Cuttack, Dec. 21: The National Law University, Odisha, gears up to sensitise students about the recurrent social issues that need a collaborative approach to bring in a change in the society.

The Cuttack-based varsity has planned a series of workshops in this regard. Besides, new courses will be launched to involve students in spheres beyond the traditional curriculum. A varsity official said a one-day workshop on the International Labour Organisation initiatives and its jurisprudence would be held tomorrow.

Senior specialist of the organisation, Raghwan, will be discussing various issues related to the organisation, its origin, structure, its operations, current debate on the labour law reform in India and other technical sessions.

Besides, the varsity will also host a small group discussion on prevention of child labour on December 23.

'The National Law University is organising a number of programmes for the students. We will shortly sign a memorandum of understanding with Unicef for a centre on child rights in the varsity,' said vice-chancellor Srikrishna Deva Rao.

The proposed centre on child rights will be the second of its kind in the country and start functioning from January next year.

Rao said the centre would be crucial in improving research and offer a special course on juvenile justice in the state.

The Unicef programme will be a three-year project. It will stress on strengthening child rights mechanism, capacity building, training of members of the juvenile justice board and child welfare committee.

Besides, the varsity will offer a special seminar course for final-year students on juvenile justice from the next semester.

The official said that earlier, a special project on access to justice for marginalised population and socially relevant legal education had been launched with the inauguration of three legal aid clinics in November.

The legal aid clinics were set up in Khurda, Puri and Cuttack with the help of the Odisha State Legal Services Authority.

The objective of the project is to explore methods for making legal education socially relevant to create awareness on human rights.

The project emphasises on issues related to women, children, undertrial prisoners, consumer related problems and other social issues.