Human Rights

 The National Human Rights Commission India (NHRC) is a government authorized body. It was established on October 12, 1993, under the provisions of the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993. The purpose of establishing the NHRC is to protect human rights and prevent incidents of human rights violations in India. The NHRC consists of a Chairperson and few other members who are appointed by the President of India. 

The Elders is a committee of retired global leaders. In August 2010, the Elders expressed grave concerns about the failure of the Sri Lankan Government to address the increasing number of incidents pertaining to human rights violations.  Headed by Bishop Desmond Tutu, the Elders was founded by Nelson Mandela. Its famous members include Jimmy Carter, Kofi Annan and several retired officials of United Nations who feel strongly about world affairs and want to voice their perspectives so as to trigger a cause of positive, planned action.

In July 2010, India legal news reports indicate that the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), which has restricted jurisdiction over human rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir, wants the limitation to be removed. This action was prompted by recent allegations of transgressions in the state.

The practice of corporal punishment is often adopted by teachers, to implement discipline, among students. Corporal punishment is an extreme breach of children’s right to protection, besides being a form of physical/mental violence. As per Indian law, corporal punishment amounts to human rights violations too. According to the official report of the Ministry of Women and Child Development, conducted in 2007, on child abuse, two out of every three students are physically abused. Further, 73% of boys face physical punishment as compared to 65% of girls.  All of this makes children fear teachers and become miserable in class. However, most of the students choose to suffer silently, rather than reporting the matter to parents or to others.

Teachers and child activists have raised an alarm over an increase in the number of child abuse cases in Australia. They expressed concern about incidents relating to children forcing other children into sexual acts. Children as young as three are becoming victims of this form of child abuse.

Education is every citizen’s legal right. In India, a majority of girls are not given education by their families. In South India, this problem is particularly high in the state of Karnataka. To solve this, the Government of India will launch the Saakshar Bharat scheme in Karnataka to curb female illiteracy.  To start with, this scheme will cover Karnataka’s 17 districts, that have low female literacy rates.

The consumerist culture has become a cancerous growth in Kerala’s once-golden culture. In nearly every home, there is purposeful, ostentatious display of consumerism, paving the way for an unhappy, highly criminalized society with increasing levels of sexual harassment and violence against women.

Children in Bangladesh are often subjected to sexual abuse and bonded labor. However, it is difficult to track down the exact number of such human rights violations, due to several reasons. Firstly, Bangladesh has a low rate of birth registrations. Sexual exploitation of children occur at all levels in the country spanning brothels, homes, workplaces, hotels and even schools.

On 15th July 2010, the Vatican (the central governing body of the Catholic Church, recognized by international law) stated that the ordination of woman catholic priests is a crime, against faith. It also issued a statement saying that henceforth, the incidents of attempted ordination will be addressed by Vatican’s disciplinary body, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Further, the new rules proposed by the Vatican has brought the attempt of ordination of women on par with pedophilia though women priests believe this puts their legal rights in jeopardy. The Vatican has made it clear that participants of such an offence will be subjected to automatic excommunication (exclusion from sacraments of church).

The status of Indian women has undergone considerable change. Though Indian women are far more independent and aware of their legal rights, such as right to work, equal treatment, property and maintenance, a majority of women remain unaware of these rights. There are other factors that affect their quality of life such as age of marriage, extent of literacy, role in the family and so on. In many families, women do not have a voice in anything while in several families; the women may have a dominating role. The result is that the empowerment of women in India is highly unbalanced and with huge gaps. Those who are economically independent and literate live the kind of life that other women tend to envy about. This disparity is also a cause for worry because balanced development is not taking place.