CEDE

CEDE (Community for the Eradication of Discrimination in Education and Employment) is a network of lawyers, law firms, judges, other organisations, and individuals, who are committed towards reforming the Indian legal profession. 

Even 70 years after the enactment of the Constitution, there is systemic under-representation of Dalits (Scheduled Castes), Adivasis (Scheduled Tribes), Other Backward Classes, Nomadic & De-notified communities, transgender individuals, persons with disabilities, people from North-East India, and other minorities in both the legal profession and the judiciary. In the absence of due representation, the legal profession and the judiciary cannot ever be truly representative of the historically marginalised. 

What we do to reduce the gap in representation

1. Organising internships for the marginalised

CEDE organises internships for students from marginalised communities by crowdsourcing opportunities via the cession of social capital by the privileged in the legal profession. Our network of lawyers commits to offering at least one paid internship each year to a student selected by us from marginalized social backgrounds. We use a centralised system via which candidates apply and get shortlisted for these internship positions. The basis of selection is not only academic excellence, but various additional parameters including, but not limited to, caste, ethnicity, race, gender, sexuality, income, residence, and parent’s education, to ensure an intersectional selection. Further details regarding our selection process is available here. 

If you would like to join our network of lawyers, please register here.

2. Capacity-building

We are cognisant of the fact that opportunities are often not enough when the starting line differs so dramatically. Several technical and soft skills are not accessible to students from marginalised communities, either because they are simply not taught to them or even if taught, it is done in an intimidating way where knowledge of the basics is assumed. We host regular sessions where both soft and technical skills such as preparing a resume, email etiquette and legal research are taught. You can find recordings of these sessions on our YouTube channel and other resources here.

3. Research

We believe research and advocacy are crucial components of any mission aimed at structural change. More importantly, there has not been much research done with respect to representation in the Indian legal field. CEDE conducts research focused on closing these gaps so that educated policy can be framed to remedy the current situation. We are currently working on a survey about the impact on marginalised students of the Covid-19 pandemic and the consequent implementation of online education. If you're a student during the pandemic, you can help us by filling our survey form here.