BMS College of Law initiated Community Support Service (CSS) to provide financial, Health and Hygiene, Blood donation support for needy people. The Community Support Service (CSS), aims to inculcate empathy among students, develop a love for serving others and be instrumental in bringing about positive societal changes. Learning through service is an effective educational tool, which will create empathetic leaders of tomorrow who will not only be leaders but become community builders with a problem-solving approach. Our Institution focusing on contributing to our society in the way of giving financial assistance and moral support to needy people and also focusing on the holistic development of the community. The activities planned by the clubs and community are designed to channel the energy and enthusiasm of the young minds to become more creative and productive.
Community service is an important way to pour back into the place where you live, people that have made an impact on you, or neighbours that happen to need a helping hand. People are eager to give back to the community. All they require is the right opportunity. When done in some fun and effective ways, community service can engage people and make them come back to it again and again. BMSCL Started connecting with the various NGO’S and Institution to help needy people through collecting some donation from the students and staff. BMSCL conducting various donation drives for community services i.e Food drive, Health and Hygienic, Blood Donation, Mental Health and Happiness programmes etc., Under the pillar of Contributing to Society, The students will involve themselves in community service activities through various Clubs and Committees i.e. N.S.S., Red Cross Society, etc., within the BMSCL and also with numerous NGOs partners.
Various types of donation drives carried out in our Institution for the upliftment of the community.
Blood donation has been considered as the most auspicious of donations, which not only inculcates the values towards caring others but also provides substantial support to humankind otherwise not possible with any wealthy contributions. In most of situations, valuable human lives cannot be saved due to unavailability of blood or blood donors. The initiative of the Institution to incentivize blood donor students mainly focused on this urgent need of the society as well as to inculcate the values, which will make them responsible citizens. BMS College of Law, organises a blood donation drive in association with Bangalore Medical Services Trust (BMST). Youth Red Cross unit coordinated the blood donation drive in association with NSS unit. To the noble cause our Students, Faculties and Staff from Institution donated a blood.
Bangalore Medical Services Trust (BMST) was established by the Rotary Club of Bangalore and TTK & Company in 1984. BMST, initially set up to provide blood banking services through its division, the Rotary Bangalore-TTK Blood Bank, has evolved over time to become a centre of excellence in the areas of blood banking, transfusion and Immunohematology; transplant Immunology; tissue banking; solid organ and stem cell transplantation; Training; Research; and community-based health education and health service.
We had been to AMRUTHA SHISHU NIVASA on the 21st of January, 2023. One of the most splendid experiences there were around 17 students who had been to their place around 3 pm, the kids were interested to play kho-kho, hide and seek and kabbadi- the kids were energetic and fun-loving. They were around 50 kids, at the end of the session seeing huge smiles, not just on theirs but also on our faces. The program included a weekly visit to the Orphanage, where students conducted various enriching and refreshing activities for the children. On 11 th February 2023 the club successfully completed the outreach program.
BMSCL as a law school treating everyone as equal even to help the transgender and sexuality minorities (lgbtqi++) organizing donation drive in association with NGOs. Helping financial assistance for their basic needs and amenities.
The Space for Dream NGO is run by Akkai Padmashali. The organization is emphasizing for the need to have safer space for vulnerable communities like intersex, transgender and sexuality minorities (lgbtqi++) and sex workers by constructing a training center to the one who are facing many insecurities and social injustice in society. The main aim of the organization is to provide the leadership qualities and confidence among them. The cost of building is very expensive and requires lots of funds. Our Institution conducted a donation drive to help this NGO to build a training centre to Transgender Community.
Outreach activity was organized in collaboration with - The Association of People with Disability (APD) and Vakila Vahini on March 11, 2023. The staff and students of BMSCL donated Sanitary Napkins and other health and hygiene products along with some juices, biscuits, and some snack items, which were distributed to the students in the program. Various activities were performed by the students of BMSCL to entertain the children throughout the program. There was actually Inclusive education in true sense, as in each 80% students were specially abled and 20% normal children. Most of the programme put up by the institution was from these specially abled children.
Social Awareness Club took the initiative to support the Space for Dream organization financially and collected the funds from staff and students and contributed the amount of Rs.13,700 (thirteen thousand seven hundred only) and the fund was transferred by Smt. Saraswathi Satish, coordinator of EKYA- Social Awareness Club, on 25/5/2023 at 4:00 PM and UPI transaction ID -314519081573.
The students at APD after the donation drive were feeling very empowered as till now they were using hygiene wear which was reusable but college ensured the health and hygiene for all the girl students for whole year.
Convincing donors to give regularly can be difficult.
Donors have so many opportunities to support.
We understand many want to help but are not sure if it will create a financial burden to donate.
Lack of Value with respect to community service.
Income and Financial sustainability.
Challenging to handle academic and Community service programmes.
Students active involvement is less in community service.
Reaching community is difficult.
The Consumer Law, Advocacy and Research Centre (CLARC) of BMS College of Law is a wing with multidimensional purpose, to serve general public by creating awareness about rights and the government initiatives and providing legal advice to obtain justice, to assist the government to collect data about the needs of the citizens and ensure their initiatives are reaching public and helping students, our budding future lawyers to gain some field exposure and some hands on experience. CLARC seeks to achieve this objective through conducting independent research, field studies and publications, organization of extension activities, seminars and workshops. Further it is also intends to widen its network by involving other stakeholders and the general public.
Consumer are the life blood of every organization. There can be no business without a consumer. Unlike the traditional markets which were product oriented, modern market is customer oriented. However, business sometimes fail to realize it and in their hunt for profit, end up harming the interest of the consumers. The Government of India granted certain rights to consumers under Consumer Protection Act 2019. As citizen, it is the duty to be aware of these rights and as a law school it is duty to spread awareness to help people realize their rights. BMS College of Law keeping in that mind has established the Consumer Law, Advocacy and Research Centre (CLARC) during 2019 with the assistance of Consumer Rights, Education and Awareness Trust (CREAT). To achieve the goals and object of the CLARC to give awareness on consumer rights it’s really important to know the consumer laws and consumer awareness making sure the buyer or consumer is aware of the information about products, goods, services, and consumers rights. Consumer awareness is important so that buyer can take the right decision and make the right choice. Consumers have the right to information, right to choose, right to safety.
Organizing Conference, Seminar and workshops:
The CLARC is organized Seminars and workshops to invite eminent personalities to give knowledge to our students, faculties and our institutional staff to know about their consumer rights.
The Consumer Law, Advocacy and Research Centre (CLARC) organized workshop on “Sensitizing the Stakeholders on Food Safety and Standards Legislation” in association with Karnataka Institute for Law and Parliamentary Reforms (KILPAR) Bangalore on 3 rd September 2022.
Student research and survey:
The Consumer Law, Advocacy and Research Centre (CLARC) encourages the students to conduct research and survey related to consumer rights.
Walkathon and Survey:
Walkathon, survey on consumer rights was also conducting by students to create consumer awareness to general public. During the survey, students interact with shopkeepers and street vendors and creating awareness about the rights of street vendors according to the Street Vendors Act, 2014 and creating awareness about the provisions of the new legislation Consumer Protection Act, 2019.
Generating Funds
Financial assistance for CLARC activities such as Workshop on Front of Pack labeling, Oratory Competition, Panel Discussion on Consumer Protection Act, 2019 are provided by Consumer based NGO Consumer Rights Education and Awareness Trust CREAT).‘Workshop on Food Security is funded by Karnataka Institute for Law and Parliamentary Reforms, Bengaluru. These activities are conducted and enlightened students and public about implementation of consumer laws and its pros & cons in the society. These activities motivated students participate in other consumer rights related programmes.
Consumer rights awareness
The primary responsibility of the Centre is to create awareness about consumer rights among students and the society. The Centre regularly conducts various programmers like Panel Discussion, Workshops, Competitions, Focused Group Discussions on various consumer rights issues and invites experts in the field of consumer rights and delegates from various institutions to enhance knowledge.
Empirical Study
Ms. Sneha J.S, and Harshita C.N VII Semester B.A LL.B student conducted survey on “Critical Analysis of Legal Provisions related to Front of Package Labelling and Misleading Advertisement in Junk Food – with special reference to School Children in Bengaluru (South zone)” from CLARC under the guideless of faculty member to understand the relationship between consumer behaviour and impact of advertisements.
Walkathon and Survey on the occasion of World Consumer Rights Day, 2023
On the occasion of World Consumer Rights Day on 15th March 2023, Consumer Law, Advocacy and Research Centre (CLARC) of B.M.S. College of Law in collaboration with Consumer Rights Education and Awareness Trust (CREAT) and Youth for Seva organized a walkathon and survey to create awareness about consumer rights among the general public. The walkathon was inaugurated by Sri. Y.G Muralidharan, founder of CREAT, and Dr. Anitha D’Souza, Principal of B.M.S College of Law. The walkathon commenced at 9 am from B.M.S. College of Law, via DVG road students reached Gandhi Bazaar. As a part of walkathon, survey on consumer rights was also conducted by students. During the survey, students interacted with shopkeepers and street vendors and created awareness about the rights of street vendors according to the Street Vendors Act, 2014. Students also interacted with more than 100 consumers and created awareness about the provisions of the new legislation Consumer Protection Act, 2019, and collected data from them. 100 student and faculty members participated in the walkathon during which the students learned fieldwork and inculcated a sense of social responsibility.
It’s very important to do effective research in any filed and a researcher should be aware about the research skills. A faculty member should have good experience of empirical research in the field of consumer rights to guide students to get good research results.
For the advocacy of consumer rights, the Centre need eminent practicing advocates to guide students in procedural aspects.
The financial assistant is very much important to conduct research, the Centre faced difficulties in getting funds to conduct research related to consumer issues.
Consumer advocacy is mostly of field research which requires lot of time and same is not possible for the students due to time constraints and it is difficult to manage research and academic effective in a given time.
The hurdle faced by the students during the research in the field of consumer behaviour is data analysis which needs expertise knowledge and same is lacking among students.
