Dr. Ram Manohar Lohiya Nat’l l Law Univ., Lucknow
Sumyya, our fifth-year IDIA Scholar at Dr Ram Manohar Lohia National Law University, Lucknow, is specializing in international law, driven by a deep curiosity about how legal systems shape and are shaped by the societies they govern. This interest also guides her in developing the National Accessibility Report for NLUs, where she is helping to create a methodology to examine how the mandates of the RPwD Act and UGC Guidelines are translated into practice across twenty-six national law universities. Through building an audit architecture using RTI filings, remote audits, and student surveys, she aims to bring visibility to the gaps between policy and implementation, an approach that reflects her broader commitment to understanding how law functions as lived experience.
Growing up with her mother, an Anganwadi Worker, in Amroha, Western Uttar Pradesh, Sumyya learned early to take responsibility for her own path. This instinct led to clear Aligarh Muslim University’s class 9th entrance examination. At AMU, her involvement in student-led initiatives that taught children from nearby slum communities drew her toward questions of access and the role of law as a tool for support and recourse. Therefore, while exploring pathways into legal education, she came across an interview with an IDIA Scholar and, taking the initiative, reached out to the organization through social media. Since then, she has continued to build steadily on her initiative. With IDIA’s guidance, she prepared for the law entrance examinations, secured admission to RMLNLU through CLAT, and completed her Class 12 Board exams with distinction, scoring 99 in both English and History.
Even after entering law school, Sumyya’s commitment to excellence remained steadfast. She immersed herself in the academic and co-curricular life of the university, distinguishing herself in moot court and client-counselling competitions. Her organizational strengths were clear on the seminar committee, where she helped plan major events and steered the design vertical’s visual work. Giving back also became an important part of her journey; one of the clearest examples of this was her work with an IDIA trainee who later secured admission to NLU Delhi.
Going forward, Sumyya hopes to build a career that bridges the gap between law and practice. And this goal has already shaped many of her choices, including internships at the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, the Observer Research Foundation, and iProbono India, where she explored three complementary sides of social advocacy essential to bridging that gap: legal reform, policy research, and access to justice. She now aims to pursue a master’s degree that will deepen her grounding in public law and governance, preparing her to work on issues of mobility, recognition, and administrative fairness. In the long term, she hopes to contribute to institutions and collaborations that bring rigorous research into policy spaces, ensuring that the lived realities shaped by bureaucracy remain central to debates on rights and governance.
