South Asia Women Foundation India
About the role
We are Women’s Fund India (registered as South Asia Women Foundation India), a national fund committed to advancing women’s access to justice and their economic empowerment. One of our flagship programmes is a legal fellowship programme, PARVAAZ, aimed at capacitating women lawyers practising in district courts with skills to apply a feminist lens in their court craft and practise. PARVAAZ also intends for women lawyers to claim greater voice and space within the formal legal system and challenge entry level barriers for women in the legal profession. The fellows also provide pro bono legal advice and litigation support to women and gender non binary people from marginalized communities, thereby building their access to formal justice mechanisms. We are looking for a passionate and committed legal professional to lead a new cohort of young women lawyers who will be joining the fellowship programme from the states of Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and Odisha.
Key Responsibilities
- The candidate we are looking to recruit for this role should be able to lead the fellowship and ground it substantively. The candidate is expected to play the part of a technical lead and manage the fellowship end to end. This would include developing a concrete plan based on the framework of the fellowship programme, identify mentors and strengthen the mentorship programme, roll out the selection and onboarding of fellows, develop the learning and capacity building curriculum for the fellowship and develop and manage the peer network of fellows. The lead would also be expected to manage donor relations and produce detailed, well documented progress reports on the fellowship.
- We are looking for someone with a deep commitment to make legal systems work for marginalized communities and a passion to advance gender justice through the use of law and legal frameworks. Since the programme officer would be expected to develop a sound learning agenda for the women lawyers being inducted under the fellowship, the candidate should be well versed with the existing legal landscape, especially existing laws on gender justice. The candidate should also be well versed with legal eco system in at least two of the three states where the fellowship will be rolled out. He/She/They should have a substantive understanding and experience of dealing with laws related to women. The candidate should also have strong litigation experience of working on cases related to rights of women and gender non binary persons, especially at the primary court level. The candidate should have at least 8 - 10 years of work experience and should be able to lead the programme independently. Experience of legal research and publication would be an added advantage.
Qualifications
- A degree in law
- Practical experience of litigation at primary courts for at least 3 years and overall experience of working on women’s access to justice for at least 10 – 12 years
- Sound understanding of the legal eco system in at least two of the three states of Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and West Bengal.
- Language fluency in English and Telugu/Odia/ Bangla.
- Substantive experience of handling cases related to rights of women and marginalised communities.
- A sound understanding of laws related to rights of women and other marginalised communities.
- A background of having worked or engaged with gender justice groups and organisations would be highly desirable.
- High quality writing and documentation skills
- Willingness to undertake frequent travel within the country, and especially to the three states covered under the fellowship
- High level of initiative and self-motivation
- A strong team player
