Internship woes: Unpaid opportunities, undefined hours hit emerging fields

Unlike medicine, where colleges and hospitals offer internships internally in most cases, students from the fields of media and law are left to the vagaries of the job market

When Siya Malik (name changed on request) was in her final years of schooling in 2021, she actively started looking for internships in the content field. Her weeks-long hunt ended with a well-known student-led organisation, which simulates the workings of Indian Parliament and multilateral organisations, offering internships for content writing, but without a stipend. Malik, who is now pursuing her bachelor's in arts, says, “I was a fresher and wasn't expecting a stipend, but the work was 24/7.” She worked with the organisation for nearly two years during which her seniors “suggested” to her to pursue open