The Human Rights Collective is a student-run initiative at NLSIU founded in March 2025 by Praveen and Rohan, along with four other founding members – Aadi, Anulekha, Meher, and Shashank.
The Collective emerged from a shared sense of frustration and disquiet at the state of human rights both in India and globally, and the recognition that as law students we are often tuned out from urgent struggles around us. In the course of its formation, conversations with professors and practitioners, many of whom have shaped the contours of human rights work within and outside NLSIU reinforced a common truth that in times like these, doing human rights work, or even holding on to a human rights consciousness, can feel isolating and overwhelming. In such circumstances, to do human rights work, or even to keep alive a human rights consciousness, is to resist isolation, cynicism, and despair.
The Collective exists to make that resistance possible. It is a space for action and reflection, for solidarity that is sustained rather than symbolic. It aims to build a community where students can meaningfully engage with human rights issues, connect with affected communities, and cultivate hope alongside commitment.
Our work is grounded in community-driven initiatives, collaborations with grassroots organisations, and structured interventions that bring pressing human rights concerns into focus on and off campus. Current projects include:
- Developing a model legal framework for domestic workers in collaboration with unions and grassroots organisers;
- Documenting illegal and extra-legal demolitions across India;
- Supporting refugee communities;
- Partnering with organisations like Majlis to strengthen the implementation of laws protecting women and children.
In the years ahead, the Human Rights Collective will continue to bridge academic engagement with real-world advocacy, ensuring that the law school community remains deeply connected to struggles for justice, and to the hope that makes those struggles possible.
