Story of Internship

 *The Question of Internship in the year 2025*

Lot of law students do internship. In the year 2011, I did my internship under a Senior Advocate in Allahabad which was my hometown. I was in my final year and I was paid Rs. 6000/- as stipend ; I did not brought any client for him (tout, which they say) ; my only role was to read files, prepare synopsis of cases or do research assigned by my senior. I did not expected to be paid travel expenses nor did i expected that he will pay me for my rent. 

Now we are in the year 2025. Yet, there are people telling law students to do unpaid internship in cities like Delhi and Mumbai. These unpaid internships are nothing but exploitation. While unpaid or underpaid internship are an emblem of exploitation, but at the same time, to expect stipend because the law student has to spend on his stay or on travel is also stupid. There are law students who can stay in a house with rent of Rs. 2000/- and there are students who prefer to stay in a house with a rent of Rs. 10000/- ; it has nothing to do with what a senior would pay you because payment is determined by the output that you give and not by your standards of living. 

Law student is paid stipend based on the work he has done and not because he has spent money on expensive course, travel, or stay. If that logic is accepted, then a law student from DU doing a course at less than Rs. 50000/- should not be paid stipend and a law student doing a law course from roadside private university at Rs. 5 lacs is to be paid stipend because he is spending on an expensive course. Similarly, a person A [even if good at his work] who has his own parents' house in Delhi should be paid less than a person B [who is less competent than A] who is from outside Delhi, merely because A has not spent anything on rent.  I recently read that a fresh law graduate wrote that he has to take cabs and his pay is proportionately less ; well, cab is a luxury. Some fresh law graduates have devised unethical arguments as well ; they will say that they have to travel a lot and travel expenses have to be reimbursed by the senior ; if you have not informed the mode of travel and the costs of travel in advance to your senior, is your senior under obligation to pay you ? Perhaps, junior would have been trying to treat his senior as a client from whom he can make money in the name of "expenses" without there being need of it or without prior approval. Exploitation in name of unpaid internship should end, in fact, it should be made an offence, but to expect to be paid for your extravagant lifestyle by calling it "basic human needs" is equally dangerous and a reflection of another exploitative mindset.