Internships are one of the most popular ways for students to escape boredom, do something productive, and sometimes even earn! Through internships, you can gain experience in the real professional world, work ethic, and most importantly, know if you have what it takes to shine in your desired field. There’s no denying that without the taste of an executive work setting, it is sort of hard to figure out what profession or job profile is fit for your likings and skills, especially for workaholics!
Although there are numerous ways to look for an internship, the easiest and the most hassle-free way is to search for them online. There’s a good number of online platforms available to help you find your dream internship. For instance, in India, Internshala is the most widely used website for finding internships and training programs recruitments.
During the COVID-19 outbreak, students across the nation have devoted extra time to working as work-from-home interns in their respective work fields. Even though Indian internships offer perks like certificates and flexible working hours to students, they are often unpaid and accompanied by student exploitation.
The pandemic has been extremely exhausting for students-emotionally, academically, and mentally. Amidst the race of toxic productivity, and trying to build a better CV, many students have had to settle for unpaid internships, with excessive workload just to attain an adequate amount of work references and certificates. The unjustness of these unpaid internships can be explained by the fact that there are thousands of skilled and talented students in our country who are looking for opportunities to work and earn for survival, as they come from underprivileged backgrounds. It is important to understand that not every student interns for engagement and to escape boredom. Some students rely on internships to make their livelihood as at times as they are not eligible for proper job recruitments. Internships come as a ray of hope for the students that are willing to work for appropriate pay. Unpaid internships take that stage of opportunities away from them.
It is basic decency to pay someone with a fair stipend if that person is putting a significant amount of skills, hard work, and diligence in the work allotted. It is also important to give proper consideration to the concreteness of the fact that due to the pandemic, everything got digitized, including jobs and internships. With work-from-home came the need to have a stable internet connection and electronic devices which alone cost a fair amount of money. Adding onto the pressure of being productive and earning for survival, aroused the financial duress of being updated with the technology. Some of the internships available in the industry do not even cover the internet costs of the interns, let alone pay them for the work. On top of that, they mandate the availability of a broadband connection and laptops with the latest updates without holding any accountability of paying for it whatsoever.
Student exploitation does not end there. In the name of selection procedures and assessment rounds, internships ask the applicant to write heavy assignments without enough time to complete them. Deadlines and tasks are often unreasonable and unattainable. Even after going through the lengthy assignments, these internships reject talented students. Getting rejected even after writing an excellent piece, and putting in so much time and effort, is not only unfair but also disheartening.
Deserving student interns are entitled to as much pay as people with proper jobs if they put in equitable effort. The tasks allotted by internships require extensive research and expertise which doesn’t come easy to everyone. It is high time that we end the tradition of unpaid internships and start respecting the amount of hard work that interns put in!