India, Oct. 17 -- Most student proposals that reach the India Vision Foundation (IVF) already have projects decided. A donation drive. A workshop. A fundraiser. However, a student named Meher Gupta wrote differently. She had studied the foundation's work and asked for an internship to learn from it. Her application carried a concept note for a livelihood venture for formerly incarcerated women.

IVF is founded by former IPS officer Dr. Kiran Bedi together with her parents. Today it runs 5 core programmes in 172 prisons across 16 states and 2 union territories, and has reached over 27 lakh beneficiaries.

Gupta joined the foundation's headquarters in June 2025 and stayed for three weeks. She asked how permissions move through a jail admini...