STARTING ANEW

[Javed Rahman]

 

Hi,

@ Abhinav: It is great to have you in the team and yes we will all work together on maing IDIA a succes in Orissa.

It is true that we need to start afresh because of some unforeseen circumstances. The IDIA project didn’t begin with a lot of money nor were a lot of brains involved in it initially. It was an idea generated in one man’s head. The success of IDIA is the fruit of his belief in his ideas and therefore I request you to identify people who believe in bringing about a change, a change for the society. I apologise for saying what I am about to say, but the response that I have got from the group is heartbreaking. There are around fifty members in the group who have promised us their support and in spite visiting NLUO and KLS personally, whenever I have sent any mail, only a handful of people have replied. This project needs people who are passionate and dedicated, people who can and are willing to put in their precious time, ideas, suggestions and work on this project despite their other commitments. Indeed this project is aimed to bring about a social and educational revolution, but the change has to start from within ourselves. Fruits do not grow by themselves, you need to plant the seed.

The bottom line simply is that anyone who is reading this mail and who thinks they can contribute in any way to this project has the potential to bring about this change and we need people like you. So do not get bogged down by your commitments, rather be committed to participate in this project in order to change the lives of the less privileged.

P.S. If you think you cannot spare your time on this or think IDIA is not worth pursuing, please let me know so that I can remove you from the group and stop bugging you with such humongous mails. Your honesty shall be appreciated.

Coming to the core issue, let me remind all of you once again that we are not aiming for the law entrance exams of 2011 rather our focus is 2012 and this is what I propose:

1.      Identification of schools

After we have successfully formed a group of genuinely interested students our first job is the identification of schools. Both KLS and NLUO can join hands in this. First, form a group of 3 or 4 members each and co-ordinate amongst yourselves. Our aim is to identify almost all the schools in Orissa. It may sound a bit exaggerated and impossible but believe me its not, moreover we need to have long term goals. NLUO can start by making a list of schools in Cuttack. Ask the localites, use internet sources and any other thing that you can. Fix a deadline for the same. It is indeed a challenge but once you have done it, you will have much confidence and can use your experience to identify schools all across Orissa. KIIT can do the same thing for Bhubaneswar. At the cost of sounding repetitive I reiterate once again that both these groups need to work together and share their experience. Remember its not about which law school can do a better job but how can we best achieve our aim by uniting.

2.      Conducting sensitization and creating an awareness of legal education

Once schools/colleges are identified properly, we would know which schools to visit for selecting the students we need. I have already sent a mail earlier regarding general guidelines on how to conduct sensitization programmes. I shall attach it with this mail once again. But the most important thing is to get a third person who has some amount of influence in the targeted school and in whom the school authorities can trust. It is really important to win over the school authorities since we need their continuous support and they are vital for us to monitor the students’ progress. For conducting sensitization groups can be formed on an ad hoc basis before visiting schools/colleges.

3.      Providing English training prior to putting the students through CLAT training.

The most challenging and interesting task in this entire project is training the students. Look at the CLAT from the students’ perspective. Perhaps the first time the kid heard about legal education was when you visited his/her school. The standard of education is a very relevant factor and as far as my personal experience is concerned, I do not think their English standard is good enough and this would be their greatest hindrance to crack law entrance exams. Once we have selected say about 10 students from one school as of now and considering that we limit our selection just within Cuttack and Bhubaneswar we need IDIAns who have a good grasp of English to engage with the students. I think we need to move beyond the traditional teaching method and come up with something innovative. I need your advice on how to go about doing it. Meanwhile, I will talk to Shamnad Sir and IMS people and see what solutions they have to offer.

@KLS: Can someone please let me know of that school of language or something that you were talking about during our visit. We need to get in as much resources as we can.

4.      Generating interest in law

In order for this project to succeed we need to generate a lot of interest in the students. One way of doing that is to show them law schools inside their own classes. Distribute customized leaflets, bookmarks among other things which gives them a brief idea about law. Make humour a part of it. Trust me, humour does wonders. We need a very creative and talented team for this. I will also talk to IMS people about it, lets hope they agree to get those things printed for us (It will save a lot of money). Distribute them in any school you visit and also tell them to pass it on to their parents and teachers.

Next is power point presentations. Once you show them what happens in law school in pictures, they would generally be attracted. Do not just put pictures of library and students sitting with thick books, rather, show them sporting events, mooting events, cultural events anything that you love to do in law schools apart from studying.

Once a team is formed for this purpose I shall pass on some presentations and bookmark templates.

5.      Generating funds

This is a tough and challenging job. Almost everything in this project needs money and we are short of it. In order to run successfully we need to generate money locally. KLS can do so by approaching their authorites namely Mr. A. Samanta.

NLUO can do the same and approach your VC. Moreover  the fact that your legal aid clinic is also involved you can ask the authorities to release more money to be used for IDIA. Approach the state bar associations. Give them a personal presentation and impress them. One thing, always keep in mind the person you are visiting. We need to have different approaches for different people. Apart from this, tap the rich businessmen, especially the mining giants, I am quite positive that they will fall for it. Considering the fact that they are being blamed so much for taking away Orissa’s resources, they won’t mind helping out on projects like IDIA if we promise them a little good name.

Recently, I met Prof. Faizan Mustafa, and he was enquiring about this project. It seemed he is positive about it since he told me to call on him for any kind of assistance.

Moreover IDIA volunteers in Kerala and other places have tied up with the education ministry in their respective states. Please look into it and see if anything can be done in Orissa. Also try to find out about NGO’s and see how they can help.

The team that needs to be formed for this purpose needs people with patience, coz getting money is the toughest thing to do. Let me know if you have any more ideas. We really need to work on this.

I have attached a mail below that was sent from the IDIA funding team to the TATA’s. You can use the same. Remember we have nothing to lose in approaching these people, so lets give it a try.

6.      Keeping a record of everything

Finally, we need to keep track of what is being done. We need a team, a small one, to which all other teams can feed about the work they have done. This will help us in keeping the IDIA database up to date. Set a date, each month, according to your convenience to feed this records team. In turn, this team will feed the main IDIA group with the reports.

That’s all I have to say for now. Hoping to see an overwhelming response J

Regards,
--
Javedur Rahman,

West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences,
12 L.B. BLock, Sector III,
Salt Lake City,
Kolkata-98.
Ph No: + 91 9331840829; + 91 674 2431209

[Sanghita Mukherjee]

Hi,

 We have already identified the institutions which we can visit in Cuttack, all are English medium for the time being. Those are 

1. Kendriya Vidyalaya, Cuttack
2. Stewart Science +2 college
3. Ravenshaw Unniversity
4. Christ College

Now we need to talk to the heads of these institutes one by one. Meanwhile we have established a group which will teach English to those selected after a test, throughout the year.

We will start with the sensitization programs very soon. For that we need the required materials ( question papers, guide lines for evaluation, leaflets etc.) as soon as possible.

Regarding fund generation, we don't have any fund for our legal aid society.

I think at this stage money won't be a very big issue as we have to spend money for conveyance only, to reach these schools but later we have to provide English training. For that we need money as we have to give materials (not ims materials). So, how far can we get assistance from the IDIA project fund? If we can then what is the method? We are trying to establish our legal aid fund and we will talk to the VC to help us with the fund generation for IDIA project in Orissa as soon as possible.

Thanking you.

Sanghita

 

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[Shamnad Basheer]

Dear Javed and team,

Thanks for continuing to push for an Orissa presence. All other local chapters have been activated (and some of them such as Rajasthan and Lucknow with no support from the VC at all---in fact, in cases VC’s have been hostile). We hope that Orissa can take off this year, despite the late start. As for funds, please try and generate this locally. But if you’re not able to meet with success there, please let Javed know and we can provide funds out of the central fund.

SB

[Sanghita Mukherjee]

Thank you sir.

sanghita

--

[Amartya Bag]

Dear All,

We have talked with the KIIT School of Languages today, they have showed positive response on a personal level. However, response on an official level is awaited. We will start with the project on a full scale after the Durga Puja due to approaching mid-sems and vacations.

--
Amartya Bag
B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) (5th Semester)
KIIT Law School, KIIT University
Bhubaneswar - 24, Orissa, India
Ph: +91-9692742782

[Alimpan Chatterjee]

Hi,

Our primary focus so far has been KISS. However what we came to realize during our sensitization programme is that grasp over the english language remains a major factor. This is we have have as earlier indicated thought of initiating a 5-6 months English tutoring before students who are selected join IMS. It is in this regard that we had gone to the KIIT School of Languages. We are satisfied by the level of interest shown by the teachers of the school of languages. They have in principle agreed to draw up a module structure keeping in mind the requirements of a law entrance exam.

However due to shortages of resources the school of languages is unwilling to take up the entire burden on itself. We are presently working out a model where the the responsibility will be shared by the teachers of KISS and school of languages and IDIA members who shall also act as tutor-mentors.

Our present target is to finalize on the selected candidates and start with classes before the end of October. Will update as soon as we finalize the whole dynamics.

Thanking You.

KIIT IDIA Team

[Javed Rahman]

@Sangita: I have already stated in my mail how to generate funds locally. And as Sir stated, in many cases VC's have been hostile. If this be your case please ask Prof. Mustafa to atleast help you guys to approach possible donors. There's no harm in drafting a mail or two. I have also attached a sample copy of a mail sent to the TATA group. Use that and ask the funding team to identify philanthropists, NGOs, businessmen (especially the mining giants) and other potential donors and brief them on the project and the help that we expect from them. Do not tell them directly that 'Sir, we need your money'. The person needs to be satisfied that he is putting his money into safe hands.

 

@team KLS: Great work. Keeping KISS as our target would definitely benefit us considering it is the world's largest tribal school. It is perfectly fine if you guys are intending to conduct the sensitisation thing after vacations. But if you can, please finalise the strategy and everything with the KIIT School of Languages before the vacations (if it doesnt hamper your studies). And please as I have stated kindly form teams soon.

 

P.S. I will be in town from 9th october- 8 november. So if you're planning your sensitisation within these dates, kindly let me know. Would be glad to meet you guys again.

 

Regards,

Javed

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