Maharashtra Human Rights Commission recently organised an internship programme for law students from various universities and colleges as the mandatory exercise could not be held in 2014 due to lack of funds.
Conducting the internship programme is mandatory for the commission under section 12 (h) of the Maharashtra Human Rights Act.
"We conducted this programme of internship by inviting students of different colleges and universities, in which they were given detailed knowledge of human rights and especially about senior citizens; getting acquainted about the working of police stations and lock up. They were given first hand knowledge of jail administration," a senior MHRC official said today.
He said the batch of nine students also visited the campus of Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) here as part of the programme and were also taken to police stations.
The students belonged to Gujarat National Law University (GNLU), Symbiosis Law College Pune, Nalsar University of Law, Hyderabad, and Jodhpur National Law University (JNLU).
They underwent a month-long training session between November 23 and December 22 last year.
Justice S R Bannurmath, chairman of the commission who supervised and finalised the syllabus of the internship course, said though the MHRC has ample of amount of research, but it lacked some resources.
"Of course, there is no dearth in research work here, but need additional infrastructure to impart our best to the students," he said, adding that students were given the best possible training related to various aspects of human rights.
The panel had sought a provision of Rs 2.10 crore for meeting administrative expenses for 2014-15, but the state Home Department allocated a measly Rs 57 lakh.
A law student from JNLU, Tanushree Ghose said it was the best learning platform for students like her.
"It was a remarkable thing to learn practical aspects of the law related to human rights and the better part of the internship was that those who headed different organisations, including commission, were involved to explain various parts of the course," she added.
