Introduction

Social advocacy is the act of supporting a particular cause that is aimed at improving the well-being of a specific group of individuals or targeting a societal problem. 

“Advocacy” implies defending and upholding the rights of people in the community who cannot afford the same dignity due to any kind of disadvantage or discrimination.

Social advocates often use a variety of tactics and strategies to achieve their goals, such as: 

  • Organizing campaigns
  • Conducting research
  • Working with policymakers

Scope of Social Advocacy

  • Raise awareness about a particular issue, create a larger audience, and educate people regarding its impact and potential solutions.
  • Gather support and resources, such as cash donations, new volunteers, and useful partnerships, to begin addressing the issue.
  • Advocate for changes in policies that will help to address the issue and improve the welfare of communities.
  • Empower individuals and communities to speak out about the issues that are relevant to them, and then empower them to get involved.
  • Bring about positive change and make a durable impact, for individuals and communities.

Themes of Social Advocacy

Given below are some themes related to social advocacy:

  • Civil rights
  • Individual rights
  • Community building
  • Communication and awareness
  • Human rights violation

Career as a Social Advocate

As a lawyer, someone who wants to make a career in law-related fields, or someone with a law degree, you have an added advantage to working for change.

How?

Build your profession as an: 

  • Immigration lawyer
  • Researcher
  • Community worker
  • Mental Health Advocate
  • Youth Worker
  • Shelter Advocate
  • Victim (Physical/Mental Abuse) Advocate, etc. 

Using research, contributing to policy-making, working with not-for-profit organizations, and many other options, you can work on these issues. A degree in fields like criminal justice, social work, or human rights, proves to be beneficial if you want to opt for this profession.

Aspects of social advocacy

There are three aspects of social advocacy. They are mentioned as follows:

  • Social change Working to influence educators and policymakers.
  • Problem-solving processes  Helping and advising affected parties about the resources and strategies they can use to manage their ordeals.
  • Empowerment and liberation  Encouraging people and their careers to take action to affect change.

Social Advocacy and Law Schools

Law schools often include several courses designed to address relevant social issues in their course curriculum, including:

  • Gender concerns
  • Caste-based discrimination, 
  • Working conditions, 
  • Environmental protection, 
  • Marginalization of various categories of people
  • Employment.

Most law schools take this a step further: 

NLS, for example, deals with these matters in detail through:

  1. The Centre for the Child and the Law (CCL) 
  2. The Centre for Women and the Law (CWL), 
  3. The Centre for Law and Economic Analysis and Research (CLEAR) 
  4. The Centre for Environmental Law Education Research and Advocacy (CEERA). 

These centers address such issues through various research projects and action plans. Students work with professors on the same projects and the Government often takes the assistance of these centers.

The effect of such exposure is reflected in the fact that: 

  • A sizable number of law school students join Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) that work with these issues. 
  • Graduates from law school are also offered opportunities to work with international organizations such as the United Nations and with international war and crime tribunals.

Social Advocacy as a Career: Pros and Cons

Pros:

Job Satisfaction: 

Tremendous job satisfaction awaits you if you are passionate about working with socio-legal issues. You can achieve a tremendous sense of worth and can contribute to changing people's lives for the better.

Since your contribution directly impacts people, it's relatively easier to find happiness.

Travel Opportunities

This career path offers travel prospects and promises interaction with a variety of people. 

Recognition

A person adopting this career path will most likely get respect and recognition in peer groups.

Cons:

Financial Instability

The job entails a degree of financial insecurity because all NGOs are not well funded, and the pay may be meager. This could be a serious issue if you need to support a family at some point. 

Job Frustrations 

The experience may be one of disillusionment and frustration if you cannot realize the fruits of your effort because of hierarchies within the organization and mismanagement of funds. 

Little Option of Job Switch 

A person wanting to quit this line might find it difficult to get mainstream jobs (firms or companies).

Conclusion:

For someone interested in making a difference vis-a-vis a social issue, no other career option can match up to this one. It must also be remembered that one can contribute to social efforts while pursuing a mainstream job.

Social Advocacy: The Road Not Taken

Lawyers are, arguably, best equipped for undertaking social work as they are aware of the legal rights and obligations of all strata of society. Meaningful work can be done by working with NGOs and Government Commissions like the National Commission for Women, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, the National Human Rights Commission, etc. 

Still, it is a path less taken by most law students. While a number of law students go for internships in NGOs during their first two years of law college, not many end up choosing this as a career path. The reason could be attributed to Money! Money! and Money!

The salaries offered by NGOs can go a long way to explain why students prefer working in a corporate law firm over this. 

  • Graduates from national law schools can expect an annual package of Rs. 3.8 lakhs from Teach for India
  • Similarly the Human Rights Law Network, which is a well-known lawyers’ organization, pays Rs 2.4 lakhs per annum to fresh graduates.

Such packages are in stark contrast to those offered by national law firms that are easily willing to spend more than Rs 10 lakhs per year to attract talent, in addition to hefty bonuses.

But the job as stated above comes with a lot of significant positives. There exists a wealth of opportunities in social organizations that could move public-spirited students to enter the fight. There is no scarcity of cases and international exposure to bodies such as the United Nations.