LAMP Fellowship provides an opportunity to be mentored by a Member of Parliament for a period of 10-11 months, subject to the Parliamentary calendar. During the course of the Fellowship, the Fellows will get the opportunity to engage with experts from diverse sectors and understand important policy and development issues of the country.
The Fellow's primary task involves providing research support to the Member of Parliament (MP) that she/he is assigned to. A significant amount of the research a LAMP Fellow will undertake will be Parliament related, such as inputs for bills, parliamentary questions, policy discussions and standing committee meetings. LAMP Fellows are also required to provide background research for the conferences and media events MPs attend in their official capacity. While some MPs may delegate constituency-related work to their LAMP Fellows, taking up such work (including visits to the constituency) is subject to the agreement between the MP and the LAMP Fellow.
LAMP Fellows research topics as diverse as defence, food security, environment, economics and foreign affairs. Research tasks may include
- Legislative research
- Data Analysis
- Framing parliamentary questions
- Background research parliamentary debates
- Research for Standing Committee meetings
- Drafting Private Member Bills
- Media-related work including drafting press releases, preparing interventions for TV appearances
- Research for constituency-related issues
- Interacting with stakeholders
LAMP Fellows rarely have a "typical" work day. Requests for research may have varying deadlines - ranging from thirty minutes to a couple of days, depending on the specifications of the MP. When Parliament is in session, the workload is likely to be heavier than the time period between sessions.