Increasing Diversity by Increasing Access

Increasing Diversity by Increasing Access to Legal Education

Founded	2010
Founder	Shamnad Basheer
Type	Community service
Focus	Legal education
Location	Bengaluru, India
Area served	India
Method	Student sensitizations
Key people	Shishira Rudrappa, Mahendra Pal Singh, Ruma Pal
Website	https://www.idialaw.org/

Increasing Diversity by Increasing Access to Legal Education (IDIA) is a non-profit organisation working in India which aims to empower underprivileged children by giving them access to quality legal education. It was initially started by professor Shamnad Basheer in 2010 from West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences. ^{[1] [2]}

It is a pan-Indian, student-run movement to train underprivileged students and help them transform into leading lawyers and community advocates. It was institutionalised as a trust with original trustees as Mahendra Pal Singh, Ruma Pal, Shamnad Basheer and Shishira Rudrappa. ^[3] The managing trustee of the organisation is Shishira Rudrappa.

Activities

To ensure that the underprivileged communities can empower themselves through legal education, IDIA student volunteers conduct sensitisations across India to: ^[4]

• Spread awareness among underprivileged children about opportunities in pursuing law as a career
• Select promising students and provide training for law entrance examinations, including the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT)
• Provide financial aid and mentorship to underprivileged children once they secure an admission to a leading law school.

Funding

IDIA is supported by top Indian law firms and legal luminaries from across India. ^{[5] [6]} Apart from individual donors, IDIA organises fundraising events in Indian metropolitan cities. ^{[7] [3]}

IDIA organises an annual football tournament in Mumbai to raise money from legal professionals and corporates. The tournament witnesses participation from top law firms in India and legal teams of corporates. ^{[8] [9]}

Awards

• Founder Shamnad Basheer was awarded Infosys Prize 2014 for Humanities for contributions to a broad range of legal issues and legal education. ^[10]
• IDIA Charitable Trust was selected by the Vienna-based Zero Project as one of 86 winners from across the world for the "Innovative Practices 2016" award at the "Zero Project Conference 2016 on Inclusive Education and Information and Communication Technology" that was held on 10–12 February 2016. ^[11]
• In 2016, Society of Indian Law Firms awarded founder Shamnad Basheer with Legal Education Innovation Award 2016 in recognition of innovation and leadership in the development of Increasing Diversity by Increasing Access (IDIA) and promoting legal careers among the under-privileged. ^[12]

References

1. Aravind, Indulekha. "A Super 30 for Clat". The Economic Times. Retrieved 4 September 2016.
2. Ganz, Kian. "'Mass movement' for more diverse legal profession kicks off at NUJS" . Retrieved 14 December 2016.
3. "The Idea Behind IDIA: Creating CHAMPS from Underprivileged Communities, by Shamnad Basheer". Archived from the original on 10 September 2019. Retrieved 14 December 2016.
4. "This Law Professor Has Created a Route for the Poor to Become Lawyers. And It's Ingenious!". 31 January 2016. Retrieved 14 December 2016.
5. Ganz, Kian. "Trilegal, Krishnamurthy, Wadia Ghandy, two law schools, CLAT coach, Gov't join NUJS diversity project IDIA".
6. Shrivastava, Prachi. "Ex-Luthra partner Madhu Mukherjee helps IDIA scale up, teaches, mulls 'strategic' move in no hurry" . Retrieved 14 December 2016.
7. Ganz, Kian. "IDIA raises 72 Lakhs".
8. Pathak, Gaurav. "Charity Football Tournament".
9. "Star Lifts IDIA Football Trophy 2015, Khaitan lifts Plate".
10. "Shamnad Basheer".
11. "Innovative Practices 2016 on Education and ICT".
12. "Society of Indian Law Firms and Menon Institute of Legal Advocacy Training honour Arun Jaitley".

External links

• official website Archived 7 October 2016 at the Wayback Machine