Shamnad Basheer, Professor at National University of Juridical Sciences (NUJS) has launched an access and diversity movement to reach out to the disadvantaged sections in rural and small town India and help interested students secure admissions to the premier national law schools. By this, he hopes to bring in more diversity to the elitist homogenous environment of most law schools and thereby contribute in the long term to an increasingly diverse legal profession as well. The project is titled IDIA (Increasing Diversity by Increasing Access to Legal Education).

Anne Wilson Schaefe said, “differences challenge assumptions”, Shamnad clearly embodies this. Bar & Bench, in conversation with Shamnad Basheer.

What drove you to conceive this project?

Part of the reason is actually personal. When I graduated from the National Law School at Bangalore (NLS), it was the last batch that had a sliding scale fee structure. What this means is that the amount of fees that a student had to pay was based on parental income. I had to pay approximately Rs. 5,000 a year, while some of my classmates paid the highest slab that year which was Rs. 25,000. This ensured that we had a reasonably diverse student composition and interesting arrays of perspectives displayed during our classroom discussions. However, for the next batch onwards, the highest slab (Rs. 25,000) was applied to all students, irrespective of whether one belonged to a rich or a poor family.

This drastically changed the student composition at NLS Bangalore and made it much more homogenous and elitist over the years. The current student compositions at all the national law schools (where the fees are now Rs 1 lakh [$2,200] plus per year) demonstrate a severe lack of diversity. Illustratively in a poll conducted at NUJS, we found that amongst the current first year students who number around 115 in total, only two studied in a vernacular medium school and/or came from rural India. 

Many of us who’ve been part of the national law schools, have often lamented and wanted to do something about this lack of diversity and access. This project is therefore a mere execution of a thought that many of us have shared over the years.

Why is diversity important?

Most national law school students are from a certain kind of background (middle class to upper middle class and English medium educated) and anyone from a different background has a very difficult time fitting in, i.e., there is a severe lack of diversity at these institutions. A more diverse student population would expose students to differences and there will be no consequent pressure to fit into one mould. Further, such diversity would also make for a more varied discussions and perspectives and enrich the overall quality of legal education that a student receives. Indeed, such diversity will help students appreciate the real India…. characterized by a billion and one differences. Given that many of our pressing problems such as religious riots stem from the refusal to accept differences and an inclination to force others to conform to one’s own way of life, such diversity would go a long way in preparing better citizens for tomorrow.

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