Internship Experience @ State Consumer Grievance Reressal Forum, Bhopal: One should not intern because your friends are interning there

Your Name, College, Year of Study, Email ID

Anonymous

Name of Organisation, Location city, Team Strength

State Consumer Grievance Reressal Forum, Bhopal

Application Process with contact details

I applied in person, the office was taking up a limited number of interns. It was on a first come basis.

Duration of internship and timings

June to July, 2015.

First impression, first day formalities, infrastructure

First day, we were told what to do and what not to do. It wasn’t much of an orientation as much as a Do’s and Dont’s session. Building is fairly good, the courtrooms are air-conditioned. The WiFi was free and very high speed. So yes, overall, the infrastructure was good.

The best feature though was the awesome library, on the rare occasion that the librarian was present and it was unlocked.

Main tasks

The main task was to read the files. We were given files from the old and disposed cases to read. Other than that, we did get to observe the proceedings. But the work was extremely monotonous.

Work environment and people

One word, boring. The people were mostly government officers. Our interaction with them was a minimum. On the rare occasion we did get to talk to a few lawyers, we able to catch a few snippets of wisdom. But other than that, we were left mostly to our own devices and a library that was almost always closed.

Best things

Free Wifi. flexible timings. Occasionally open library. These are pretty much the only good things about there.

Bad things

Nothing to do, Being first years, we were admittedly ignorant, but it was just extremely boring to sit there, because we rarely got to so do anything. We were even told not to sit in on the proceeding because he “Courtroom was to congested”. The library was always closed. We could not learn anything productive even on our own.

Stipend

Nothing.

Biggest Lessons

Not to waste one’s time and energy in a place simply because your friends are going there. It was a very stupid thing for me to do. I could have worked with an NGO and still be more productive than them.

Any Other Thing

Unless you are well aware with the consumer welfare laws and have need a free certificate. go right ahead. Otherwise, it is a waste of time.

Overall Rating

3

Accommodation

Bhopal is my home town so I stayed at my own home sweet home. No details to mention.

Office Timings

Typical 10 to 5 timings. Although we were not forced to stay till late, we had to report on time.