How to start an IDIA chapter at your law college

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

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)

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

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

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

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

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.