Increasing Diversity by Increasing Access to Legal Education (IDIA) is a

non-profit organisation A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

working in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

which aims to empower underprivileged children by giving them access to quality legal education. It was initially started by late Prof. (Dr.)

Shamnad Basheer Shamnad Basheer (14 May 1976 – c. 8 August 2019) was an Indian legal scholar and founder of the blog ''SpicyIP''. He was also the founder of IDIA, a trust which works on making legal education accessible for underprivileged students. Basheer wa ...

in the year 2010 from

West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences The West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences (WBNUJS or NUJS) is a premier public law school in India, also known as Columbia of East, and is an elite National Law University located in Bidhannagar, Kolkata, West Bengal, India. In ...

. It is a pan-Indian, student-run movement to train underprivileged students and help them transform into leading

lawyers A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solicitor, ...

and community advocates. It was institutionalised as a trust with original trustees as

Mahendra Pal Singh Mahendra Pal Singh (born 15 July 1940), is a jurist and a scholar of constitutional law, administrative law and comparative law, and Professor Emeritus at University of Delhi. Presently, he serves as a Research Professor of Law, Distinguished S ...

Ruma Pal Justice Ruma Pal (born 3 June 1941) was a judge of the Supreme Court of India until her retirement on 3 June 2006. Early life She read for her B.C.L degree at St Anne's College, Oxford and started practice in 1968 in Civil, Revenue, Labour ...

and Shishira Rudrappa. Current Managing Trustee of the organisation is Mr. Shishira Rudrappa.

Activities and Events

To ensure that the underprivileged communities can empower themselves through legal education, IDIA student volunteers conduct sensitisations across India to: * 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 The Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) is a centralized national level entrance test for admissions to twenty two National Law Universities (NLU) in India. Most private and self-financed law schools in India also use these scores for law admissi ...

(CLAT) * Provide financial aid and mentorship to underprivileged children once they secure an admission to a leading

law school A law school (also known as a law centre or college of law) is an institution specializing in legal education, usually involved as part of a process for becoming a lawyer within a given jurisdiction. Law degrees Argentina In Argentina, ...

Funding

IDIA is supported by top

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

law firms and legal luminaries from across

. Apart from individual donors, IDIA organises fundraising events in Indian metropolitan cities. The

NGO A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...

also organises an annual

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

tournament in

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

to raise money from legal professionals and corporates. The tournament witnesses participation from top

law firms A law firm is a business entity formed by one or more lawyers to engage in the practice of law. The primary service rendered by a law firm is to advise consumer, clients (individuals or corporations) about their legal rights and Obligation, respon ...

in India and legal teams of corporates.

Awards

*Founder Shamnad Basheer was awarded

Infosys Prize The Infosys Prize is an annual award given to scientists, researchers, engineers and social scientists of Indian origin (not necessarily born in India) by the Infosys Science Foundation and ranks among the highest monetary awards in India to re ...

2014 for Humanities for his outstanding contributions to a broad range of legal issues and legal education. *IDIA Charitable Trust was selected by the

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

based

Zero Project The Zero Project is a non-profit based in Vienna, Austria en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone ...

as one of 86 winners from across the world for the award "Innovative Practices 2016" at the "Zero Project Conference 2016 on Inclusive Education and Information and Communication Technology" that was held on 10–12 February 2016. * In 2016, Society of Indian Law Firms awarded founder

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.

References

External links

official website
{{Indian non-profit Educational organisations based in India Children's charities based in India Organisations based in Bangalore Organizations established in 2010 2010 establishments in Karnataka