The Pro Bono Club of Asian Law College, Noida, organized an enriching academic visit for the B.A. LL.B. 2025 Batch to GOONJ, a non-governmental organization located in Sarita Vihar, New Delhi. The visit was conducted in two phases, one on 19th September 2025 and another on 22nd September 2025 as part of the Club’s commitment to experiential legal education for the students.
A total of 171 students participated in the programme, coordinated by Ms. Akriti Chauhan, Dr. Sonali Mishra, Dr. Palak Saxena, and Ms. Mansi Gambhir. Students were guided by dedicated GOONJ mentors who offered an immersive understanding of the organization’s grassroots development model, one that repurposes surplus urban material not as charity, but as a dignified instrument of community participation and accountability.
The visit involved understanding the key initiatives led by GOONJ such as ‘Cloth for Work’ which illuminated principles of equitable exchange and community-led development, while a Piece of Cloth drew powerful connections to gender justice, reproductive health, and constitutional rights to dignity and equality. The students also learnt about the flagship Programmes such as ‘Rahat’ which underscored the legal dimensions of disaster relief and state obligations under the Disaster Management Act, 2005, and ‘Green by GOONJ’ that highlighted the intersection of environmental law, sustainability, and livelihood generation.
For the students, the visit proved invaluable in demonstrating how legal frameworks operate and often fall short beyond the pages of textbooks, and how civil society organizations step in to bridge those gaps. The experience deepened students’ understanding of public interest law, the rights of marginalized communities, and the transformative potential of socially conscious legal practice. Overall, the visit successfully reinforced the Pro Bono Club’s mission to cultivate legally informed, socially aware, and public-service-oriented lawyers equipped to engage meaningfully with India’s complex socio-legal landscape.
