How unpaid internships exploit students and perpetuate inequality

The mass protests by IT workers in Bengaluru a few days ago have revived the issue.

However, a critical issue that remains overlooked is the widespread culture of unpaid internships in Indian higher education and at workplaces. It is almost as if it prepares India’s educated young for a long and miserable ordeal at the workplace.

Since the advent of economic liberalisation, most higher education courses, including non-professional ones, have made internships mandatory.

Earlier, students pursued internships voluntarily to gain work experience in order to improve their job prospects. Today, they have become an unavoidable requirement, without which students cannot even complete their courses.

This shift has led to an intense scramble for internships, particularly around the exam season and before or during vacations, turning placements into a stressful competition rather than a meaningful learning experience.

While internships are often defended for ostensibly offering “exposure” to industry, which might not be available in classrooms, and therefore enhancing employability, their widespread imposition raises serious ethical and legal concerns.

Most of the internships in India remain unpaid and exploitative. Instead of providing an atmosphere for structured learning through training, they are merely camps for free labour.

The mandatory nature of internships, combined with the absolute lack of regulation, decidedly places young professionals in vulnerable situations. As discussions on workplace rights gain momentum, it is important to scrutinise how India’s evolving internship culture is shaping the future workforce.

If one browses LinkedIn or job portals for internships, one thing that becomes glaringly obvious: most of the posts are unpaid. In fact, a paid internship is an aberration in a landscape that is utterly dominated by business entities seeking free labour.

My own anecdotal experience as a faculty member at a legal education institution shows that it is extremely rare to see students getting paid while they are interning.

This trend is particularly troubling because internships are no longer just an added advantage but a necessity for students and young professionals trying to enter the job market.

Employers expect fresh graduates to have prior work experience, but at the same time, they refuse to compensate interns for their labour. This creates a paradox where young people are forced to work for free in the hopes of securing a job later, even though there is no guarantee of employment.

The normalisation of unpaid internships has led to a cycle of exploitation, where companies continuously hire interns to perform essential work without having to pay them. In fact, many interns end up doing the same tasks as full-time employees but without the benefits or security of a salaried position.

One of the most critical issues with unpaid internships is the question of who can afford to opt for them.

The option to work for free is a luxury that is not available to all students. Those from upper-caste and upper-class backgrounds, who do not face financial constraints, can afford to take unpaid internships to fortify their résumés.

However, students from working class or marginalised backgrounds, already burdened by family circumstances or education loans, are forced to prioritise paid work.

Will a student-turned-fresh graduate from a working-class background, who is already burdened with education loans and pressure from family to start earning, be able to opt for unpaid work? In contrast, his classmate from a privileged background will jump at such an opportunity.

This structural inequality creates an uneven playing field. While privileged students gain industry exposure, networking opportunities, and valuable experience through unpaid internships, those who cannot afford to work for free are pushed further behind.

In fields like media, law, research, and policy, where unpaid internships are the norm, this exclusionary practice reinforces existing caste and class hierarchies.

Soon after they graduate and in the initial years after graduation, students from privileged backgrounds get a headstart over their less fortunate colleagues simply because they can afford to withstand a period of unpaid internships. Unpaid internships are thus yet another barrier for those already disadvantaged.

In fact, one can argue that the pernicious practice of hiring free labour, cloaked in the garb of interns, actually undermines the long-term interests of not just the students but also prospective business entities.

This is because companies restrict their pool of talent simply because of the shortsighted focus on immediate profits. It is perplexing that companies that ought to be guided by enlightened self-interest should refuse to cast their net over a wider talent pool instead of limiting their search.

Indeed, without addressing this pernicious practice, it would be impossible to address the growing inequality in India’s white-collar job market. Any effort to make it fair and equitable should start here.

The most common justification for unpaid internships comes from employers who claim that they do not gain anything from hiring interns. They frame the entire process as an act of philanthropy.

This argument, however, is flawed at multiple levels.

First, when interns spend hours contributing their labour, whether in research, administration, content creation, or any other task, it is illogical and unethical to suggest that this does not benefit the employer.

If an organisation genuinely does not derive any value from an intern’s work, then the inefficiency lies with the employer, not the intern. A company incapable of utilising an intern’s time productively should question its own management practices rather than expect free labour.

Second, a quick look at the job market reveals that employers are more than eager to take on interns, particularly for monotonous, repetitive tasks often dismissed as "donkey work". This obviously contradicts the claim that interns provide no tangible value to the organisation.

Another common justification is clothed thus: “If you don’t like it don’t take it” or “Nobody forced you to do this”.

This logic is a fundamentally flawed, which, if extended further, would justify exploitative work conditions including paying lower than the statutory minimum wage, simply because desperate people are willing to accept even less.

The argument that internships are a matter of choice is also an illusion. In a situation in which higher education institutions deem internships mandatory, often enclosing them within their regular curriculum, students do not have a “choice”.

Many industries now expect graduates to have internship experience before securing a paid position, effectively making unpaid internships an unavoidable requirement.

The belief that unpaid internships lead to full-time jobs is largely illusory. Many employers lure interns with the promise of future employment, but in reality, most never make the transition to a paid role.

Instead, companies employ interns for free and continuously rotate new batches rather than hiring regular paid employees.

The lack of a clear legal framework governing the practice of unpaid internships is the primary reason why it continues to thrive. Unlike full-time employees, interns often fall into a grey area where labour laws, even those severely emasculated in recent years, offer little or no protection.

Would they even qualify for the status of ‘workman’ or ‘employee’ under most of the Indian labour laws?

As a result, companies are free to exploit interns without risking any legal consequences. Since there are no mandatory wage requirements or employment rights for interns, businesses take advantage of this gap, extracting free labour under the guise of offering “learning opportunities”.

In contrast, several countries have stricter regulations to prevent such exploitation. For instance, in the UK, unpaid internships are largely illegal if the intern is performing actual work rather than merely shadowing employees.

Similarly, in the European Union, companies are required to compensate interns if they contribute to the organisation’s productivity. These laws ensure that young professionals are not taken advantage of in the name of gaining experience.

Women face unique vulnerabilities in unpaid internships, not only due to financial and social barriers but also because of the increased risk of workplace harassment. Since they are not classified as employees, they often fall outside the protections of workplace laws.

This leaves them in a precarious position where reporting misconduct could mean losing opportunities, with little or no legal recourse.

The lack of financial independence further exacerbates their vulnerability, making unpaid internships not just exploitative but also unsafe for many women entering the workforce

Merely criticising the government or employers just won’t do. Educational institutions play a significant role in enabling the culture of unpaid internships. Rather than questioning the ethical and legal implications of unpaid labour, most institutions remain silent, allowing this exploitative system to flourish.

In fact, their role is not just one of passive acceptance; they are active participants in sustaining it.

Many universities and colleges actively collaborate with companies to ensure a steady supply of unpaid interns. They are the ones that provide the platform – making the necessary arrangements and facilitating placements without demanding fair compensation for students.

Instead of advocating for students’ rights or setting minimum internship standards, they prioritise maintaining relationships with business entities. This allows businesses to access free labour under the guise of "industry exposure" while institutions take credit for their high internship placement rates. In effect, by playing a partisan role on the platform educational institutions undermine the interests of their prime stakeholder, the students. It is obvious that change must begin here.

Ironically, these same institutions proudly advertise the number of students they have placed in internships – without revealing how many are for doing upaid work.

Universities must also take responsibility assuming the role of a regulator of this practice. Instead of acting as silent facilitators, they should demand that internships routed through their institutions be fairly compensated. By making paid internships a requirement for official partnerships, universities can push companies toward ethical hiring practices.

The pernicious practice of unpaid internships widens inequality by limiting opportunities for students from marginalised and working-class backgrounds. The only way forward is systemic reform.

Universities, employers, and the government must work together to ensure fair wages for all interns; this would best suit the long-term interests of all. Students and young professionals must also push back against an exploitative system that has been normalised by fiat.