Internship Experience @ Spastics Society of Karnataka, Bengaluru: Work on Persons with Disabilities Act

Your Name, College, Year of Study, Email ID

Pushpita Dutta, Mody University, College of Law and Governance, 3rd year

Name of Organisation, Location city, Team Strength

Spastics Society of Karnataka, Indira Nagar, 100 feet road, Bengaluru

Application Process with contact details

I mailed my CV to ssk_hrdt@yahoo.co.in

I got a response within a week about my selection.

Duration of internship and timings

The duration of my internship was 1st July, 2016 to 25th July, 2016.

Organisation was open 6 days a week. Second Saturdays are holidays.

First impression, first day formalities, infrastructure

Spastics Society of Karnataka is an NGO dedicated to the cause and rights of children suffering from various kinds of mental disabilities.

The infrastructure is great and properly maintained. There are many buildings where different departments of the organisation works. They also have a canteen which serves delicious south indian food.

My teacher coordinator was Mrs. Shobha. Never in my life had I come across such a self-confident, composed, poised, positive and assertive teacher. Ma’am has an amazing personality and I looked up to her from the very first meeting.

My first day was very explorative. The organisation is divided into 5 departments. I was first made to submit my bonafide certificate, a photocopy of my college ID card and mark my attendance. Then after an interview session with Shobha ma’am, I was asked to spend time in all the departments, observe how work was done. Then based upon my interest and tasks available I was given a project.

Main tasks

My tasks mainly revolved around the Persons with Disabilities Act, 1995.

I was first briefed about the rights of such children and was informed about how many of the statutory rights are actually and practically availed by the children. Every such person has to have a disability ID card which is a part of the disability certificate. My project 1 was to make a detailed report on the all rights available to such persons, the procedures to avail those rights, eligibility criteria and the authorities to approach.

Another project that I worked upon was to make a comparative study of all the departments and analyse the records of the children in order to know if any renewal of IDs or application for certain rights were required. I also assisted in teaching the children.

I enjoyed doing all the projects. There was no work pressure and you will be guided at every step.

Work environment and people

The people of the organisation are the best. Every single person is amazingly cooperative, helpful, caring. I actually got the chance to learn a lot from the work that I was allotted. I was asked everyday if I had my breakfast and lunch or not. People were that compassionate! The physical environment is extremely peaceful and full of greenery.

Best things

The people of the organisation and my co interns made my internship a memorable one.

Another fantabulous thing about this organisation is that they have their own bakery where even the children learn as a part of their vocational training. The bakery produces mouth watering and delicious items which you can buy at extremely nominal prices!

My co interns and I had made it our religion to have at least one choco lava cake per day! Resisting was out of question and impossible!

Bad things

No bad things at all.

Stipend

No stipend

Biggest Lessons

I realized how blessed I am. Working with mentally disabled children brings out a totally different person in you. Moreover, it dawned upon me that enacting statutes for the welfare of the subject is not the end of their problems. The main challenge lies in the enforcement of the provisions and making the subjects actually avail their rights without any difficulty.

We should not volunteer or intern in an NGO just for the sake of the requirements of our course curriculum or BCI rules. It is important to understand that our basic aim as law students is to serve the society in one way or the other. Until and unless we understand the very root problems which NGOs deal with, we stay aloof from our duties.

Any Other Thing

This organisation is a beautiful place to work at. The aura of the place itself moves something inside you. At then end of the internship you become a better person and what can be better than that?

Overall Rating

9

Accommodation

I stayed at my sister’s place. However, there are several PGs available at Indira Nagar.

It would be advised that students select a PG pretty close to the organisation because Bengaluru’s traffic in the peak hours is nothing like you have ever seen before!

Office Timings

My office timings were from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm. They cut me some slack regarding the strictness of timings because I had to travel 1.5 hours one way in the Bengaluru traffic.