Internship experience in development and education at BNS Chaksu: Designing six-week internship course for post graduation in development

The interaction with an intern, placed at Bhavi Nirman Society at Chaksu Block, and pursuing Azim Premji University's post graduation course, MA in Development, revealed that the course focuses on the 'study of social conditions that foster individual and collective well-being in a sustainable and equitable manner' which requires a 'holistic grasp of the moral and ethical underpinnings of development and its implementation, considering the specific real-world contexts.'

In the course ​‘development’ is perceived both as a 'process' and an 'outcome' and realise that achieving which requires 'engagement with multiple stakeholders such as the market, state, civil society and communities to find inclusive pathways, especially for the most marginalised and vulnerable communities' along with developing and applying relevant competencies to address the emergent development issues.

The course has two main components

1. A core course with 'rigorous disciplinary grounding in the epistemologies and methods of social sciences

2. A mandatory set of field practice components provide a robust exposure to experiential learning on the ground.

The two-year course coverage is credit-based as follows

• It has 80-credit score earning

• It is split into four semesters

• It includes 10 mandatory core courses, 7 elective courses, 3 mandatory field practice components

  
  

During the summer break post Semester II, students are required to undertake a 6‑week field internship which is designed to help them experience working on a development intervention in an organisational context to participate in development action.

However, the field internship component of the course has to be structured in consultation with the organization offering internship to provide a meaningful practical experience in development interventions and encourage the intern to actively participate in field based experiential learning and project work.

The intern reported on May 12, 2025, and was brief about the NGO, introduced to the functionarie and given a feel of the place

On May 13, a meeting of intern and two functionaries and Chairperson of the NGO led to deciding the internship structure for 6 weeks

The internship was broken into three phases with activities as as follows

• Phase 1: Pre-active or readiness phase - First week consisting of (1) Introduction to BNS and familiarization with the place; (2) internship course needs and structure of the of the six week stay; (3) Visit to Nikhar Shala; (3) Visit to Computer Education Centre; (4) Visit to Government School of Cyber Security Project

  
  

• Phase 2: Interactive phase of one week each for the following 4 aspects: (1) Study of the functioning of Nikhar Shala, learning material, pedagogy and community linkage; (2) Ex-post facto study of projects run by the BNS since its inception including STEM education with discarded ball pen refills; (3) Computer education project; (4) Development of book cum internet library project

  
  

• Phase 3: Post active phases of one week consisting of documentation of the the experience with five page a day writing work as internship report