. We tried going to some other schools as well, while principals of few schools exuded hostility and did not allow us at all. Some other schools like Kendriya Vidyalayas were having their Mid- Term exams and so we were asked to come in the month of December. We plan to select students in the month of December and start training them.

Apart from going to the schools to carry out sensitization programme, we used the medium of Radio to reach out to the masses. A programme on “Vidhi Shiksha ka Mahatva aur Disha Nirdesh”, talking about law as a career option and IDIA was given by me on Aakashvani, Hazaribagh, Jharkhand that was broadcasted on 28^th of October, 2010. A very good response was evoked by the programme as told by the Programme- Coordinator at Aakashvani, Hazaribagh.

In the ending note, I would like to acknowledge the efforts of all the IDIA Jharkhand chapter members and would like to extend special thanks to Kumar Rahul for his sincere support and Nikhil Kaman for his help in carrying out the sensitization programme.

IDIA Internship in Hyderabad

2010-11-12T16:15:00.000+05:30

What is the IDIA?

The IDIA (Increasing Diversity by Increasing Access) Movement started off under the leadership of Professor Shamnad Basheer of the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences (NUJS) as a movement to eliminate the inequities of education. Some very disturbing statistics reflected a complete lack of diversity, with a majority of the students clearing the entrance tests for these Universities hailing from the upper middle socio economic class bracket. The IDIA team set itself up, first in NUJS, and then in other National Law Schools throughout the country, as an attempt to question and change these statistics. The aim is to provide access to the resources required to crack the entrance exam to students who would not be able to get access to them otherwise.

What does the IDIA do?

Local IDIA Chapters have been set up in Kolkata, Jodhpur, Bangalore, Lucknow, Kochi, Hyderabad and many other places. These local chapters have conducted aptitude tests in various schools for the underprivileged, and have started an intensive training programme for those who did well, and those who are interested in pursuing law as a career. A lot of students were found to be initially very apprehensive about their career prospects, but enough information was disseminated in this regard to convince most of them about the advantages of this career choice.

In addition, the IDIA has been pushing relentlessly for reforming the CLAT. These concerted efforts have resulted in the CLAT Committee agreeing to various affirmative measures—for instance, removing the section on static general knowledge, and legal knowledge completely from the paper. The rationale is to test the aptitude of the students, rather than the knowledge.

The Hyderabad Chapter

The Hyderabad Chapter is particularly interesting, since it is the only centre in the country where an effort is being made to increase access to legal education to the disabled. For this purpose, a school for the visually impaired, Sai Junior College, has been adopted in Raniganj. This school is run by the Devnar Foundation which is headed by Padma Sri Saibaba Goud who is also the President for the National Society for the Prevention of Blindness (NSPB). Ten students have been selected as IDIA Scholars, who are to receive free training for the CLAT. Laptops have been bought for these students, so that digitized study material can be converted to audio format to facilitate learning for them. Classes have recently commenced in all five subjects for these students as part of their training.

What Will Interning With the IDIA Mean?

Interning with the IDIA will mean being part of the teaching process for the IDIA scholars. The subjects to be taught include English, Logical Reasoning, Legal Reasoning, General Knowledge and Maths (grade ten levels). This is an immense opportunity, more so for law students, because the IDIA Scholars are not only exceptionally bright, but also extremely keen to learn about the Law, and understand its various facets. While most students would cherish the process of teaching in itself, the IDIA experience is that much more of a process of self-discovery in that it deals with children who have managed to devise incredibly ingenuous ways of learning for themselves. This internship presents the opportunity of being part of something extraordinary, something that might change the face of legal education in the country, but will definitely change your paradigm of life.

Requirements

All interns will be expected to help with a wide variety of work. For instance, they may be expected to conduct weekly classes, act as scribes for practice tests, help in analysis of test results etc. The internship programme will extend to at least four weeks. All students who have graduated from school, and are currently enrolled in a course in Law or are graduates from the same, are qualified to apply. Selections are subject to the discretion of the Internship Cell. No specialized experience or training is required and you can feel free to come up with new, innovative modes of teaching and working. The interns are required to work in Hyderabad under the Hyderabad Chapter during the months of November and December.

All interns found to have worked in a committed manner by the end of the stipulated time period will be granted certificates for their efforts signed by Professor Shamnad Basheer, on behalf of the IDIA Initiative.

For further details, feel free to email anushareddy92@gmail.com or call at 09163787994 or 09163787987

We hope to hear from you soon.

Results of the IDIA Question Making Competition

2010-11-07T12:20:00.000+05:30

After having received entries from law colleges across the country, the IDIA family is delighted to announce the results for the IDIA Legal Reasoning Question Making Competition. The first place is bagged by Mohit Maheshwari of NLU, Jodhpur. The second place is shared by Nihal Joseph and Shrishti Goyal of NUJS. And in the third place is Sanjay Gupta from GLC, Mumbai. The winning entries carry with them cash prizes worth Rs. 6000. We’d like to thank all the participants for their enthusiastic response.

Hyderabad October Update

2010-11-07T12:08:00.000+05:30

The Hyderabad IDIA Scholar Programme made its formal beginning on 12th October, 2010

Sai Junior College for the Blind founded by the Devnar Foundation for the Blind

The team has selected ten visually impaired students from Sai Junior College founded by the Devnar Foundation based on an aptitude test conducted earlier this year. For the first time, the core group of IDIA-Hyderabad met each other and the students. Dr Saibaba Goud who heads the Foundation was kind enough to come down to interact with us and the students. Representatives from IMS were also there for most of the day, assessing the workability of the initiative.

The purpose of the meeting was primarily to conduct another test to check strengths and weaknesses of the students; however, upon learning that the students had just completed a civics exam, we decided to postpone it. Both the team and the students were inquisitive, leading to a vibrant interaction. The students showed the team how they calculate maths questions, including algebraic equations, with the use of a Taylor Board. They engaged Shamnad Sir about the Ayodhya Judgment with information they had learned from the television. He encouraged the students to give reasons for their opinions, and asked them to distinguish between political and legal reasoning. The overall impression we got was that the students were keen to learn and very well aware of current affairs. Some of them expressed an interest in the Satyam scandal and were enthusiastic to find out about what was happening to Ramalinga Raju in court.

Following Professor Shamnad, Rahul Sir, a distinguished corporate lawyer, explained the various career options available after a complete legal education. Amit Sir followed by sharing his experience as a visually impaired student in IIM-A. He empathized with the difficulties of studying as a visually impaired student, but emphasized the importance of continued higher education to motivate similarly impaired persons to aim for the skies. On his coat-tails, the students from NUJS and NALSAR talked about college life and various opportunities that arise from attending National Law Schools.

It was heartening to see how inspired the students were and how they constantly tried to voice their own opinions, and with some encouragement, take an active part in all discussions.After the test was conducted and results were declared, the students went through a session in which every question of the paper that they had solved was discussed in detail. The students of NUJS and NALSAR along with Shamnad Sir explained the answers, and the correct reasoning to get to those answers. The question that arose most often during this process was related to how one is to go about training visually challenged students. As Sir always says “We do not have all the answers right now but will overcome every obstacle that comes along our way.”

Although it took some re-assessment, the students are smart and extremely hardworking, with amazing powers of retention. Questions which tested reading comprehension - that is, generally lengthy questions - were answered correctly. What we realized is these students are very eager to learn and every question can be explained to them with a little patience.

The students were also provided with net-books (Samsung N150) with necessary software such as AMIS installed to make their learning simpler. The software installed converts the digitized study material to audio format to facilitate learning for them.
While most students would cherish the process of teaching in itself, the IDIA experience is that much more of a process of self-discovery in that it deals with children who have managed to devise incredibly ingenuous ways of learning for them-selves. This workshop presented us the opportunity of being part of something extraordinary, something that might change the face of legal education in the country, but will definitely change our paradigm of learning.

Students of NALSAR and NUJS along with Padma Shree awardee Dr. Sai Baba Goud (chairman of Devnar Foundation for the blind), Prof Shamnad Basheer , Mr. Rahul (a leading lawyer) and Mr. Amit Jain of IMS along with students who have been selected as IDIA Scholars

By
Anusha Reddy,
Hyderabad Chapter, IDIA

IDIA Rajasthan Sensitisation Conducted in Central Academy, Jodhpur

2010-10-21T01:58:00.001+05:30

In furtherance of IDIA’s objective to reach out to students of all social strata and sensitise them about law as a career option, an orientation session was held at Central Academy, Chopasani branch, Jodhpur on 13.10.2010. An assembly of around 270 students studying in 11th Standard (All streams) were briefed by a team of 4 IDIA members comprised of Niket Anand, Abhinav Prakash, M Abhijnan Jha and Nilesh Chaudhary. What was important to note that all the members were from 2nd yr and they were just awesome with the students. They enthralled the session magnificently well and had a very receptive audience.

The team reached the school by 07:45 hours and immediately were called by the principal, Rashmi Bishnoi for a personal meeting and in the meanwhile issued instructions to students of class 11th to come to the assembly hall for the interactive session with the team. the principal in the meanwhile presented some queries that she herself had about CLAT and about national law colleges. The team was then asked to move to the assembly hall where the students were present in numbers which were more than what was expected. One of the teachers introduced the team to the gathering and described to them the purpose for the visit of the team. The team was welcomed on to the dais with applause.

The gathering of the students was first addressed by Abhinav Prakash (IDIA Volunteer) who started off with giving them a briefing about the IDIA project and describing the objectives of this initiative. He then went on to discuss Law as a career and presented to the students the advantages of pursuing Law as a career. Abhinav also dwelled upon the National Law Universities that offer the 5 year law course. The students were given an idea about the returns of following Law as a Career and the lures that it had in store. Abhinav also mentioned the future prospects of a career in Law.

After having made the students feel motivated to pursue legal studies, Niket Anand (IDIA Core Committee IDIA Member) went on to the dais to describe the right ways to get into the best Law universities in India. He described the process of admission through CLAT (Common Law Admission Test). The students were told about the subjects related to which questions are asked in the CLAT examination and also about how they need to prepare themselves for it. Niket lay special emphasis on the topic of legal aptitude and mentioned to the students that it was the area that gives the edge to one student over others.

M Abhijnan Jha (IDIA Volunteer) later took over to discuss in detail the lures in the career of a lawyer. He described the pay packages that a new recruit at law firms receive and about the aspect of getting into the judicial services. He even described to them the extent of job security and told them the statistics for the campus placement that happened last year.

After discussing all aspects at length, Abhinav asked for any queries that might have arisen among the students. Hands were raised and some really interesting questions were put up before the team. The team was even asked to present a comparison between Law and Engineering as a career and to discuss the low number of seats that the Law universities provide in total. All these questions were answered to the satisfaction of the students.

The students who were aspiring for a career in law were asked to stay back for a personally interactive session with the team. Quite a large number of students, girls and boys alike, stayed back to get some more doubts cleared about CLAT. The session at Central Academy came to an end with this interactive session getting over and the students adding something more to their knowledge of CLAT and its pursuance.

with this IDIA Rajasthan has successfully completed the first phase of sensitisation programme which we chalked out for this semester. The sensitisation programme conducted by 2nd year student was awesomely recieved by the audience. I sincerely acknowledge and laud the effort of Niket Anand, Abhinav Prakash, Abhijnan Jha, Nilesh Chaudhary who were part of the orientation programme.

Abhishek Kumar,

Coordinator, IDIA Rajasthan

IDIA Rajasthan Sensitisation Reports

2010-10-01T16:55:00.000+05:30

IDIA RAJASTHAN CHAPTER In furtherance of IDIA’s objective to reach out to students of all social strata and sensitise them about law as a career option, an orientation session was held at St. Maheshwari School, Jodhpur on

01.09.2010. An assembly of around 80 students studying in 12th Standard (Science stream) were briefed by 7 volunteers. The students divided themselves in various groups: Geetanjali, Jai and Sharddha interacted with a mixed group of students from Science and Humanities backround. Sujoy and Piyush interacted with a bunch comprising mainly the Science Students. The third group was handled by student volunteers Aritra and Saumya.

The general perception among this group was that law is restricted to court-room advocacy and drawing up of wills and deeds. They were initially not responsive to the discussion, which may be attributed to their lack of awareness about the wide reach of law as a profession. However once they were informed about the scope of work available to advocates in law firms or as inhouse counsels in corporate bodies, it managed to catch their imagination and made the briefing more interactive.
The students were comparatively more familiar with other fields of study such as engineering and medical, and could identify with the concept of entrance examinations for law schools only after parallels were drawn with IITJEE and AIEEE. This volunteer found that most students were not clear about the eligibility criteria for giving CLAT, and some had not even heard of such an entrance examination for law schools before. A concise overview of CLAT was given and doubts were cleared about the manner in which application forms for this examination are distributed. The students expressed their reservation about taking additional coaching classes for law school entrance examinations. They were encouraged not to view such coaching classes as an unconditional pre-requisite for cracking such entrance examinations, and to resort to coaching only if they felt the need for it.
Apprehensions were expressed by some students about the high fees charged by such law schools, which were sought to be allayed by giving practical examples of educational loans and scholarship schemes of certain institutions. Queries were also raised about when NLU Jodhpur would start a scholarship scheme for funding the studies of meritorious students from economically weak backgrounds. While wrapping up the discussion, it was heartening to find quite a few students whose interest in law had been kindled by the briefing. Contact details of the coordinators heading the Rajasthan chapter of IDIA along with the official website of CLAT was provided to the students to ensure that any further doubts that they might have can be addressed. Report by team 2 Our experience has been highly enriching and we assess the session as highly fruitful.
We began by asking the students as per their future plans. 80% of the crowd showed interest in pursuing engineering while some 5-6 showed interest in business management. Interestingly there was only one boy who showed interest in doing law and writing CLAT. The session then moved forward with their notions of law, justice and advocates and as per their assessment of law as a career option and existence of legal education imparting institutions, it proved to be too narrow. We started discussing about the varying options that would be available to graduating law students in terms of monetary gains, job experience and exposure. Thereafter the life in a law school was described to attract their interest and making them visualize of a life which provides ample individual space and capacity to progress living in an extremely different environment which teaches one immensely. In the end, the students were described about the modality of CLAT and how the role of IDIA will shape up if they show interest in pursuing law after 12th Standard.
The session was interactive and the students were inquisitive to know about the prospects of 3 year Law degree and how one can pursue it after B Tech. Further the interested student in law raised an honest query as to how difficult is it to crack CLAT considering English can be a trouble. However the team assured him by proving mathematically that command over all other sections is adequate to get a decent rank in CLAT which assures entry in a good university.
There were other queries raised and it was indicative that their knowledge about law and its prospects did get widen. The best part of the session was that the teacher present during the lecture was also thoroughly impressed and he reiterated and seconded our opinion on planning law as a career option instead of just following a ‘crowd mentality’. We requested the students to further advertise and spread awareness about the multifold options as reflected by us which will help us in a long way in targeting the parents, teachers and other influencers of students.
I had the opportunity of addressing a group of around 40 students from the 12th grade. Initially, was under the impression that I would be talking to a quiet audience but to my pleasant surprise, the students turned out to be quiet enthusiastic about whatever I had to tell them. They were all Commerce students and on conducting a straw poll, I found that mostly wanted to be Chartered Accountants, with little or no inclination towards law. It was my endeavor then, to tell them the merits of interdisciplinary studies to draw their attention towards law. Hence, I started with the merits of a dual degree and how their interests could be streamlined even if they take up law as a career. The discussion was then focused on telling the audience about the various Law schools in India and the requirements in CLAT. A lot of questions were posted on the feasibility as well as possible incentives. The students were interested to know about the difficulty level of the CLAT question paper as well as the syllabus for the same. Also, many were interested in knowing about the fee structure as well as the scope for scholarships. I was also asked about my interest in Law as well scope of further studies. I ended with a few snippets from life in Law school, although, the interest had been shifted to the prospectus of NLU, Jodhpur that had been passed around for the students’ reference. In furtherance of IDIA’s objective to reach out to students of all social strata and sensitise them about law as a career option, the second orientation program was conducted at St. Patricks school, Jodhpur on 17.10.2010. An assembly of around 70 students studying in 12thStandard (Science stream, Humanities and Commerce) were briefed by 5 IDIA volunteers including Geetanjali Sharma (B.A LL.B), Azal Khan, Vijaya Sharma, Geetanjali Sharma (B.Sc LL.B) and Mukul Agarwal.(Coordinator).The session started by volunteers asking questions on law and assessing the general perception of students about law. It was surprising that in a group of 70 (all girls students) around 15 of them seemed interested in pursuing law as a career option. This was indeed a greater number in comparison to the first orientation program. However their knowledge and perception about legal profession were very faulty or juvenile. So although we found a crowd that was relatively more open to pursue different carrier options [maybe because students from humanities were also there] but they were very less aware about the practical realities of any profession. It is vital to note some of the perceptions that the students had which was reflected through the nature of questions they posed.A student pointed out that a student in IIT even if cannot prove himself to be at the top would get a decent salary of 1 lakhs per month. However in a law school one had to work like very hard and then also they would get not more than 15 thousand. [the same was answered by providing them statistics about pay packages of Microsoft, Google, Infosys, HCL etc and the top tier law firms]. It was also pointed out by another student that law as a career option might not be conducive for a woman as it is to a man. Another girl was surprised to know how lawyers can perform social work and how the nature of contribution they make in the society, can actually affect the society positively. One of the girls also raised a doubt that the discussion would be fruitless unless their parents are convinced as they still perceive law to be a third grade career option. [we extended all our willingness to discuss with the concerned parents by medium of providing our contact details and also requesting the school administration to follow on any such request made by students] Most importantly students pointed out that law is associated with corruption and parents would not want them to get into such a field. [we went into explaining different facets of law like corporate law, IPR, income tax etc so as to show that a lawyer is not just what they have seen in Hindi movies] Hence the session was highly interactive and there were instances of mindboggling exercises to convince them on certain aspects. The teachers however seemed to be convinced and promised us to involve students in similar discussions whereby they can make an informed choice to chose a particular career as they option.
I sincerely acknowledge the IDIA Members and all those involved who conducted the senistisation Programee. I have a special word of appreciation for my Joint Coordinator Mukul Aggarwal. I laud the effort of Piyush Singh, Geetanjali Sharma ,Jai Sahai who worked relentlessly in order to conduct the orientation programme and gave final touch in the report.Finally,
I sincerely thank Ankita Singh, for her effort in preparing the report.

Abhishek Kumar,
IDIA Coordinator,Rajasthan Chapter

NUJS Students Take IDIA to CNLU; CNLU Embraces it Wholeheartedly

2010-10-01T01:10:00.000+05:30

The IDIA team comprising of NUJS students Ramanuj, Kumar Kislay and Kumar Rahul and Vishrut Jain (we) visited Chanakya National Law University (CNLU), Patna (them) on 16^th of September 2010. The introductory talk about IDIA was delivered by Ramanuj and Kumar Kislay.

On the first day itself we were able to convince and motivate around 55-60 volunteers from all the batches. The IDIA CNLU local chapter will be co-ordinated by Rachit Ranjan, an NUJS alumnus, who is a guest faculty there. The students in CNLU were having their mid-semester test hence a comprehensive plan of action could not be drawn. However, we made them aware of the broad area of work to be done by the students. It was proposed by them, that some of the students would like to visit NUJS sometime in November to observe as to how we function.

On the following day, we called a special meet of some of the members of senior batches with the help of whom we had managed to organize IDIA camp in CNLU. Since all of them had already been working with us in IDIA project for some time, we decided that they would constitute CORE GROUP for IDIA CNLU and would lead various teams as formed there. They were also advised to involve as many juniors as possible, so that IDIA could be continued even when they would have left after 1-2 years.

We also talked to the VC as well as some other people of the university. Prof Dr. M.P.Singh had been kind enough to refer us to the Vice Chancellor of CNLU Prof Dr. A. Laxminath. The team met the Registrar and the VC of the university and had been apprised of the IDIA project. He accepted the project for the university and agreed to give all possible support to the project and the students involved. He was even open to the suggestion of instituting the project as a research program. For this he has asked us to send a detailed proposal. The report is being prepared and would be forwarded to him very soon.

Prof Laxminath has also kindly consented to allocate funds for the project if it seems feasible in the University and depending on the students’ participation. Further, with the help of Rachit Ranajn we have been able to create a fund for CNLU chapter. There are 10 of his friends working in Law Firms, who have agreed to contribute a sum if Rs 2000 every month for the IDIA Patna Chapter. We are also trying to bring in more people as funders.

The team further met the principal secretary HRD ministry, Bihar. Since, HRD ministry of the state is deeply involved in the functioning of CNLU it was important to bring them in the loop. The Principal Secretary for the HRD ministry has assured all possible help from their side. They will also help us in creating a fund. Further, they have agreed to provide a list of schools and co-ordinate with them for the sensitization program and further.

The team also met some sitting judges of Patna High Court. Justice Navniti Singh and Justice Jyoti sharan were kind enough to extend all their support and have promised to endorse the project. This would be helpful for spreading the project properly in the state and also for creating a substantial fund.

The IDIA CNLU team will start sensitization work in the first week of November.

SENSITISATION AT OSSANAM ENGLISH MEDIUM HIGHER SECONDARY SCHOOL, KATTAPPANA, IDUKKI

2010-09-13T05:13:00.000+05:30

The sensitisation session for the XI and XII students of Ossanam English Medium Higher Secondary School, Kattappana, Idukki was conducted on 2 September 2010. The Management and staff of the school were welcoming. The novel idea of sensitising pre- varsity students to take up law as a career option was appreciated by the headmaster of the school, Fr Dominic.

It was sad that some of the schools in the district were reluctant to permit the IDIA volunteers to proceed with the sensitisation programme. The prejudiced approach of the school authorities and their unwillingness to change the conventional conception that they have about the legal profession was disappointing. It is an irony that people who are supposed to widen and modernise the outlook of the students narrow down their options to medicine and engineering. The experience that we had was both educating and disheartening. It would not be possible to resurrect the lost glory of the profession unless the older generation is ready to change their mindset. The realisation of the hurdles on the path ahead helped create a great sense of responsibility in us.

The welcoming attitude of the authorities of Ossanam EMHSS shows the genuine interest that the authorities have about the future of the students. The school believes in educating students than making them mere literates. Thinking beyond the prescribed syllabus was taking the path less travelled by!

The session started around 10 am. Each class had to be separately addressed owing to the constraint of time and space. The students were receptive and at the same time doubtful about the prospects of the profession. They heard about CLAT for the first time ever in those sessions. The idea of national law schools was also new to them. We made them realise the various options available to a law graduate besides litigation.

At the first instance they found it hard to digest. As the session advanced, they were successfully convinced of the different opportunities available to a law graduate like working with law firms, NGOs, other corporate firms, social organisations and other entrepreneurial possibilities. They were also informed of the advanced academic training and exposure available at the law schools. But as we proceeded with the fees structure many of the students openly expressed their disappointment at the unaffordable rates. It was to their relief that IDIA is providing financial aid to financially weak students.

The interactive session followed. It was to our surprise that the students instantly came up with their queries without any hesitation. A good number of the questions were on CLAT and its preparation. They also wanted to know the syllabus followed in the law schools. Those students who took CLAT seriously came to us to know more of the life at law schools which included internships, moots etc.

At the beginning of the session of the 203 higher secondary students who attended, only 3 students were interested in the profession and around 10 students had some idea of the subject. However, after the interactive session 150 students showed real interest in law and attempted the aptitude test. We hope to see at least some of those faces in the national law schools.

Report prepared by Nimmy Tom and Telma Raju

IDIA Gets Its Logo [UPDATED]!

2010-08-31T14:24:00.000+05:30

A big thank you is also due to all the law students, lawyers, law firmites, legal academicians and others who sent in their entries. The entries were diverse in content and style and the democratic short-listing of entries, done by the IDIA core team was a very difficult task indeed. Entries were received from as far as the US with some participants sending more than two entries. Thank you again for your commitment.

We will also be showcasing the other brilliant logo entries which narrowly missed out from winning this competition. Stay tuned.

PS- We have also announced our first Legal Reasoning Question Making Competition. The three best set of questions will win 3000/-, 2000/- and 1000/- respectively. This is what Prof. Shamnad Basheer's FB status had to say about this competition: "Are you good at legal reasoning? (or do you think the term itself is an oxymoron, since there is no reason in the law). Can you frame complicated questions that many would take years to answer? If so, this competition is just for you. Pit your legal brains and your creative juices against the very best"!

IDIA Question Making Competition (Legal Reasoning)

2010-08-29T15:11:00.000+05:30

- By Sahana Manjesh

What is IDIA?

Increasing Diversity by Increasing Access (IDIA), is a nationwide program that aims to draw in talented students from marginalized and under-represented parts of India to the best national law schools in the country. Thus, students are identified and trained to crack CLAT, the joint entrance exam organized by 11 law schools. The program is in its first year and we have already selected around 50 students for training.

What is the question making competition?

As part of the training given to IDIA students, we are looking for a bundle of outstanding questions in legal reasoning to prepare the students. Thus, this is a competition to select the best set of questions. You must submit 10 questions at the very minimum. The more creative and tougher the questions, the better!

What’s in this for you?

Lots of prize money to be won! The best set of questions get a prize of Rs. 3000, the second best Rs. 2000 and Rs. 1000 for the third place.

What kind of questions are we looking for?

We are looking to get from every participant (teams allowed) a set of ten questions (at the very minimum) in legal reasoning in any area of law that you like (a mixture of different laws is preferable). Remember that these are students who do not know anything about the law. We are testing for only aptitude for legal reasoning…and not for the knowledge of the law. So please do not assume any knowledge of the law…if you are using any legal concept or term, please explain its meaning in the problem itself. The student should be able to solve the problem by simply reading the legal principle or principles and then applying them to the fact situation.

Legal aptitude is also the ability to sift through a morass of facts and to distinguish the relevant from the irrelevant. Therefore, ensure also that your problems have a bunch of relevant and irrelevant facts thrown in, the more the merrier; we’d like the students to be able to sift out necessary information. We’d also like to get some really tough questions, so turn up the difficulty level! You will find at the end of this document two sample questions for guidance as to language and level of toughness. Please feel free however to come with a format that suits you best; we’d like you to work around with the options so that we can have a truly tough set of questions. The questions should be in the form of MCQs. Please note that the all questions submitted are free for use by the IDIA team and/or their partners in any manner they deem fir for the purpose of furthering the goals of the IDIA project.

Where and how do we submit?

Please mail in your questions to sahanamanjesh@gmail.com. The questions must be sent in a word document along with details about the team. The entries must reach us before midnight of 20 September 2010. Questions must be accompanied with answers.

Sample Questions

Find below two sample questions for your guidance. You will notice that terms like “patent” have been explained in the question itself. The right option is the one in bold.

Sample Question 1

Question:

The law of country A stipulates that a patent shall not be granted for a method of medical treatment.

Explanations: (i) Treatment includes any act of diagnosis, therapy or surgery on the human body.

(ii) A patent is a legal monopoly granted to any inventor who discovers a new and useful technological invention. By virtue of this monopoly, the inventor has certain legal rights and can prevent others from manufacturing a product or using a process or method corresponding to that patent for a period of 20 years.

A is admitted to hospital after meeting with a car accident. As A is being operated, some of A’s blood is taken away for routine testing purposes. It is then discovered that A’s blood contains a rare protein that could be useful in fighting cancer. However, the blood cannot be stored for a long time. One of the doctors comes up with a new method of storing the blood without any risk of the blood disintegrating. Can this method be patented?

1. It cannot be patented, as it is not really new. Ways of storing things have been known to mankind for a long time.

2. It cannot be patented, as the method is not useful

3. It cannot be patented, since the method was discovered in the course of treating a human body.

4. It can be patented, since it is new and useful.

5. It cannot be patented, since doctors are in social service and should not be awarded monopolies.

6. It cannot be patented, since the method exploits the condition of an “accident” victim.

Explanation of the answer: since the method of keeping the blood stable has nothing to with “treatment” on the human body, it is not a method of medical treatment. Therefore, if new and useful, it is patentable.

Sample Question 2

(Please note that the reasoning given at the end of the answers is only for your guidance. You will only be required to send in questions with multiple choices.)

Given below are some principles that govern wills.

Principle 1. When there are two inconsistent clauses in a will, the last one will prevail.

Principle 2. If the same quantity or amount of something has been bequeathed (willed) twice to the same person in the will, then it is deemed to have been bequeathed just once. If however there are unequal bequests made, then the legatee (person benefitting from the will) is entitled to both.

Principle 3. If anything that has been bequeathed to a person is not in existence at the time of the death of the testator (person making the will), then the bequest will not take effect.

Sada Khush Raho lived a long and fruitful life. He had a wife, Patni, and two children- a daughter Putri and son Putra. While Putri was a responsible child always having pleased her family, Putra was a bit of an eccentric. In his lifetime, Sada Khush Raho had been a successful book store keeper, having built himself and his family a small fortune through sheer hard work. One day however, as he was arranging the newly arrived books in the shelves, he fell and broke his back, only to be bed ridden for the rest of his few remaining years. He then decided it was time to retire and so at the age of 78, having worked for the better part of his life, Sada Khush Raho put up his boots. When he turned 80, he had a premonition that he would not survive for long and hence decided to draw up a will to determine how his assets would devolve pursuant to his death. He passed away on 14.1.2010, a day shy of his 82nd birthday. The will that he had drafted is now to be executed. This is what his will looks like:

I, Sada Khush Rao, do hereby will that my assets be devolved in the following manner:

• I leave to my daughter Putri Rs. 10, 00, 000.

• I leave to my wife Patni Rs. 5, 00, 000.

• To my son Putra, I leave behind my blue ambassador car.

• Putri, my daughter, is to get Rs. 10, 00, 000.

• The site in Mysore is to be bequeathed to my grandson Yuvaraja.

• I leave to my wife Stridhani Rs. 10, 00, 000.

• The site in Mysore is to be bequeathed to my granddaughter Yuvrani.

Now apply the principles governing wills to answer the following questions:

1. How much will Putri receive under the will?

a. Rs. 5, 00, 000

b. Rs. 10, 00, 000

c. Rs. 20, 00, 000

d. None of the above

Reason: Since there are equal bequests made to Putri, she is entitled to only one.

2. How much does Patni get?

a. Rs. 10, 00, 000

b. Rs. 5, 00, 000

c. Rs.15, 00, 000

d. None of the above

Reason: Since there are unequal bequests made to Patni, she is entitled to both.

3. On 14.1.2009, the family blue ambassador was sold for Rs. 1, 50, 000. What does Putra get on his father’s death under the will?

a. Nothing, the car has been sold and hence this part of the will not take effect.

b. He will get Rs. 1, 50, 000 for that was what was recovered upon its sale.

c. He should get the equivalent of the market price of the car from his father’s estate.

d. None of the above.

Reason: The car has been sold meaning it is not in existence any more.

4. Who gets the site in Mysore?

a. Yuvaraja

b. Yuvarani

c. Both

d. Neither

Reason: When inconsistent bequests are made, the last one will prevail.

This note has been prepared by Sahana Manjesh, a 3rd year student at NLSIU, Bangalore.

Images from here and here.

IDIA Sensitisation Session and Aptitude Test at Loreto Day School, Sealdah (West Bengal)

2010-08-23T15:49:00.000+05:30

The sensitization process at Loreto Day School, Sealdah stretched over a week. On the first day, 5 students of NUJS, Diptoshree, Radhika, Jhalak, Shruti and Suman visited the school to speak to the students about law as a career option and the benefits of studying at a national law school. Diptoshree began by posing some common quiz questions involving famous personalities. Then she asked them about the common link between all the answers: which was that they were all lawyers, who contributed to society in various ways.

She then went ahead to explain the purpose of our visit and the evolution of law as a career in India. She elaborated on the setting up of national law schools and the purpose they serve. Further, all information about a 5 year law course at different national law schools and CLAT was given, with a brief mentioning of the broad areas that are tested.

Radhika took example of Barack Obama to elucidate what lawyers can do for society and how some of them become very famous. Students seemed very enthusiastic about law after the session and the teacher later informed us that all those who attended the sensitization process also wanted to appear for the aptitude test which was to be conducted during the following week. They were especially astounded after hearing about the salaries that law school graduates receive.

46 students appeared for aptitude test conducted at Loreto day school. They asked many questions pertaining to the test and about law as a career prospect. Some of their questions (pertaining to the student profile section of the question paper) were:

• What external sources of parental income needs to be mentioned as monthly income on the test paper? Was it compulsory to mention it?

• Why was parents’ fluency in English required?

• What did ‘Legal profession’ mean?

The students were given one hour to complete the test. However, since they struggled to finish by an hour, they were given another 10 minutes extra time.

After that was the feedback session about the test. Majority said that the test was very confusing, though not particularly difficult. They found the test to be quite lengthy. Logical reasoning was confusing for most however, it was also the most interesting section according to them. Relations and directions were the easiest for many.

Parajumbles were difficult for almost all students. Legal reasoning also confused many of the students. The students had difficulty in applying the principles to the facts. All found the english comprehensions very easy to solve. Saurabh and Avisha solved two of the questions on ‘coding-decoding’ to demonstrate how to solve it.

When asked if the information given to them regarding law as a prospective career convinced their parents, most said yes. Some said their parents were already quite supportive and encouraging about pursuing law as a career. Some however, had not spoken to their parents about pursuing law as yet.

After the results were declared, most of the highest scorers turned out to be from the higher and middle income group and therefore, did not need any scholarship for studying law. The IDIA team decided to simply refer them to IMS, where they can receive training for CLAT after payment of requisite charges. 4 students from lower income group were selected for scholarship. Two of them belonged to SC category and one was from a minority community.

The IDIA team will be visiting the school again, for verification of the income level of selected students from salary statement of parents. They will engage in a counseling session with the parents to confirm their permission for their wards to study law.

Report prepared by Diptoshree.

IDIA Sensitisation Program in Calicut

2010-08-18T06:49:00.000+05:30

In an initiative to expand its operations to northern Kerala, the IDIA began its sensitisation program in Calicut. Sensitization sessions and aptitude tests were conducted at Government Higher Secondary School, Mavoor, Calicut and Rahmaniya Higher Secondary School, Medical College on 7.8.2010. Calicut Co-coordinator of IDIA, Adithya Raj along with an IDIA team consisting of Anna, Sarath and Nithin conducted the programme.

The sensitization session at Government Higher Secondary School, Mavoor commenced at about 11 A.M. 51 students from humanities and commerce stream of the 12 standard attended the programme. Firstly, an interactive session was conducted. As usual, students had a very bleak idea about law as a career option. Law was still perceived as a course for those interested in pursuing a career of a practicing advocate. Law as a career option found favour only with a handful of students and none had even heard of National Law Schools and the varied prospects available to a graduate from such premier law schools. The team therefore had to elucidate about the National Law Schools and the advantages of graduating from the National Law Schools and other prestigious law colleges in the country. The session was boosted with a power point presentation which exposed the need of National Law Schools and the main objective behind the IDIA program.

This was followed by a question and answer session during which the team could clear many doubts about law as a career and correct the umpteen pre conceived notions prevailing among students with respect to law as a career option. This also helped the team gauge the ignorance in this regard prevailing in a literate state like Kerala.The interactive session was followed by Aptitude test. 21 students took the test. The test lasted for 45 minutes. The session was wound up by 1 PM.

The next session was held at Rahmaniya Higher Secondary School, Medical College, Calicut. The programme started at 2.00pm. More than 50 students from the 12^th standard batch of Humanities, Commerce and Science stream attended the session. The popularity of law as a career option and the initial response of the students was the same as elsewhere. As usual, it took the volunteers some time to convince the students about the advantages allied with a law graduate passing out from a premier law college.The interactive session lasted for about 1 hour. Subsequently, the aptitude test was conducted. All the students took the test. The test lasted for 45 minutes and the programme was concluded by 4.00.

The ignorance of advantages of law as a career option in supposedly most literate state of the country, underlines the need for more initiatives like IDIA. IDIA Kerala sincerely hopes to bring about a change in the current situation when it moves to the next phase.

IDIA Training Program at NUJS For Students From Pelling

2010-08-07T23:20:00.000+05:30

The training session conducted at NUJS from the 6th-9th of July, 2010 marked the commencement of the second round of training that would be given to students selected through the aptitude test that IDIA volunteers are conducting in different schools in rural and distant areas. The first such training session of the IDIA project started on the 6th of July, 2010 and completed on the 9th of July. Eight students who were selected by the aptitude test in their school in Pelling had come to NUJS campus for contact classes accompanied by one of their teachers. The training classes for them were also held at the IMS centre in Calcutta.

The centre head of IMS Kolkata Mr Ajay Sharma congratulated the students on being selected in the aptitude test and wished them luck for their CLAT preparation. The training session at IMS was conducted by Mr Rajneesh Singh, the national product manager at IMS. The students were asked about their reasons behind choosing law as a career option. The students did not seem to be very confident about the answer. Some, for obvious reasons, equated study of law with deliverance of justice but there was also a student who candidly replied “Pots and pots of money.”

Rajneesh Singh assured the students all help in the form of online supplements and answering queries speedily via email or social networking sites such as Orkut. IMS had earlier provided these students with all their study materials and he emphasised on the need of studying the materials thoroughly.

Rajneesh helped the students getting acquainted with all the major law schools in the country and their respective entrance tests like CLAT, SET, etc. He also went into the detail of the past year question papers of CLAT. He also gave them a few tips about the strategy on how to attempt the question paper and also to what extent they should give importance to a particular subject.

The faculty who imparted training to these students were a mix of NUJS students and professional trainers. While Rajneesh taught Mathematics, Ramanuj, Rukmini, Jenisha and Shamnad taught English, Legal Aptitude was taught by Bhavin Patel.

Mathematics

Rajneesh started the class with discussing about the methodologies of studying with respect to different subjects. He started off with Mathematics. He realized the students’ apprehensions about the subject itself and assured them repeatedly that it can be the most scoring section among all the other sections if attempted with a definite strategy. The basic concepts of mensuration, arithmetic and algebra were revised. It was repeatedly emphasized that stress should be given on answering the questions correctly rather than getting a substantial portion of the questions wrong. He also discussed about the patterns of problems that could be asked and also the subsections that require more importance. Initially students’ response was slow but they gradually picked up the pace.

The lesson mostly involved discussion of the short cut methods that will help in saving time during the entrance test. As short cut methods were shown, responses started improving. Once the concepts were explained and revised, the students were given questions to solve. The main focus was on formulas, short-cuts and striking out options. He later taught them topics like time and work, time distance and speed, average. The students were asked to follow the Basic Reference Material from IMS while practicing.

English

The first topic to be taken up in English was Reading Comprehension. It was realized during the lesson that the students are considerably weak in vocabulary. The exercise was started by some high frequency words which they were unable to answer satisfactorily. On noting this weakness, it was suggested that they read one newspaper extensively as that will serve both the purpose of English and General Knowledge.

The students were also given an op-ed article to read and understand the arguments that the author tried to make in that article. This class was conducted by Ramanuj Mukherjee and Prof. Shamnad Basheer. The objective of the lesson was to teach the effective methods of reading so that it yields maximum output in terms of culling out points that are important and relevant and the ability to chuck out useless information. The task of the students was to locate important points from the article and spot the central idea. Needless to say, that, they were not very successful in the first attempt but they gradually grasped the principles. The different elements that are present in a write-up were discussed. The main focus was on the simple questions- What to read, How to read, How to remember, How to use. Seeing that the response coming from the students is moderate, Prof. Basheer encouraged them. The students were advised to practice prioritizing in reading. They were urged to follow the arguments, counter arguments and the concepts. Stress was also given on vocabulary. The students were advised to write the important things down and then organize it well. They were expected to discuss the lessons among themselves as it will help in remembering. Prof. Basheer advised them to do group study.

English Grammar was taken up next by Jenisha Parikh and Rukmini Das and a rigorous training was imparted. Students were finding it difficult to even identify the parts of speeches but they were shy to speak out about their problem. The students were facing difficulty in solving the some very easy questions.

Seeing them struggle with the reading comprehension, another class was taken on the topic. A passage was taken from Times of India. Students were advised to decipher the meaning of an unknown word with respect to its context. Tips were given to them about intelligent reading (read along with contexts, headings and subheadings, identification of the tone). They were asked to prepare questions in mind while they are reading.

Logical Reasoning

The concepts of critical, deductive and analytical reasoning were taken up, discussed and cleared through examples. The students took time to understand the concepts.

General Knowledge

Regarding G.K. the students were told that questions on only current affairs will be coming. The students were given tips on extraction of relevant data for the purpose of CLAT from the newspaper.

Legal Aptitude

The legal reasoning class was taken by Mr. Bhavin Patel who himself graduated from NLSIU and was the Chief Legal Aptitude faculty at LST. He started the class by asking the students’ purpose behind attending these sessions. The answers were very candid and ranged variedly from ‘to give justice’ to ‘earn pots of money’! Some were reticent and fumbled while answering. Bhavin plotted all the reasons provided by the student and tried to explain to them the feasibility of the options (reasoning, justice, money, fun). He tried to elicit response from the students asking them to think like laymen and logically arrive to a conclusion. Bhavin emphasized on the point of thinking logically. It is about training their minds to arrive to the conclusion step by step (breaking it down for simplification and also to arrive at the conclusion). They were not required to possess prior knowledge of law. The students took time to grasp the matter but gradually all were involved in the class. He explained them about the concept of justice.

• What is this thing which is loosely termed as justice?

• If the aggrieved party cannot win the suit will it still be called justice?

Bhavin charted the following course justice-court-parliament-constitution. All these were explained by method of simple reasoning and by pushing the arguments. In this method no prior knowledge of law is required. He provided some basic example of problems of legal reasoning (scalpel problem). The students were determining the problem on the basis of what they feel (mostly). While explaining the example he did not write down the options. In this way the students remembered only that answer which they thought was correct at the first go. Then he explained the basic principles in solving a legal reasoning problem. The students became very interested in the class. The problems discussed comprised of negligence, vicarious liability, trespass, contracts. They solved the tough problems at first and then moved on to easier ones. In the first question no one got the right answer but gradually more and more people started getting them right.

Inspiration & Fun

The Vice Chancellor of NUJS, Prof MP Singh visited during the session and vouched for his support behind the entire project. He emphasized on the fact that NUJS is keen on increasing the diversity. Prof Shamnad Basheer also spoke about how Prof Singh came from a small village called Jitholi near the UP border and how from that position he rose up to what he is today.

Other faculty members who came from far flung areas were also introduced to the students so that they could feel that even they have a chance of making it to the premier law schools.

In particular, the experiences of Assistant Professors Shameek Sen and Sarfaraz Ahmed Khan were truly inspiring.

The students were shown ‘Twelve Angry Men’ and were also taken around the city so that they do not miss out on the fun element while visiting Calcutta.

Even while teaching, Rajneesh held a Quiz to retain the students’ interest. The quiz proved to be a fresh respite for the students. Students were very enthusiastic and they responded very well. The quiz consisted of current affairs and static G.K. questions. One special mention has to be made- on being asked who is the prime minister of Japan, the answer came ‘Jackie Chan’! The quiz round consisted of identifying personalities, major events and current affairs.

Conclusion

The students need to put in loads of effort in English and especially grammar. It should be seen that grammar is taught along with some fun. The students need to practice Maths from the study materials provided to them by IMS by using the short cut methods which Rajneesh has taught them. For vocabulary and current GK, the students need to read the newspapers daily. For Logical reasoning, immense practice is required so that students are clearly able to solve problems in deductive reasoning and critical reasoning. Possible help from the faculty will also be required. It has to be seen that the students are able to solve questions in a given time. Most of the students could not complete the paper in a mock exam that was conducted on the third day of the training. For this, proper strategies should be prepared.

Report prepared by Aditi Pal (2nd year, NUJS) and Shambo Nandy (3rd year, NUJS).

Sensitisation Programme at KISS, Bhubaneswar

2010-08-07T07:44:00.000+05:30

The KIIT Law School Chapter of IDIA conducted a sensitisation programme at Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS), Bhubaneswar on 3^rdAugust, 2010. KISS is the world’s largest tribal residential school with a capacity of around 10,000 students. The students from KG to PG are given free education, accommodation and other amenities without any charges. Students in this institute basically come from the poorest of the poor families in the tribal villages of Orissa and other part of the country. This makes the institute the most obvious choice for selection of students for the project.

Group of four students of 3^rd year from KLS, which included Ananya Anindita, Amartya Bag, Aditya Chanakya Boxipatra and Priyasa Patnaik approached the authorities for conducting the awareness and sensitisation programme. The authorities were very helpful and allowed us to interact with the students after hearing our wonderful project and proposal.

The programme started around 11.00 A.M. Mr. A.K. Nandan, one of the teachers in the institute assisted us to the Commerce section of class XII. We could interact with the commerce students (Class - XII) only, who were about 100 in number. The interactive session with the students of KISS was spearheaded by Mr. Aditya Chanakya Boxipatra and Ms. Ananya Anindita.

The majority of the class intended to join the banking sector after their graduation in commerce. The students barely had an idea of the stuffs that we were talking about. In fact they were ignorant of the basics as well. Due to their ignorance, we had to start from the very basics about the importance of law in our life and society. None of them have heard of NLUs or CLAT, nor do they have any idea of the opportunities after studying law other than the traditional knowledge of becoming a lawyer. Then we discussed about the national law schools, how they differ from the traditional law colleges. We also explained them about the pattern of CLAT exam and how hard it is to crack the CLAT. We explained them the objective of IDIA and how we would help them to get them into law schools.

The students were pretty interactive and enthusiastic and were highly interested as we continued to discuss with them about what law is and how law as a career option would indeed be a great choice. Although everyone replied positively when asked if they know English well, but the observation proved otherwise. We would like to mention that the students are not really comfortable in using English for communication purposes. Therefore, we are concerned whether a year's coaching would be enough for them. Apart from this, they need to be trained extensively in English for communication purposes.

At the end of the session, every student was keen on taking the aptitude test which is scheduled to be held in a few days. The session concluded after a long discussion of around two hours at about 1.00 PM.

Report Prepared by Amartya Bag and Ananya Anindita of KLS, Bhubaneswar

To Pelling With Love: CLAT Training Session at Pelling (Sikkim)

2010-08-03T01:33:00.000+05:30

Pelling is a small town hidden in mountain ranges in the district of West Sikkim with an altitude of 6100 ft. Pelling is 115 km from the state capital Gangtok and about 135 km from Siliguri, the nearest railhead and airport. The nearest airport is Bagdogra airport.

Most of the people of Pelling are Buddhists and speak the Sikkimese language. The other languages spoken are Nepali, Hindi, and English. The population in the region has an eclectic mix of several tribes and ethnic groups. Due to lack of access, education, especially the vocational sort, has suffered in this region. The only senior secondary school in a 10 km radius is the Government School,

The IDIA team had earlier conducted a pilot project at Pelling. The project included a talk to on law, law as a career, CLAT and National Law Schools. The team also conducted an aptitude test to identify intelligent students having an aptitude for law.

This time the agenda was to visit the school again to kickstart the preparation for CLAT for these students, distribute necessary books, IMS study material and talk to their teachers to identify such persons who can continuously guide the students. Interestingly, some of the teachers possess LL.B. degrees, but in their own words, they had seldom encouraged their students to take up law as a career.

The main challenge was to teach the students to use the material given to them even in absence of physical presence of a teacher. If we can motivate the students sufficiently, and show them how they can prepare on their own, very good results can be expected. Our effort was also towards building an effective study group amongst these students so that they can learn from each other, and keep themselves motivated in the long run through cooperation.

It took us more than 24 hours to reach Pelling since the beginning of our journey in Kolkata, especially due to a few tricky land slides on the way. The next day we visited the school, met several teachers who expressed their approval of our efforts, and pledged to support it in future.

We gave a set of study material to the library so that it can be accessed by anyone interested in preparing for law entrances. We established contact with the identified students, and ensured that they gather the next morning for an intensive session. The school agreed to provide us with a classroom for this purpose. Several teacher attended the session as well.

After a short introduction by Shamnad sir, we familiarised the students with the CLAT questions, explained the task that they are facing, and took them through the 7 books (see the list here) that were given to them earlier, apart from the several modules in the IMS study material packet. The whole affair continued for a large part of the day. We would have liked to conduct a session on how to use the internet resources effectively, but due to time restraints (the students had their annual examination starting from the next day) we had to skip that.

We (From left to right: Ramanuj, Arnab, Prof. Shamnad Basheer) gave the students certain milestones, things that they have to learn before they arrive at NUJS for the next session of training on 6th of July, 2010 for another 4 days of training. At this time, we shall conduct diagnostic tests to identify individual strengths and weaknesses so that we can help them improve.

Report prepared by Ramanuj Mukherjee (5th year student, NUJS).

IDIA Sensitisation Program at Vimala Hridaya Girls HSS, Kollam

2010-08-01T22:59:00.000+05:30

The Kollam chapter of the IDIA was taken forward with sensitization programme being held at Vimala Hridaya Girls HSS, Kollam on 31-7-2010. State Co-ordinator of IDIA, Raghul Sudheesh along with an IDIA team consisting of Asitha, Bijitha, Vishnu, Navaneet and Ananthu conducted the sensitization program.

The program started at about 10:00 in the morning. The 12^th standard batch of the Humanities and Commerce stream took part in the program. Mr. Raghul Sudheesh and Miss. Asitha spearheaded the interactive session with the students. The lack of popularity of law as a career was manifest from the response of the students. The conventional belief that profession of law meant court and court practice seemed to be rooted in the minds of most present. The volunteers therefore had to convince the student about the diverse opportunities available to a law graduate.

As the session moved on students began to evince greater interest in the topic and a fruitful interactive session followed. Soon umpteen questions were put forth by them pertaining to the scope of law, the term of the course, the scope of law as a career etc. The session underlined the need for senitisation from ground zero as the ignorance about law as a career option was blatantly manifest. After the session the number of law aspirants who were just two at the initial stage increased to 12.The session lasted for about two hours and concluded at about 12:00.

Report prepared by Ananthu B and Murali Krishnan

IDIA Sensitisation Program at Sree Narayana HSS, Cochin

2010-08-01T22:29:00.000+05:30

IDIA Cochin Chapter initiated its activities in Ernakulam on 31-7-2010. The much awaited sensitization session of IDIA took place at Sree Narayana Higher Secondary School, Ayyappankavu between 1.30 PM and 2.15 PM. The team which conducted the session consisted of Aiswarya, Rinie, Parvathi, Boaz, Reshma and Anupama. The fourty five minute long session was held for two classes, one consisting of students belonging to humanities stream and the other of commerce stream.

We started off by asking how many of them were interested in taking up law as their career. To our disappointment, only 3 to 4 hands went up and as usual, they too were ignorant about law schools and the varied career prospects of law. Hence we had to start from the scratch. We began by enlightening them about the various prospects of law. Then we explained about law schools, law colleges and other law institutes and their differences. We also elucidated the difficulties for gaining an entry into National Law Schools. Then we dwelt upon the purpose of IDIA and how IDIA could make legal education accessible to meritorious candidates.

Soon the session became more interactive and informal as the students put forward many doubts. At the end of the session, we put forth the same question that we had asked them in the beginning i.e. how many were actually interested in taking up law. To our surprise and joy, there was a considerable increase in the number of hands that had gone up. Moreover, 10 out of 40 commerce students and 30 out of the 50 humanities students were keen on taking the aptitude test.

Report prepared by Anupama S. and Murali Krishnan

IDIA Sensitisation Program @Raghudevpur Shadharoner Vidyalaya For Girls, Howrah

2010-08-01T15:54:00.000+05:30

The trip made to the school Raghudevpur Shadharoner Vidyalaya for girls Howrah, West Bengal proved to be quite an educating experience for the IDIA team from NUJS. The IDIA team consisting of NUJS students Arnab (5th yr), Diptoshree(4th yr), Ramanuj(4th yr), Radhika(4th yr), Adreeka (2nd yr), Aditi(1st yr) accompanied by Mr. Shameek Sen, faculty at NUJS, conducted this sensitization program.

The students in the school primarily hailed from lower income group. During the entire course of the session, the school authorities were extremely helpful and accommodating. The inputs received from the teacher seconded the obvious apprehension of the team about the lack of awareness about law as a career amongst students in small towns, rural areas and other non-affluent backgrounds.

The students who participated in the session were from XIth and XIIth standard. The team realized from the beginning of the session that the school students had little idea about law as a career. Though they had heard of the 3 year course but they did not have any idea about the 5 year integrated course a National Law University offers.

The team started the session with the question, whether any of them had considered the legal profession as a career option and, literally, none seemed interested. We explained them about what lawyers do and the diverse options one has after doing law. They were told about the various universities where one can pursue law and the advantage of pursuing it at one of the ten National Law schools in terms of better quality of education, infrastructure and recruitment.

The students were informed about the high pay packages given to students from law schools and campus placement. The presenters- Ramanuj and Diptoshree, recounted their personal experiences of choosing law over other professional streams. After the presentation it appeared to them a good idea as it posed law as a viable career option as opposed to last resort. It was noticed during the course of the session that the most important consideration for these students seemed to be social justice as well as economic stability for themselves.

The students hailed from impoverished background. One of their major concerns was regarding the financial assistance they may be provided. Most of them lacked the means for pursuing further education leave alone higher education. Inspite of all the possible financial hindrances that may arise in future, some were ambitious. But the irony is, though they aimed to study medical or engineering (which are also expensive), no one mentioned law. This clearly indicated towards lack of awareness as a primary reason behind the absence of students from economically poor backgrounds in the National Law Universities.

To assess the student’s aptitude for law, an aptitude test was taken which was largely based on Logical Reasoning, General Knowledge, English, Legal Reasoning and Mathematics. The question paper was deliberately drafted in vernacular and only the GK section was in English. The aim of the aptitude test was to identify those students with the aptitude required for law and the ability needed to crack the Common Law Admission Test. They will be provided free and intensive training for CLAT. Then a list of top scorers was prepared and the students were selected on the basis of the aptitude test’s result, their financial background and general academic performance.

The team was quite heartened to see that they were successful in encouraging even those students who did not fare well in the test but still were inclined to consider law as a career option.

Report on the IDIA Kollam Sensitization Program

2010-07-30T23:41:00.000+05:30

The Kollam chapter of IDIA commenced on 29-7-2010 at Kollam Government Model Boys HSS. A team consisting of Rahul, Vineetha, Deepa, ,Tintu, Jiju and Mahesh conducted the sensitization program and the aptitude test with the students of the humanities stream. Many of the students belonged to economically weak background and were unaware about the career prospects of Law. Only one student initially evinced interest in pursuing law as a career.

However, as the session commenced, students displayed eagerness to know about law and the diverse opportunities in store for law graduates. Soon doubts began to pour in and we were overwhelmed by the response. Queries were mostly with respect to the differences between an ordinary law degree and B.A,LL.B.(Hons.), the prospects of a National Law School graduate etc. The team members were soon involved in clearing umpteen doubts raised by students.

After this fruitful interactive session, the aptitude test was conducted. Subsequently, we invited the principal of the school Mrs. Mathuri to wind up the session. By then the number of students interested in pursuing law had gone up to 7. Buoyed by the overwhelming response, the principal requested us to conduct sessions for students of science and commerce stream also. Faustin, the class leader proposed the vote of thanks and the program came to an end at around 12.15.

Inauguration of IDIA Kerala Chapter by Hon’ble Justice D. Sreedevi

2010-07-18T21:29:00.000+05:30

The Kerala chapter of IDIA kicked off at St .Mary’s H.S.S, Pattom, Trivandrum on July 17, 2010. The function was inaugurated by Hon’ble Justice D. Sreedevi, the former High Court Judge and the present Chairperson of Kerala Womens Commission. The function was attended by the 11^th and 12^th std. students of the Humanities stream of St. Mary’s school besides IDIA volunteers from Trivandrum and Kochi. Father George Mathew Karoor, Principal, St. Mary’s school also graced the occasion with his presence. Aswathy Kusumam, volunteer, IDIA welcomed the gathering. Mr. Raghul Sudheesh, State Co-ordinator, IDIA delivered the presidential address.

This was followed by an inspiring speech by Hon’ble Justice D. Sreedevi. Beginning with the maxim “Ignorance of law is not an excuse”, Justice D. Sreedevi went on to give a very informative speech on the importance of law in our society. She proceeded to trace her own career as an example and how her dislike for law gradually disappeared and ultimately evolved into her passion with her stay in the profession. She elucidated upon the need for awareness and knowledge of law not only among the legal fraternity but also among the laymen so as to ensure that the objects set out in the Constitution and other mighty documents like UN Declaration on Human Rights are accomplished.

She also dwelt upon the prospects of law as a career and the bright future which a rapidly developing economy like India held for law graduates. Her enlightening speech ensured that the students present got a clear picture about scope of law as a profession. It was an eye opener for many students who were unaware about law as a career and helped remove common misconceptions.

Father George Mathew Karoor praised the initiative and wished IDIA all success. Ms. Vineetha Vinayan, Thiruvananthapuram Regional Co-ordinator, IDIA, proposed the vote of thanks. The inaugural ceremony was followed by an interactive session with the students. It was headed by Mr. Raghul Sudheesh, the State Co-ordinator of IDIA. The students were initially hesitant to open up and needed a bit of persuasion. Soon doubts began to pour in. The enthusiasm of the students was seconded by each and every person in the hall and every query was accompanied with encouraging applause. From the concept of National Law Schools to the varied avenues which a law graduate could pursue, students were keen on getting all their doubts clarified. However, the deeply ingrained notion that law as a career meant the career of a practicing lawyer with struggle during initial years still persisted among many. The ignorance about law was evident when a student hailing from Chennai stated that “I was in Chennai for many years and have never heard about a law college in Chennai.” He was at dark about the existence of colleges like School of Excellence in Law.

The fact that majority of the students were unaware about the prospects of a noble profession like law testified the need for a mass movement like IDIA to ensure that the benefits of law as a profession percolates down to the lower strata of the society so that they in turn can contribute to the growth of the masses they represent.

Report prepared by Murali Krishnan and Saira George.

IDIA Sensitisation Session at St. Thomas HSS, Thiruvanthapuram

2010-07-15T07:36:00.000+05:30

A sensitisation session was conducted by members of the IDIA Thiruvanthapuram chapter headed by their regional coordinator Ms.Vineetha Vinayan at St. Thomas Higher Secondary School for the students Std.11 & 12 of the commerce batch. The session started at 1.00 PM, a welcome to the IDIA team was given by Mrs. Geetha.K, School Administrator. An insight about IDIA project was given by Pinkey Sara Georgey.

The interactive session was handled by Maneka Nair and Manoranjan. Most of the students were eager to know if they could take the course with any other degree and also to how to crack CLAT. The students had a view that the only option that you have after taking law was litigation. The questions mostly asked were about the 5 year and 3 year course. They wanted to know if they could opt law with any other degree and about the number of law colleges in Kerala.

Some students queried if the entrance was common for all law institutions in India, how many entrance exams were there, the minimum qualification required to attend the entrance, etc. After the session some students who did not raise questions during this group session approached our volunteers individually and enquired about the courses.

We thank the school authorities who were immensely supportive towards our intiative. The session ended by 2.00pm.

IDIA Logo Designing Competition (Deadline extended to August 10)

2010-07-08T15:47:00.000+05:30

It is a huge idea

And we need someone to capture it all in a neat logo.

The IDIA (Increasing Diversity by Increasing Access to Legal Education) is a project which has taken off. We are receiving immense help and support from various National Law Schools, lawyers, law firms, media and other stakeholders.

Now we are looking for a logo for IDIA; something which tells the 10,000 words of our concept note in a few strokes of pen.

IDIA’s Logo Designing Competition invites entries from all the creative individuals out there. Entries by law students and lawyers are especially welcome.

There are no eligibility conditions and anyone can send his/her entry. The winner whose logo gets selected will be given Rupees 5000/- as a prize. The copyrights of the logo will be transferred to IDIA.

The last date for submission is August 10, 2010. We’ll accept logos in any kind of format provided the logo is clear and legible.

You can email your entries to Prof. Shamnad Basheer at shamnad@gmail.com

Or post it to this address:

Shamnad Basheer, Ministry of HRD Professor in IP Law

West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences (WB NUJS)

NUJS Bhavan, 12 LB BLOCK, Salt Lake City, Sector III

Kolkata ‐ 700098, India.

Please do send in the following details along with your entry:

Name:

Address:

Email ID:

Name of the school /college/ place of work:

(Picture from here).

How to start an IDIA chapter at your law college

2010-07-05T10:48:00.000+05:30

IDIA teams are free from bureaucratic controls and institutional requirements. It is a volunteer based movement which any socially motivated law student can initiate at his/her law college.

Here is a brief primer:

1. Read the concept note on IDIA (Increasing Diversity by Increasing Access to Legal Education) to get to know about IDIA in complete detail.

2. In your college inform as many people as you can. Tell your friends about it and get in touch with the Legal Aid Society and other related groups. Send the concept note to the group/batch email accounts. Get the support of the faculty too.

Please note that IDIA has no hierarchical organisation though team leaders are responsible for the allotted tasks.

After gathering considerable support of the students and faculty, talk to your Vice Chancellor/Director about IDIA and brainstorm how your law college can start similar initiatives in and around the area.

You can put a letter by the Vice Chancellor/Director on notice boards asking students to join the IDIA team.

3. Identify senior secondary schools (schools till class 12) situated in rural/economically backward areas in and around your college. See if you know some student/teacher from that school so that convincing the authorities becomes easier. You can also talk to the Principal of the school directly.

4. After discussing it with the school principal decide on some specific day when the IDIA team will visit the school for the talk/seminar and the aptitude test. Prepare well in advance. Talking about local legal personalities, stars go well with the students and so does the mention of placement figures etc.

5. Talk and test- Ideally you will need to reserve two classes (of 45 minutes each, approximately) for the two tasks. During the pre-decided day the first class is utilised for a small talk on CLAT, National Law Schools and Law as a career option. In the second class the aptitude test (which is available to the IDIA teams) is administered to the students.

6. Select- The students who score the highest in the aptitude test are selected after consultation with their teachers. The students selected should have a good chance of cracking CLAT on being provided with coaching.

The aptitude test’s marks are to be tabulated in an excel file.

Those students who are economically well off are not given free CLAT coaching but can surely keep in touch for guidance/mentoring etc. Economically poor students qualify for free CLAT coaching. Their full details should be kept for record.

7. Share- Students are encouraged to share their experiences on the school visits etc. Our blog should provide you a ready reference on that.

8. Reach out- Visit as many schools as possible. Join the Facebook page, the blog, the group mails etc. For any clarification you can contact Prof. Shamnad Basheer of NUJS at shamnad[at]gmail[dot]com or Deepak Raju, a 5th year student at NUJS who is coordinating with the IDIA regional teams at deepakelanthoor[at]gmail[dot]com,

9. Funding and support- Try to get as many funds as possible. Travel, accommodation, printing costs etc. require money and socially committed lawyers, law firms, NGOs, philanthropists etc. should be willing to help you.

You can send the IDIA funding note to prospective donors.

IDIA has a tie-up with IMS for free CLAT coaching. If your area does not have an IMS center you will also need to involve a CLAT coaching institution to train the selected students.

There is a lot more that IDIA teams are doing. You will get to know about that with time when you become the part of the Google groups which have such great levels of activity that it has been difficult to keep with the inflow of emails!

Picture from here.

IDIA Hyderabad Reaches Out to Visually Handicapped Students in Ranigunj

2010-07-04T22:34:00.000+05:30

IDIA Hyderabad conducted an aptitude test in an intermediate college run by Devnar Foundation in Ranigunj, Hyderabad. This college is especially for the visually challenged students. A few of us went and spoke to the students of the school on 24th of June. We spoke to them about law as a career option and how it is a great tool for the empowerment of the society.

In the past, the students of this college have excelled in various fields. One of their students is studying at the prestigious Masssachussetts Institute of Technology on merit. When we spoke to one of the teachers, we were told that some students scored as high as 95% in languages and 92% in commerce. We believed that this was a good college to work with as these students are bright and getting into a National Law University would be a viable option for them.

A total of 40 students registered for the test. Vidyu, Aishwarya, Vaishnavi, Vimal and I (Anusha Reddy) brought along 40 scribes to read out the questions to them individually. Cheers to the volunteers, as we arranged for the volunteers on a day’s notice! We decided to give them 1 hour and 45 minutes (instead of the stipulated 1 hour and 30 minutes) as the government regulations give extra time of thirty minutes to people with disabilities.

Most of the students who took the test were fluent in English. A few of them faced hindrances but nevertheless managed. We conducted the test for the eleventh class students as well.

The feedback that we got from the scribes was that most of the visually challenged students faced difficulty in the long passage questions and also in the sequencing questions as it was difficult for them to remember the correct order as the students could not draw out the series of options on paper.

A very good thing is that most of the students were very good with the General Awareness questions. Some of them did not even need options for the question on the Chief Justice of India!

Everything went off smoothly. We are still in the process of correcting the papers, the results of which we will share with the IDIA Google groups soon.

IDIA Pilot Project at Basanti, Sunderbans (West Bengal)

2010-07-04T01:33:00.000+05:30

IDIA teams have been visiting schools in rural and poor regions of India to inform the students about law as a career option, National Law Schools and CLAT. An aptitude test to assess a student’s logic reasoning skills and aptitude for law too is adminstered to the students.

IDIA at Sundarbans (Basanti):

On 17^th May, 2010 the IDIA team consisting of NUJS students Uddyam (LLM), Sounak (LLM), Suman (1^st year LLB), Arpan (5^th year LLB) and Arnab (5^th year LLB) conducted one of the first sensitization programs of West Bengal at Basanti High School in Sunderbans.

In course of the interaction with the students of Basanti High School, the IDIA team realized that the school students had little idea about law as a career. Though they had heard of the 3 year course but they did not have any idea about the 5 year integrated course a National Law University offers.

In order to assess the student’s aptitude for law we took an aptitude test (35 marks) which was largely based on Logical Reasoning (16 marks). Other sections included GK (1 mark), English (10 marks), Legal Reasoning (4 marks) and Mathematics (4 marks).

The objective of the aptitude test was to identify students with an aptitude for law who possess the ability to crack CLAT and subsequently providing them free and intensive training for CLAT which would enable them to compete with other students from all over India who appear for the CLAT exam every year. On the basis of the aptitude test three candidates were selected who would be given caching to crack the CLAT examinations subject to the consent of their parents.

It was heartening to note that our talk on law as a career, CLAT, NLUs etc. had encouraged even those students who did not do well in the aptitude test to consider law as a career option. The NUJS team promised them full support in form of informal mentoring by students themselves etc.

IDIA' pilot projects require huge investments of time, effort and money and we would appreciate if lawyers, law firms, NGOs and philanthropists help us in this endeavour. Here is how you can help us.

IDIA- How it began: A retrospective look at the Sikkim pilot project

2010-07-02T15:34:00.000+05:30

Prof. Shamnad Basheer (Ministry of HRD Chaired Professor in IP Law) led a team of four NUJS students Diptoshree Basu, Radhika Sarkar, Javedur Rahman and Tanuj Kalia to conduct the first IDIA pilot project at Pelling, Sikkim. The plan was to interact with the students of the only government school at Pelling about career options in law, about CLAT and about National Law Schools.

The stand taken by the concept note to IDIA that there is a lamentable lack of awareness about law as a career amongst low income students in small towns, rural areas and other non-affluent backgrounds stood vindicated. We realized that none of the students had heard of the National Law Schools or thought about a career in law. Even the teachers seemed unaware about law as a career option.

In order to select intelligent students with an aptitude for law we gave them a 30 minute aptitude test. The test was heavy on logic reasoning. The exclusion of questions of English and General Knowledge had been a conscious and deliberate decision.

We then prepared a list of top scorers from each stream and discussed their general academic performance and economic backgrounds with the school principal and teachers. This was followed by an exclusive session with the students, explaining to them what the National Law Schools and the legal profession had to offer. We also spoke to them about life as a law student at NUJS.

At the end of the day, eight students were selected based on the aptitude test’s results, the student’s interest towards law, their financial background and academic records (based on their teachers’ inputs).

During our discussions with them, monetary issues came up as well. Some students asked whether IDIA would charge them any money for the CLAT coaching we would provide. Others worried over the expense of legal education at National Law Schools*.

The Pelling students have, since then, constantly been in touch with our team. We have visited Pelling again in June 2010. The students have also been provided training materials for CLAT 2011. The selected 8 students will make a fully funded trip to Kolkata during early July 2010, to undertake a week long intensive coaching at the IMS Training centre in Kolkata.

If all goes well, we can all hope that a legal Phunsukh Wangdu will come out of a National Law University soon. Afterall, the 400 patents of the original Phunsukh Wangdu will need a good patent attorney!

* It is good to see that lawyers are contributing towards this cause. Mr. Krishnamurthy of Krishnamurthy and Co. has contributed about Rs. 1 lakh. Karan Singh and Sridhar Gorti (both Partners at Trilegal) have contributed Rs. 5 lakhs between themselves. Ameet and Monica Dutta of Luthra have also contributed to the funding. Ashish Ahuja a senior partner at Wadia Gandhy was amongst the first contributors. However, we hope that other law firms and lawyers too will do their bit towards the IDIA project. Here is how you can help.

IDIA Sensitisation Program at Tumkur, Karnatka

2010-06-29T13:33:00.000+05:30

We were quite a varied bunch that attended the IDIA sensitization projects in Tumkur, Karnataka. Conducting the programme along with students of the National law school of India, Bangalore (Adithya Banavar, Amshula Prakash and Aathira Menon), there were two students from engineering colleges- Balachandru and Brijesh. Prakruthi Gowda, who has recently graduated from NUJS Kolkata, had set up the programme in two colleges- Vidyavahini PUC College and Siddaganga PUC College for women.

The team arrived at Vidyavahini College on Tuesday morning around 10:00 where Prakruthi had spoken to the principal and made arrangements for two sessions. This was a co-educational institution with almost an equal ratio of boys to girls. Prakruthi suggested the session be conducted in Kannada, as it may be more effective then. Doubts were raised as to the need for students to comprehend an English presentation, as the aptitude test demanded a basic understanding of English. However a decision was made to conduct the session in Kannada and Prakruthi very effectively conducted all the sessions in Kannada.

We started the first session with a video clipping from an English television show (Just legal) in which a character gives an inspiring speech on the aim of law and about how law is about the truth but needs a lawyer to actually uphold and fight for it. We had hoped this speech would excite the students and perhaps get them interested in the option of choosing law as a career. However most of the students failed to grasp the American accent and the video clipping proved ineffective. Most of the students responded more favourably when asked about a Kannada television serial called Mukta Mukta about criminal law. The students were then asked if any of them had considered the legal profession as a career option and a few students seemed interested. Prakruthi then started the session by talking about what lawyers do and the diverse options one has after doing law.

We then showed the students some clippings of famous lawyers such as Mahatma Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln, Jawaharlal Nehru, SM Krishna, Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama. The students however seemed most excited when told that Malavika Avinash, a Kannada television actress was a lawyer who had graduated from National Law School of India University. In fact there were more students who recognized Malavika than Obama.

Prakruthi then went on to discuss the various universities where one can pursue law and the advantage of pursuing it at one of the ten National Law schools in terms of better quality of education, Infrastructure and recruitment. The students were informed about the high pay packages given to students from law schools and campus placement. The fact that Prakruthi, who is from tumkur had managed to attend a national law school and be placed in a good job seemed to encourage them. After this details of the IDIA project were given. Students seemed apprehensive about the areas they would be tested on and their various doubts were cleared.

The second session at Vidyavahini was also conducted in a smooth manner. For this session we decided to scrap the Just legal video and merely concentrated on the presentation. Fewer students from this batch wanted to do law as they were science students and had decided to do engineering/medical. A few students also had decided to pursue agriculture as a degree course. However after the session a number of students registered their names for the aptitude test.

The next college we visited was Siddhaganga where there were three sessions. Initially, the principal was hesitant to let us address the science students as he believed that they would not be interested in law. As the Arts stream in this college was completely kannada medium we decided to concentrate on the commerce students. In the first session conducted for the commerce students, a number of them had decided to do CA or MBA and only one student had contemplated doing law. We also saw that when asked questions about law or any general questions only one or two students answered. They seemed much more comfortable when spoken to in Kannada than English though all of them knew English.

The only student who had decided to do law was planning on pursuing it in the local law college (Vidyodaya Law College). She seemed interested in the idea of National law schools and we told the students the advantages of pursuing law as a professional 5 year course in a National law school. The fact that students wanted to do CA or study in local colleges shows that they are unwilling to leave the town they are from. This may be due to parental pressure as they are girls and not expected to leave the town for higher education. In the next session, unknown to us, a number of first year students attended the session and were enthusiastic about pursuing law. It is a good idea for IDIA to inform students in 1st PU (or 11th std) about the possibility of law as a number of students in the 2nd PU have already decided what higher studies to pursue. At this stage they may already have enrolled for Engineering or other entrance exam coaching. The third session consisted of science students.

In the second and the third session we showed a video of the Kannada television show Mukta Mukta. Due to the bad picture quality, sound quality and other infrastructural difficulties, this video too seemed ineffective in inspiring the students. We stopped the video midway and focused on the presentation. Here we also recounted personal experiences of choosing law over engineering/medical/CA. This was a good idea as it encouraged the students to think of law as a viable option as opposed to a last resort. It is also a good idea to tell students of the various options they have after doing law and the importance of law in every field, be it IP or corporate. The most important consideration for these students seemed to be salary as opposed to social justice.

Post this session a few students came up to us and asked doubts individually as they were shy to raise these questions in front of the other students. There were also a few students from the Kannada medium who were keen on writing the test. A number of students also decided to give the test based on the reaction of their peers. Prakruthi also conducted two more sessions in Vidyavahini on Wednesday morning before the tests.

The tests in both the colleges saw a good turnout. Almost 150 (148 in all) students wrote the test in Siddhaganga and an overwhelming 244 students from Vidyavahini wrote the test. Almost all students managed to finish the test within the time provided but most of them seemed dissatisfied with it. A number of students from Siddhaganga also mentioned that the test was too tough. They wanted to use their calculators for the mathematics section in the paper and a number of them did not understand the questions in the personal information column (For eg: Students could not grasp the meaning of the question- Have you ever considered a legal career?). T

here were some positive responses though. One student from Vidyavahini asked a number of doubts and is from an economically backward background. The IDIA programme did manage to create awareness about law schools and we hope to conduct a similar session in the boys wing of the Siddaganga college soon.

IDIA Sensitisation Programme at Shanti Bhavan, Tamil Nadu

2010-06-25T18:26:00.000+05:30

As part of the IDIA project- Karnataka chapter, a team of six students[1] visited Shanti Bhavan- a school in Baliganapalli, an impoverished area in the Krishnagiri district of Tamil Nadu that targets children of deprived backgrounds. A student of Shanti Bhavan, Rajini Murugeshjan, has made it into the National Law School of India University, Bangalore after writing CLAT 2010 and we were hoping to find more students who are interested in pursuing law as a career option.

Adithya Banavar started the session by talking a bit about the project to about 60 students from the 8th -12th grade and the option of law as a career option. Only one student from the 12th grade was interested in pursuing law. Most of the other students were either undecided or favoured Engineering or Business. A lot of students were apprehensive about law as they felt that belonging to a particular stream in the 12th grade would hinder their admission into law school.

After clearing their doubts we proceeded to perform a few skits on varied legal topics such as Constitutional law, Criminal law, Family law and Consumer Protection law. We saw that the children were well versed in English and basic legal knowledge, perhaps owing to the fact that they have learnt civics. They were confident and answered most questions and asked us intelligent questions on legal areas. We then interacted specifically with the 14 students belonging to the 12th grade who were giving the aptitude test. We saw that almost every student had decided which field to specialize in and the disinterest in law was not so much a result of ignorance but the perception of lawyers as being poorly paid. We spoke to them about the various advantages of doing law from a premier legal institution and the various career options one can pursue after doing the course. We also cleared doubts as to the age limit for the course.

We then conducted a 30 minute aptitude test which tested them on English, Mathematics, Logical reasoning, Legal reasoning and General knowledge.

Report prepared by Aathira Menon

[1] Adithya Banavar, Deepika Kinhal, Basavana Gowda, Nishita Vasan, Aathira Menon from NLSIU, Bangalore and Javedur Rahman from NUJS, Kolkata.

Towards Great Mentoring Programs At Our Law Schools

2010-05-30T23:16:00.000+05:30

The IDIA (Increasing Diversity By Increasing Access To Legal Education) Project aims at encouraging students from rural areas, poor economic backgrounds, vernacular medium schools and other disadvantaged sections to take CLAT and get admission into the top National Law Schools (NLSs).

It is hoped that the students will substantially benefit from the quality education and immense career options that legal education in NLSs will afford them. However, there are challenges too. One of the biggest ones is social which throws sensitive and very important questions:

Will these students be able to mingle and interact freely with the high class, english medium educated students?

How do we ensure that the so called ‘elitist’ population at NLSs accept students from the disadvantaged sections?

In what ways do we tackle such socially awkward situations?

How can great mentoring programs be launched and what consitutes great mentoring programs?

Please do put in your views and ideas on these queries so that we can put some of them to practice and ensure that adequate and workable diversity models and mentoring programs are in place at our law colleges.

'Mass Movement' for more diverse legal profession kicks off at NUJS

2010-04-20T21:48:00.000+05:30

The is a reproduction of the writeup with the same title published on LegallyIndia.com here.

NUJS Kolkata professor Shamnad Basheer has begun a pilot project to increase access to the legal profession to those from poorer backgrounds, seeking to grow it into a mass movement with funding and involvement from lawyers and students across India.

Basheer and four NUJS students visited a government senior secondary school in the town of Pelling in the North-Eastern state of Sikkim last week, with visits to further towns and villages on the agenda.

They gave career advice lectures and administered an aptitude test to around 120 year 11 students in order to prepare them for the possible taking of the Common Law Admissions Test (CLAT) and entry into law school next year.

"The current student composition at many of the NLUs lack any serious diversity and comprise mainly of English medium educated students from middle class or upper middle class families," said Basheer (pictured below left). "The numbers from rural areas, small towns, lower income groups or non-English speaking schools are deplorable."

He explained that the principal arguments of why one would want more diversity were very simple.

"One is the argument that law is an instrument of power and can be wielded to effectuate social justice and change. Why should a large section of the population not be given access to that power?" he asked, adding that armed with a good legal education these marginalised students would have a much better shot at improving their lot and the communities they represent.

"Second, law schools ought to value diversity for its own sake. A more diverse student community engenders a more diverse set of views and discussions in the classroom and makes for better legal education in the process."

The NUJS team

Current NUJS second year students Tanuj Kalia and Javedur Rahman, and fourth year students Diptoshree Basu and Radhika Sarkar accompanied Basheer on the first trip to Sikkim, which Basheer self-funded.

But Basheer said that although this started out as an NUJS group, it would have to turn into a "pan-India mass movement" to become successful.

One of the main challenges faced, he explained, was cultural. "Some of our brightest students [in Sikkim]who had done well in the aptitude test and seemed eager to seriously consider law as a career faced resistance from parents and teachers because they would want them to be doctors or engineers.

"There is a huge cultural bias against the law and there has to be a huge sensitisation programme, preferably from people who have some kind of personal nexus [to rural areas]."

"But students really loved it," he added. "Even the science guys."

A second obstacle, which affects budding engineers to a far lesser degree, was the level of English language skills, which the ongoing programme is meant to address with classes and practice sessions to "crack the CLAT".

The third large obstacle, according to Basheer, was the tuition fees charged at the top law schools. Around 10 years ago when Basheer was a student at NLSIU Bangalore, tuition fees were tiered and based on a means-testing system where less well-off students paid lower fees. But he lamented that most law colleges had now abolished this system and charged uniformly high fees that were unaffordable to those from poorer backgrounds.

However, NUJS has now tentatively agreed to give preference to students from poor backgrounds in the scholarship funds it can provide to up to 10 per cent of students, said Basheer.

"We want to make it into mass participatory collaborative movement," he added, although he admitted this would require funds and support from a large number of lawyers, law firms and spirited public individuals across India.

Earlier this year NUJS student Ramanuj Mukherjee independently launched an online social networking platform to help those from poorer backgrounds to "crack" the CLAT online.

If you wish to assist with funding, time or learn more about Basheer's programme you can email him at shamnad[at]gmail[dot]com