Harnessing NGO Internships for Student Learning: Project Report Submission to the Gaje Symposium 2021

Non-Governmental Organisations (“NGOs”) are amongst the most important actors in the field of legal education. They offer to students what the classroom never can – an opportunity to contribute to addressing real life issues, while equally contextualising what they learn in the classroom. Yet, the role of NGOs in developing pedagogical innovations in clinical education is often overlooked. Similarly, there exists a discord between the internship model and the clinical legal education model. That is, while many NGOs offer internships, such internships rarely provide the level of cross learning expected from a clinical program. Instead, students are delegated clerical, sometimes meaningless work. A well-designed internship in coordination with university faculty provides an invaluable opportunity for students, NGOs and universities to share and co-construct knowledge. However, the potential of such an arrangement is rarely explored, at least in the Indian context. With this as the point of departure, this report captures the experiences and learnings of Centre for Social Justice (“CSJ”) in promoting practice-oriented learning rooted in field realities through its internship program. While a broad overview of CSJ’s internship program is provided, the predominant focus is on the organisation’s work during the COVID-19 lockdown.