The Invisible Intern: Normalization of Exploitation in India's Youth Economy

In the fast-growing youth economy in India, unpaid internship has emerged as a standardised entry into the job sector, advertised as a necessary practice in the development of skills and employability. But this is just the top of the iceberg as a structural problem of legal invisibility, grey regulatory systems and the normalising of exploitative labour practices will be at the root of the issue. This paper discusses the increased trend of using unpaid internships and critically analyses, how the Indian labour law, youth policy, and the jurisprudence in human rights have neglected the status and protection of interns. It uses doctrinal research and a comparative analysis to point out the wage theft, disguised employment, and structural inequality caused by the lack of clear legal protection of interns disproportionately happening to weeded- out young persons. The article uses global standards such as the ILO standards, EU and U.S. practices to offer practical reforms. It states that unpaid internships are not only a contravention of constitutional rights guaranteed by Articles 21 and 23 , but also a contravention of India commitments to international instruments on human rights such as ICESCR and the UDHR. The paper ends with a strong recommendation that internship should be legally amended through comprehensive reform, thus maintaining the standards of minimum liability and dignity of the Indian youth workforce.
Keywords: Minimum Liability, Interns, Constitutional Guarantee, Disguised Employment.