Summer Internship 2008

The Commission has been conducting "Summer Internship Programmes" since 1998. In the year 2000, the "Winter Internship Programme" was introduced with a view to spread awareness on human rights issues among university students.
This year, the Summer Internship Programme was inaugurated by Shri Akhil Kumar Jain, Secretary General, NHRC on May 19, 2008. The programme covered 102 sessions on various human rights issues including - State presentation, debates, project works, field visits to SOS Children's Village, Faridabad, Rohini District Jail of Tihar, Sulabh International Social Service Organization, Delhi, observance of World Day Against Child Labour, Government Hospitals and Railway Stations.
Distinguished resource speakers included Ms. Sunila Singh (Peoples Watch, Tamil Nadu), Shri Rajib K. Haldwar (PRAYAS), Shri. Gerry Pinto (Butterfly), Shri R.C. Durga, Director, National Commission for Scheduled Tribes, Dr. Prasad, (NCDHR), Ms. Yamini Pande (UNHCR), Shri Mathew Cherian (Help Age) and Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak (Sulabh International).
The interns took up projects on following topics-right to food, starvation and malnutrition as Human Rights Issue; Juvenile Justice; terrorism and Human Rights issues; manual scavenging & sanitation as Human Rights Issue; role of Panchayati Raj Institutions in promotion and protection of Human Rights; rights of disabled, HIV/AIDS; informal sector people & their rights and missing children; fact finding; right to information- a tool for promotion of Human Rights; role of IT in Human Rights Issues; environment Pollution and Human Rights. Apart from these, book review and debate on four topics formed a part of internship.
The highlights of this year's Summer Internship were: more than 50 interns from 17 States attended the programme; Chairperson, Justice Shri S. Rajendra Babu and Secretary General Shri A. K. Jain, interacted in small groups with the interns. Interns were also allowed to attend the Commission's hearings in the Court on Bundelkhand drought case: interns got an opportunity to attend the World Day Against Child Labour at Gandhi Darshan organized by Butterfly, an NGO in collaboration with the UNICEF.