Giving Month@NLSIU - Focus Track: Sustainability & Student Welfare

One of the fundamental tenets of providing transformational education at NLSIU is ensuring inclusivity on campus. The University endeavours to provide every student with a safe space along with opportunities to thrive.

As a starting point, the process of admission into the University can offer access to our classrooms to a wider set of students. As part of the NLSIU Inclusion and Expansion Plan 2021-25, the University will admit students from various marginalized and disadvantaged sections while expanding the overall University student intake in a phased manner.

Over the next three academic years, the University will implement its new inclusion policy that provides for reservations. On a vertical basis, 15% seats will be reserved for students from Scheduled Caste families, 7.5% for students from Scheduled Tribe families, 27% for Other Backward Classes and 10% seats for students from Economically Weaker Sections. On a horizontal basis across all seats, 5% of all intake will be reserved for Persons with Disability 25% for students with Karnataka domicile and 30% for women students. Once the vertical categories are filled, the horizontal categories will be applied for the final selection.

NLSIU’s efforts at inclusivity for diversity take various forms including active academic and wellbeing measures, facilitated both through faculty and peer support.

Registrar Dr. Nigam Nuggehalli explained, “At NLSIU, we are conscious about the fact that students come from diverse academic and cultural backgrounds, into a fairly competitive environment. It is natural that some students will need reassurance and support. We want to ensure that students who enter the law college ecosystem are able to thrive. We view diversity as an opportunity to do things differently, because every student has something unique to offer.”

As we are set to welcome a larger student body in the coming years, their learning environment has to be made vibrant and supportive both within and outside the classroom. A few initiatives which have been rolled out on this front already are:

Financial Aid

NLSIU is committed to ensuring that no student admitted to any of our programmes should have to discontinue their education because of financial constraints. Over the last two years, the University has strengthened financial aid for deserving students through the institution of several privately-funded and alumni-funded scholarships. In 2021, NLSIU made the largest financial aid disbursal in the University’s history. The disbursal amounted to approximately Rs 60 lakhs that benefitted 45 students in the B.A., LL.B., (Hons.), LL.M and MPP programmes.

Office of Student Affairs

The University set up the Office of Student Affairs (OSA) in early 2020. Student Welfare Officer Apoorva Gupta, supervises the activities of the OSA, which was instrumental in the University’s support for students during the pandemic. On the objectives of setting up this Office, Dr. Nigam said, “Understanding and responding to student needs, be it academic, cultural or extra-curricular, requires institutional support. The OSA acts as a bridge between students and faculty; and among students. Over the last year, it has rolled out a wide range of counselling services for students, both remotely and in-person. Giving voice to student concerns that may not have found the right platform earlier, the OSA has made NLSIU a vibrant and inclusive space, where students feel comfortable to discuss concerns as well as promote and encourage common interests.”

Endeavour Programme

Last year, the University launched an educational support programme to assist students who need academic and personal support to aid their academic progress. The programme engages students individually to enhance core academic skills and provide curricular and extra-curricular support where needed, and to ensure that all students can benefit from the transformative potential of an NLSIU education.

The 10-month programme aligns with the academic year and follows a systematic approach where students have regular meetings with the Student Welfare Officer to develop an individualised programme, with the Vice-Chancellor to share their progress, with a faculty member who is the Academic Counsellor, and the SBA Mentor (designated students) to enable peer-to-peer support and guidance. This is augmented by a 9-month long writing programme, mental health support and extra-curricular research projects.

Equal Opportunity Cell

NLSIU has a zero-tolerance policy towards discrimination. The Equal Opportunity Cell (EOC) has been set up to monitor our adherence to these standards, particularly relating to marginalisation and exclusion of minority groups, including those based on caste, religion, ethnicity, sexuality and gender. The EOC also proactively works on discrimination policies, grievance redressal procedures, and sensitisation programmes for the NLSIU community. The committee constitutes faculty members Prof. Babu Mathew as Convener, Dr. Nagarathna A and Ms. Sharadha Shinde.

Student Initiatives for Peer Support

NLSIU boasts of a host of student-led initiatives and clubs that have been formed on campus, many of which are aligned with contemporary issues, concerns and interests. Activities organised by these clubs allow students to discover community on campus, and membership can be a formative experience in collective advocacy. Among the student committees are the Academic Support Programme (ASP), NLS Queer Alliance (NLSQA) and the Savitri Phule Ambedkar Caravan (SPAC).Other student committees too have been actively looking to encourage broad-based participation.

Discussing how the Moot Court Society (MCS) has taken measures to facilitate widening of their pool of students, faculty advisor for MCS, Raag Yadava (BA LLB 2013) said, “Mooting has always had this reputation of being an elitist activity. We are working to make it more accessible for students from varied backgrounds. This academic year, for the first time at NLSIU, we introduced a structured mentorship programme to help students prepare and improve their skills for moots.”

Digital Scholarship Programme

In an accessibility measure that goes beyond the campus, this year, the Library will launch its Digital Scholarship Programme which will offer need-based scholarships to 100 deserving candidates across the country to access digital resources on an annual basis.

NLSIU strives to provide an accessible working and learning environment for students, faculty, staff and visitors with disabilities. Apart from making the physical infrastructure and its basic facilities accessible, the University has implemented advanced assistive measures, including technology-enabled services to enrich the learning experience of persons with disabilities on campus.

Built Environment on Campus

As NLSIU develops the campus in line with the Redevelopment Master Plan, accessibility will be a crucial focus during further interventions.

“With the aim to create an inclusive and collaborative campus, universal accessibility is of paramount importance and will be addressed as an active component of design. In addition, special attention will be paid to natural surveillance on campus along with improving the movement corridors (spaces involving frequent movement) and access to buildings. Within the buildings itself, guidelines on access and material selection will be addressed,” said Jahnavi J Ashar and her team at Venkataramanan Associates, the Master Plan architect.

For instance, the University will introduce tactile pathways as part of the redevelopment of its campus. Tactile paths usually have a textured surface, and provide secure directions, both in open spaces and inside buildings, for persons with visual impairments.

Accessibility is the first step towards universal design of physical infrastructure, and the University has been steadily working on increasing this on campus. Ramps/lifts have been installed for users with reduced mobility in the Academic Blocks, Hostels, Library, Learning Centre, and Training Centre and along inclines/ steps on the connecting pathways.

Seating arrangements with an accessible approach have been provided on the ground floor in the Academic and New Academic Block, as these spaces are used by full-time students as well as visitors who appear for competitive examinations hosted on the NLSIU campus. The University provides wheelchairs and transportation from the external gates into the campus, as well as within the campus. Specially designed accessible washrooms have also been constructed in the Academic Blocks, Library and Hostels. Accessible accommodation for residential students is provided on the ground floor of the Hostels.

Inclusive Academic Measures

• Digital access to books/journals/study material is available to students and faculty through the University’s Library website and the students’ Learning Management System (LMS). The LMS is also facilitated by use of Braille software. Students with limited or poor access to the internet and other related facilities receive financial subsidies to ensure ease of access.
• During examinations, the University provides scribes for visually impaired students as per their requirement. During the pandemic, the examination process for full-time programmes as well as the remote and online programmes offered by PACE was facilitated via the LMS and arrangements were made to make the process accessible to students with disabilities. Laptops are also made available for students who experience difficulty in writing.
• For online classes, students with visual impairments receive scanned, screen-reader friendly material in advance. Faculty members provide reading materials in formats compatible with accessible software. Additionally, class recordings are shared with students on a need-basis.

Library Facilities and Services

Librarian In-Charge at the Sri Narayan Rao Melgiri Memorial Law Library, Dr. Mahesh Yarnal explained, “The Library team meets with students with disabilities periodically to understand their requirements and provide necessary assistance and resources. We also help them navigate through the material and technology support available. A separate room for students with visual impairments has been allocated in the Library since 2017, where we help them convert materials into a readable format. Students also use the room for meetings and collaborative work. We also make arrangements and bring in experts to train visually impaired students in MS Office on a need-basis.”

The Library has a digitized Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC), which provides access to details of books and other material available in the library. Computer accessibility tools like Screen Reader, Screen Magnification, and Web-Braille system are also available. A recent grant received by the University is being utilised to further improve on the existing resources by providing more screen readers and speech-to-text support for library users.

Further services are available for students with disabilities through technology-enabled support, such as:

• DAISY (Digital Accessible Information System), a complete audio substitute for print material and specifically designed for use by people with disabilities, including blindness, impaired vision, and dyslexia.
• JAWS (Job Access With Speech) Talking Software and Screen Reader, which reads out all the matter on the computer’s screen through its speakers/headphones, thus enabling a visually challenged person to use the computer independently and work on all MS applications.
• Pearl Reading Camera or Instant Reader, a high-tech instant reading camera device that is connected to a computer/ laptop and converts it into a portable high-speed reading system.
• Angel Pro, an all-in-one device that is used for recording classroom lectures, and to listen to scanned academic data, or data downloaded from the internet. It also provides assistance by reading out the content on the device.
• Zoom-Office, a software programme that works with a text scanning camera and video magnifier to read aloud books, magazines, newspapers, documents, prescription labels and other printed material in a variety of voices and languages.