रविवार, 12 दिसंबर 2010

The façade of Human Rights in India

By Afroz Alam Sahil,

10 December is celebrated as the World Human Rights Day but actually for the governments across the world it is just another day under the aegis of an international body like United Nations which they are forced to observe. 

In reality human rights are violated throughout 365 days including on the “World Human Rights Day.” 

Human Right is a birth right which a human being is entitled to, not because of being a citizen of any country but because of being a human being. That is why, in Europe human rights have been regarded as natural right. 

In 1948, the United Nations marked 10 December as the World Human Rights Day in order to ensure that the human rights of people across the world will be respected and there won’t be any oppression or exploitation of any body. But let alone the world, in India, in spite of many national laws and international conventions on human rights oppression on Dalits and minorities is widespread and is continue,.

The situation of Jammu and Kashmir on the issue of human rights is pathetic. According to a report, since last two decade more than 1514 FIR against army men have been registered in human rights violation related cases, out of which just 100 army men including 48 officers have been punished. Needless to say that this sitiation exists when getting an FIR registered against an army man in a conflict zone like J&K is a tough task in itself.

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) of India is an organization without having much effect. People have to wait for decades to get justice. The situation of NHRC is that its officers present reports without visiting the accident site or meeting the victims. For instance Batla House fake encounter case where the NHRC presented the report by relying on the statements of Delhi Police, the same people it was supposed to investigate and that too without ever visiting Batla House, the site of the fake encounter and without meeting the victims. The result is that people have lost faith in this kind of human rights commission.

The most shocking fact is that in J&K, where according to one report more than 8000 cases of missing persons have surfaced, only 34 of them have been registered in NHRC. Likewise since 1993 only 18 cases of fake encounter and only 12 cases of death in police custody, 9 deaths in judicial custody, 24 cases of communal violence and 104 cases of harassment of women have been registered from the state by the human rights agency.

Interestingly out of these, just 20 cases have been deemed fit to be considered as cases of human right violation by the agency for which 48.6 Lakh has been spent as compensation by the NHRC. (The above mentioned numbers have been obtained by the author through the RTI)

The truth about J&K is that this is one of the states in the country where police outnumber the civilian population. Every child of this conflict torn state doesn’t know what childhood means. In revenge of the death of just one army man the Paramilitary forces destroyed the entire Sopore Market and shot the standing nearby on lookers. The Indian media might not have highlighted this but Times magazine did mention this horrible example of human rights violation by the Indian state. 

My question from the Indian state is that if it considers Jammu and Kashmir as an inseparable part of India then why this kind of oppression on them? Instead it should have treated Kashmiris with much needed love. Believe me they won’t ask for Freedom if the Indian state treats them with the much needed love and heals their wounds. If it can’t love them then at least it should leave them in peace.

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