PIL FOR PROVIDING ONLINE MINDFULNESS CLASSES TO RELEASE COVID-19 STRESS OF STUDENTS
Public Interest refers to something which the public, the community at large has as pecuniary interest or interest by which their legal rights or liabilities are affected.
Public Interest Litigation is not defined in any statute or in any act. It has been interpreted by judges to consider the intent of public at large. The main target of PIL is only public interest, there are various areas where a PIL can be filed such as
- Violation of basic human rights
- Content or conduct of government policy
- Violation of religious rights or other fundamental rights etc.
STRESS, ANXIETY, DEPRESSION- PITFALLS OF COVID-19
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic may be stressful and harmful for students. Fear and anxiety about a new disease and what could happen can be overwhelming and cause strong emotions in children. Public health actions, such as social distancing, can make individual feel isolated and lonely and can increase stress and anxiety. When our bodies are exposed to a sudden stress or threat, we respond with a characteristic "fight or flight" response. The ''adrenaline rush'' we experience is a result of the release of the hormones epinephrine (adrenaline) and norepinephrine. They cause an increase in blood pressure and pulse rate, faster breathing, and increased blood flow to the muscles which ultimately leads to anxiety, depression and stress
Meditation is a simple technique that, if practiced for as few as 10 minutes each day, can help you control stress, decrease anxiety, improve cardiovascular health, and achieve a greater capacity for relaxation.
Many studies have found that a little yoga can minimize stress and increase productivity. It is believed that yoga is so effective for stress relief because, aside from the physical benefits that yoga brings, it encourages a good mood, an increase in mindfulness, and a healthy dose of self-compassion
Alumnus of Lloyd Law College have thought that Coping with stress in a healthy way will make the students stronger therefore filed a public interest litigation seeking relief from Ministry Of Human Resources and Development.
Advocates Mr.Anshul Bajaj and Ms.Sonali Tiwari alumnus of Lloyd Law College in their petition seeked direction to Ministry of Human Resources and Development Department of School, Education and Literacy) to provide online mindfulness classes viz. meditation, yoga, and relaxation to the students to release the stress, anxiety and depression due to COVID-19.
PUBLIC INTEREST LAWYERING AND CLINICAL LEGAL EDUCATION
Public interest lawyering is a process of legal empowerment aimed at capacity building of everyday people towards using the law and institutions to bring about social change. In public interest lawyering, general people and community takes the lead in an active process while working hand in hand with lawyers. It is a process that requires the participation of the affected community from onset. Public interest lawyering bridges the paternalistic gap that exist between the lawyer and the end users of the laws within our communities, whereby the communities are disregarded in the articulation of legal issues surrounding them.
Today we understand that the significance of legal empowerment especially towards poverty reduction can be seen with the established link between legal rights and poverty. It is therefore the moral duty of lawyers to teach and educate the public about the law and how to use the law to achieve common good that will positively impact on all the people with the same characteristics. The role of lawyers as agents of change and builders of civil society ought to be made apparent from beginning just as medical doctors have the underlining principle of saving life.
The introduction of law clinics and clinical legal education in Law School has kick started the reform of legal education and incorporation of public interest values. Under this programme, Law School have introduced curriculum based clinical law courses and established law clinics that creates opportunities for law students to provide human rights education and legal aid services to vulnerable groups, persons in places of detention and communities that are legally under-served. Legal Aid Society through its work expands the legal services available for all in need by building and supporting innovative partnerships with nonprofit organizations, law schools and the private sector.
Our program is to build and expand the capacity of a nationwide response system of paralegals providing increasing lawyering skills, expanding volunteerism in the legal profession, and engaging law students in giving back to society today and preparing them as future public interest lawyers. There is of course the obvious debate between the economic instances within our country versus abilities of lawyers to pursue public interest lawyering. However, public interest strategies adopted by practicing lawyers can balance out these economic arguments. In addition, as stipulated above, clinical law students as paralegals are available human resources if adequate networks and links are established. On the above background, we are establishing our PIL - Centre for research based social / public interest lawyering as part of our Legal Aid Centre.
HEAD –
MEMBERS
- Mr. Aman Shekhar - BA.LL.B. - Sem. IX
- Mr. Ayush Prakash - BA.LL.B. - Sem. VII
- Mr. Byron Sequeira - BA.LL.B. - Sem. VII
- Ms. Shbanam Khan - LL.B. - Sem. III
- Mr. Nitesh Mishra - LL.B. - Sem. III
- Ms. Sonali Chauhan - LL.B. - Sem. III