Internship @ Helpage India, Kolkata: Work on Elder Abuse; No Stipend

Name of the organisation. City

Helpage India. Kolkata.

How big was the office? Team strength?

Neither quite big nor too small, a free working environment, friendly peers. 15-20 approx.

Application procedure. Internship contact details

Send in your curriculum vitae along with information about your university and your purpose for contacting them.

If you have some seniors who have already worked at their organization, do mention it, and lastly, write a nice little mail, expressing your desire for working with them.

Mail them first at kolkata@helpageindia.org and then they will contact you and ask you to contact their internship co-ordinator Ms. Anuradha Sen at anuradha.sen@helpageindia.org.

Address: 4th floor, AJC Bose Road,

Kolkata- 700 014,

West Bengal

Tel. No. : 033-22492526

Mobile: 09831281025

Email: kolkata@helpageindia.org

Duration in weeks. No. of days/week. Timings

Free to attend daily, but no hard and fast rule as such. 3 days per week for one or two hours, or if you need any suggestion regarding your project then you are free to discuss with them.

First impression. First day, formalities etc.

Well, I must admit that I wasn’t quite impressed by their office or environment as such, but interactions with their deputy head, advocacy Mrs. Anuradha sen was quite engaging.

Students were free to use any computer vacant on the office, work for as much time as one wants during 11 am – 2 am.

Main tasks

Two of us were given the task of working on a project based on the social evil of ‘elder abuse,’ which required lots of reading into articles, projects, the Maintenance Act 2007, National Policy for Elder People, some sections of the CrPC, etc, which they provided us with, along with our own independent research work.

We were also given the freedom to visit some of the old-age homes run by their organisation in and around Kolkata, interviewing some of our elder citizens was quite a dubious but emotionally enlightening experience.

Work environment, people

The work environment was absolutely friendly, people were not too formal with us, and made us comfortable.

Best things?

Best thing about the internship was the amount of time you get to enjoy in the city with friends, because going to a place where there is too much of work in your first semester at law-school didn’t seem exciting to me at least  so lots of enjoyment and bits of work was the mantra.

Bad things?

I wanted to have a better look at the prevailing conditions at old age homes, but unfortunately they don’t send students for trips and all, which many NGOs do, moreover I wanted to learn more about the role law plays in such social progress, but my will was short-lived, maybe I expected more.

What did you do to chill? Co-interns, colleagues

Well we went off somewhere everyday, all big eateries are close by, Park Street is around the corner, movie outings, and having friends there was an incentive for me.

Stipend/ month

No stipend.

Anything else you’d like to tell

For people like me, interning for the first time, the prospect of working at a real office was exciting.

Biggest lessons

Punctuality, work ethics, handling pressure, weren’t as big lessons to learn, as was to realize that some offices can actually be fun!