The Samvidhaan Fellowship

Every organisation that Nyaaya has worked with emphasized their beneficiaries’ overwhelming need for legal assistance from a local legal expert to help them navigate the system. To fill this gap, we have conceptualised the Samvidhaan Fellowship with the theme of Making Justice Mechanisms Accessible. We do this by partnering with grassroots organisations to create accessible contextualised legal information for their beneficiaries to suit their context.

The Samvidhaan Fellowship is a one-year paid fellowship that will support six grassroots lawyers from Karnataka to close the last-mile gap in accessing justice. The Fellowship is conceptualised and implemented by Nyaaya and supported by the Azim Premji Philanthropic Initiatives.

The Fellows will be practising district-level lawyers with litigation experience and a demonstrated interest in legal awareness work. They will work with the Nyaaya Team and Nyaaya’s partner community-based organisations to create and disseminate actionable legal information to beneficiaries creating awareness about rights and entitlements guaranteed under various Indian laws and government schemes.  

The Fellows will answer all legal questions that their audience has and assist them in navigating the legal system while enforcing their rights. Finally, they will also identify areas for collective action and work with the Nyaaya Team to spearhead.

This Fellowship will primarily be field-based. Fellows will need to either be located in Karnataka or should be ready to relocate there. The duration of the Fellowship will be 12  months. The Fellowship will require a minimum of 20 hours of work per week.

A Samvidhaan Fellow:

1. Is a highly skilled lawyer working at the grassroots who is fluent in Kannada.
2. Has a minimum of three years of litigation experience.
3. Has subject area expertise in labour rights, gender rights, or rights of marginalised communities .
4. Has an understanding of social protection schemes and entitlements.
5. Has worked on grievance redressal and understands the process.
6. Has demonstrated interest in legal awareness work in the past.
7. Is willing to build community skills on identified issues. 
8. Has been nominated by a grassroots organization. 

 Lawyers will only be selected based on recommendations from these organisations and senior lawyers  to ensure accountability  as well as the required expertise. Nyaaya’s team will handle the selection process and managing of the cohort of fellows.

Primary Tasks

1. Help create contextual,legal awareness content in their regional language based on the needs of the communities they work with. 
2. Answer questions received from beneficiaries of grassroots organisations that Nyaaya collaborates with.
3. Provide legal advice and representation, and contribute strategic guidance to advocacy issues identified by grassroots organisations.
4. Provide capacity building for partner organisations, volunteers, and community reporters on legal issues. 

Secondary Tasks  

1. Conduct legal awareness sessions focusing on helping citizens understand legal information through Nyaaya content on rights and entitlements available to them. 
2. Create written and/or audio-video content based on local needs and legal developments in their region. 
3. Help volunteers and community members represent their issues in public hearings, etc. 
4. Identify issues that could require pro-bono litigation or policy-level intervention

1. A monthly stipend and the option to continue their practice alongside the Fellowship (as long as deliverable deadlines are met)
2. Fellows will receive content writing and media training and any other skill development training that the Nyaaya team identifies as a necessity during the orientations. 
3. Fellows will have access to Nyaaya’a and Vidhi’s catalog of books and e-subscriptions to various journals and publications to aid them in their work.
4. Fellows will have access to Nyaaya’s network of lawyers, grassroots organisations, CSOs, and media persons, all driven by the mission of making the law and entitlements accessible to those at the grassroots.