By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter,
New Delhi: Quill Foundation, a research and advocacy group has decided to provide scholarships for young members from the society who are academically meritorious, financially weak but are interested in doing law and are also engaging with community issues.
However, the group says it is especially looking at people who have faced the violence of the state. It will mentor these fellows throughout their LLB program by placing them with rights groups, community organizations, and law firms.
It also aspires to train these fellows with a vision to become community resource persons for taking up everyday struggles around rights and state provisioning.
“Financially, the support could range from basic tuition fees to a monthly stipend, and would be decided based on the profile of the fellows,” said Sharib Ali, Research Co-ordinator, Law and Human Rights Cell of Quill Foundation told TwoCircles.net.
“We are especially looking at young men or women who have experienced firsthand, or through their immediate family members, the violence of the state”, Ali added.
Ali says more than thirty people have applied for scholarship so far and all these applicants are financially weak.
“One of these applicants is an auto driver. We are sure there are many such people who wants to do law but are pulled back due to financial problems”, Ali said to TwoCircles.net.
Founded in 2015, Quill Foundation is an autonomous institution engaging in research and advocacy in India. Its core work revolves around pertinent issues of human rights, justice, and equity, faced by the underprivileged sections of the people of India, especially Adivasis, Dalits, Muslims, women, sexual minorities and differently-abled persons.
Law and Human Rights Cell of Quill Foundation in consultation with Justice A.P Shah, chairman of the 20th Law commission of India, is undertaking a social audit of terror related offences in India. The Audit is presently looking at the treatment of terror related offences in three states- Maharashtra, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh.
Many significant personalities are supporting Quill Foundation; most eminent amongst them are Former Supreme Court Justice P B Sawant and Former Bombay High Court Justice Suresh Hosbet.