It is our prestige, our source of inspiration,means of motivation...

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Hum Bul Bulen Hain Iski Ye Gulistan Hamara!!

Jai Hind

CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS OF WOMEN IN INDIA

If the principle of gender equality is enshrined in the Indian Constitution, then why are Indian women treated as second citizens in their own country? The Constitution officially grants equality to women and also empowers the State to adopt measures of positive discrimination in favour of women. However, the varied forms of discrimination that women in India are subject to are far from positive.

It is claimed that from the Fifth Five Year Plan (1974-78) onwards, there has been a marked shift in the approach to women’s issues from welfare to development. Where is the development? Yes, the status of the urban woman has shown some improvement but the changes in their lifestyle were not coupled by changes in the general mindset of the people in our patriarchal society. Thus, some laws should have been framed for the protection of the newly emancipated and urbanized Indian women. What is the percentage of urban women in India, anyway? What about the rest? These privileged few would have prospered with or without the laws. Has there been any significant change in the status of rural women after the Fifth Five Year Plan?

The National Commission for Women was set up by an Act of Parliament in 1990 to safeguard the rights and legal entitlements of women. “The 73rd and 74th Amendments (1993) to the Constitution of India have provided for reservation of seats in the local bodies of Panchayats and Municipalities for women, laying a strong foundation for their participation in decision making at the local levels.” These reserved seats often go unoccupied or are taken up by male candidates because women rarely contest for such seats. Why? The mere existence of laws cannot automatically bring about a revolutionary change in the society. In a country where women have no control over their own lives and do not even have the decision-making power in their own household, do you think they will be encouraged to join local governing bodies?

In India gender disparity is found everywhere. The declining ratio of the female population, in the last few decades is a proof of this. The stereotypical image of a woman haunts her everywhere. Domestic violence is commonplace. The underlying causes of gender inequality are related to the socio-economic framework of India. As a result, the women belonging to the weaker sections of the society i.e. the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes/ Other backward Classes and minorities, do not have easy access to education, health and other productive resources. Therefore, they remain largely marginalized, poor and socially isolated.

The following are some of the provisions made in favour of women, in our constitution:

Article 14 in the Indian Constitution ensures equality in political, economic and social spheres. Article 16 provides for equality of opportunities in matters of public appointment for all citizens. However, the ratio of women in Politics is far less as compared to men. How many women hold positions of power in government run institutions? Single women do not get jobs easily because the employers fear that they might get married and quit. They also find it hard to get rented accommodation whereas that is not the case with single men. Cricket is a religion in India. Is the government promoting cricket for women or any other form of team sport for women for that matter?

Article 15 prohibits discrimination against any citizen on the grounds of religion, race, caste, sex etc. There are certain places of worship in South India where women are not allowed entry. Advertisements of ‘Fairness’ creams are aired on television without any restrictions. It is shown in these ad-films that the ‘brown’ Indian woman can’t get a job, can’t find a man and is generally looked down upon by everyone but when she becomes fairer, the story changes.

Article 15 (3) of the Indian Constitution allows the State to make any special provision for women and children. Wife bashing is a favorite sport in India. Women are subject to physical and mental torture by their husbands and their families. Women and children are always under the control of the ‘Male’ head of the family. A child is identified by his father’s name in this country. Whereas in western countries, the mother’s name forms, the middle name, of a child.

Article 39(a) mentions that the State will direct its policies towards securing all citizens, men and women, the right to means of livelihood while Article 39 (c) ensures equal pay for equal work. When a male government employee is transferred from one place to another, is his wife given a new job in the new place? Her career goals are of little importance to anyone. She can be displaced and uprooted anytime! The daily wages of women labourers in India are lesser than that of male menial workers. Bollywood Actresses also get less money as compared their male counterparts.

Article 42 directs the State to ensure just and humane working conditions. More often than not, women are exploited by their bosses. It is believed that women who keep their bosses happy get promotions very easily in the Corporate world! What about the others? Male colleagues never fail to make passes at women. Women have to put up with their bawdy jokes, lascivious remarks and glares, all the time. The plight of women labourers at construction sites, tea and rubber plantations etc, cannot even be described.

The constitution imposes a fundamental duty on every citizen through Article 15 (A) (e) to renounce practices derogatory to the dignity of women. What is the government doing about eve-teasing? Can a woman spend an entire day on the streets of the National capital without getting a series of comments, derogatory to her dignity? Another law that protects women against a seemingly milder crime is Section 509 of the IPC. This law punishes individuals who have insulted the modesty of a woman. Offensive language, sounds, gestures and intrusion of a woman's privacy are punishable under this law. Outraging the modesty of a woman is also punishable under Section 354 of the IPC. Under this law, an individual who has assaulted a woman, used criminal force on her or outraged her modesty in any other way can be punished with imprisonment of up to 2 years. In fact the people who are employed by the State to ensure that people don’t flout any rules, the policemen, are the ones who have given consequence to many crimes against women. Policemen are often found mouthing obscenities, glaring and passing bawdy remarks on women, not only on the roads, but also inside the police station. Many of our honourable politicians are also involved in all manner of crimes against women.

Laws such as the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, Sati Prevention Act, Dowry Prohibition Act and Indecent Representation of Women (Prevention) Act protect women from the more "traditional" crimes such as rape, abduction, dowry, torture, molestation, sexual harassment and selling of girls into slavery. However trafficking of women is still very common in this poverty-stricken country. Women from economically backward families are kidnapped and forced into prostitution. Incidents of women being charred to death after their husbands’ death, have been reported recently. Giving and taking dowry is officially, a crime but the practice goes on. In fact, it is taken for granted that if you want to get your daughter married you should arrange for her dowry first, even when your daughter is educated and financially independent.

Female foeticide and infanticide are common practices in this country. If at all the girl is allowed to live, she is subject to all forms of torture in her own house. She is not allowed to go to school, instead she is forced to take up menial jobs and married off almost as soon as she enters teenage. People in rural areas fear that their daughters might be raped so it is better to get them married. Ironically, The Child Marriage Restraint Act specifies the cut-off age for marriage as 18 years, protecting women from child marriage. Women, be it urban or rural, face all forms of sexual harassment throughout their lives. So what is the use of these laws?

There are many women in India, who are caught in violent marriages. Owing to the social stigma attached to divorce, not many women have the courage to break free. Housewives account for 52% of the total female suicide cases in India. Section 306 of the IPC can punish the suicide victim's husband with up to 10 years imprisonment if found guilty. How many such men have been punished till now?

Thus, there are a number of laws to protect women, but what is the use of having these laws when no one follows them? In fact, the people whose business it is, to enforce these laws are the ones who publicly flout them. Besides, not many women are conversant with law and few are aware of the rights and privileges accorded to them by the constitution. So they suffer all forms of discrimination, passively.

Growing statistics record of prisoners in U.S.A.

"New figures meanwhile show the US prison population has reached an all-time high. According to the Justice Department, 2.3 million people were behind bars last year. The prison population continues to grow at less than one percent, down from an annual six percent growth during the previous decade."

Source: http://www.democracynow.org/2009/12/10/headlines

Political and public debate continues regarding global warming

Global warming is the increase in the average temperature of Earth's near-surface air and oceans since the mid-20th century and its projected continuation. Global surface temperature increased 0.74 ± 0.18 °C (1.33 ± 0.32 °F) between the start and the end of the 20th century. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concludes that most of the observed temperature increase since the middle of the 20th century was very likely caused by increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases resulting from human activity such as fossil fuel burning and deforestation. The IPCC also concludes that variations in natural phenomena such as solar radiation and volcanic eruptions had a small cooling effect after 1950. These basic conclusions have been endorsed by more than 40 scientific societies and academies of science. including all of the national academies of science of the major industrialized countries.

Climate model projections summarized in the latest IPCC report indicate that the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 1.1 to 6.4 °C (2.0 to 11.5 °F) during the 21st century. The uncertainty in this estimate arises from the use of models with differing sensitivity to greenhouse gas concentrations and the use of differing estimates of future greenhouse gas emissions. Most studies focus on the period leading up to the year 2100. However, warming is expected to continue beyond 2100 even if emissions stop, because of the large heat capacity of the oceans and the long lifetime of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.


An increase in global temperature will cause sea levels to rise and will change the amount and pattern of precipitation, probably including expansion of subtropical deserts. Warming is expected to be strongest in the Arctic and would be associated with continuing retreat of glaciers, permafrost and sea ice. Other likely effects include changes in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, species extinctions, and changes in agricultural yields. Warming and related changes will vary from region to region around the globe, though the nature of these regional variations is uncertain.


Political and public debate continues regarding global warming, its causes and what actions to take in response. The available options are mitigation to reduce further emissions; adaptation to reduce the damage caused by warming; and, more speculatively, geoengineering to reverse global warming. Most national governments have signed and ratified the Kyoto Protocol aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Md.Fahim
Human Rights Activist

Crime against women and dalit is growing: NCRB Statistics...

According to the National Crime Records Bureau, the city of Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh was the second most unsafe city for women in India, after Delhi, in 2007-2008. And, crimes against dalits rose by 5% in Uttar Pradesh despite the state having a dalit chief minister

Gender violence is on the rise in Andhra Pradesh. According to the latest statistics released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), Andhra Pradesh had the worst record for crimes against women in 2007-08.

The NCRB recorded 24,738 cases of crimes against women, including 1,070 cases of rape, 1,564 cases of kidnapping and abduction, 613 cases of dowry death, and 11,335 cases of domestic violence in Andhra Pradesh. The city of Hyderabad, where 1,931 cases of crimes against women were committed, clocked in as the second most unsafe city in India after Delhi, with 4,331 cases.

What made the situation more difficult in Andhra Pradesh was the fact that the Andhra Pradesh Women’s Commission (APWC) has been without a chairperson since she was caught on camera, in September 2007, allegedly demanding a bribe of Rs 50,000 to help a woman victim.

Uttar Pradesh also witnessed an increase in crimes against women, with the state recording 21,215 cases of violence, including 2,066 cases of dowry death, 1,532 cases of rape, and 3,819 cases of kidnapping.

The NCRB, which functions under the Ministry of Home Affairs, has highlighted how in many of the rape cases, including the rape of minor girls, the accused have been police personnel. The most poignant case of police rape involved 25-year-old Sarita, a resident of Saini Anandpura, Rohtak district, who committed suicide outside the office of Additional Director General of Police V B Singh after consuming poison on June 9, 2008.

Sarita’s suicide note claimed that although she had been raped by two police personnel, in April 2008, the police had refused to file an FIR and had instead picked up her husband, on April 9, on charges of theft. She succeeded in filing charges only when Director General of Police Ranjiv Dalal held an ‘open durbar’ in Panchkula on June 5, 2008.

On September 13, 2008, a minor girl was allegedly raped by a member of the Central Industrial Security Force, at Manesar in Haryana; on October 10, 2008, a 10-year-old girl was allegedly gang-raped by three men including a police constable identified as Anil Kumar, at Surbura village, Jind district.

Though a small state, Haryana recorded 4,645 instances of crime with as many as 269 cases of dowry death and 488 cases of rape. Instances of physical violence against women -- including the case of a widow who was stripped and paraded naked in Dhanbad district on April 3, 2008, for daring to enter a temple, and 60-year-old Badami Devi who was beaten up and forced to eat human excreta because villagers suspected her of practising witchcraft, on June 14, 2008 -- are also on the rise.

Bihar leads in cases of domestic violence, with 59% of married women suffering domestic violence. The NCRB recorded 7,548 cases of crime, with 1,555 rape cases, 1,172 dowry death cases, and 1,260 kidnapping and abduction cases. Madhya Pradesh leads in crimes against tribals, with 27% of all cases emanating from this state. Karnataka recorded 6,569 cases of crimes against women, while Chhattisgarh had 3,775 cases. Delhi recorded 453 rape cases in 2008 as against 581 cases in 2007. In Delhi too, in some cases, men in khaki were the perpetuators: there is the case of a 12-year-old girl waiting outside a temple who was pulled into a moving car and allegedly raped by a traffic constable in Swaroop Nagar, on April 24, 2008.

The northeast states recorded much less crime. Arunachal Pradesh registered 115 cases, Assam 31 cases, and Manipur 188 cases.

Meanwhile, NCRB statistics also show that crimes against dalits in Uttar Pradesh are increasing despite the state having a dalit chief minister. The figures reveal that such crimes rose by 5% in 2008. A total of 6,942 cases of murder, rape and other crimes was reported in 2008, in Uttar Pradesh, as against 6,628 cases in 2007. Dalits comprise 21% of the state’s total population. Investigations by the state human rights commission show that a large number of these crimes are triggered by land disputes.

These are just some of the human right abuses mentioned by the Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR) in its ‘Indian Human Rights Report 2009’.

The situation in neighbouring Bihar is no better. Despite Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s best efforts, the crime graph against dalits is showing an upward trend. In 2008, 2,786 cases were registered as against 1,572 in 2005.

A total of 2,766 cases of atrocities are pending in various courts in Bihar. Vishwanath Rishi, chairman of the Mahadalit Commission, Bihar, believes that the police should not register cases under criminal offences against dalits but under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. “This will allow victims to receive compensation while the accused receive harsher punishment,” he said.

It’s the same story in Delhi and Haryana too. Although the Delhi state government runs several schemes for the welfare of dalits and ST/OBC/minorities, almost 50% of funds allocated for their welfare remains unused.

Haryana, with a 19.5% dalit population, recorded 227 cases of violence against dalits. The report highlights the fact that low levels of documented crime in Haryana do not reflect the reality on the ground.

In 2007, Andhra Pradesh had the dubious distinction of being ranked fourth worst with respect to atrocities against dalits. According to the NCRB, 3,383 cases were reported in this state of which 46 were cases of murder and 105 were rape cases.

In Rajasthan the NCRB recorded a shocking 4,174 cases in 2007; in Karnataka, the figure was 1,844 incidents in 2007; in Maharashtra, 1,166 cases were reported in 2007.

The situation in Orissa, where dalits comprise nearly 17% of the population, is equally dismal. And few states enjoy such a dubious track record as Tamil Nadu, with 1,743 cases registered in 2007. The report quotes findings from a survey done in 2008 by the Tamil Nadu Untouchability Eradication Front which highlighted how dalits face discrimination at all levels -- from being refused permission to collect water at the village tap to not being allowed to draw rations from ration shops. This discrimination extended to 20 districts in the state.

The plight of dalit women is much worse. Not only do they face physical violence, they also have limited access to livelihood, food, water, sanitation and other welfare programmes. The Manmohan Singh government has appointed several dalit ministers, they need to act in unison to ensure that the situation on the ground improves for these vulnerable and marginalised sections of the population.

 

Md.Fahim                                                                                                               Source: NCRB Report.

Human Right Activist, New Delhi (India). 

Initiatives towards Elimination of Child Labour – Action Plan and Present Strategy....



The problem of child labour continues to pose a challenge before the nation. Government has been taking various pro-active measures to tackle this problem. However, considering the magnitude and extent of the problem and that it is essentially a socio-economic problem inextricably linked to poverty and illiteracy, it requires concerted efforts from all sections of the society to make a dent in the problem.

Way back in 1979, Government formed the first committee called Gurupadswamy Committee to study the issue of child labour and to suggest measures to tackle it. The Committee examined the problem in detail and made some far-reaching recommendations. It observed that as long as poverty continued, it would be difficult to totally eliminate child labour and hence, any attempt to abolish it through legal recourse would not be a practical proposition. The Committee felt that in the circumstances, the only alternative left was to ban child labour in hazardous areas and to regulate and ameliorate the conditions of work in other areas. It recommended that a multiple policy approach was required in dealing with the problems of working children.

Based on the recommendations of Gurupadaswamy Committee, the Child Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Act was enacted in 1986. The Act prohibits employment of children in certain specified hazardous occupations and processes and regulates the working conditions in others. The list of hazardous occupations and processes is progressively being expanded on the recommendation of Child Labour Technical Advisory Committee constituted under the Act.

In consonance with the above approach, a National Policy on Child Labour was formulated in 1987. The Policy seeks to adopt a gradual & sequential approach with a focus on rehabilitation of children working in hazardous occupations & processes in the first instance. The Action Plan outlined in the Policy for tackling this problem is as follows:

Legislative Action Plan for strict enforcement of Child Labour Act and other labour laws to ensure that children are not employed in hazardous employments, and that the working conditions of children working in non-hazardous areas are regulated in accordance with the provisions of the Child Labour Act. It also entails further identification of additional occupations and processes, which are detrimental to the health and safety of the children.

Focusing of General Developmental Programmes for Benefiting Child Labour - As poverty is the root cause of child labour, the action plan emphasizes the need to cover these children and their families also under various poverty alleviation and employment generation schemes of the Government.

Project Based Plan of Action envisages starting of projects in areas of high concentration of child labour. Pursuant to this, in 1988, the National Child Labour Project (NCLP) Scheme was launched in 9 districts of high child labour endemicity in the country. The Scheme envisages running of special schools for child labour withdrawn from work. In the special schools, these children are provided formal/non-formal education along with vocational training, a stipend of Rs.100 per month, supplementary nutrition and regular health check ups so as to prepare them to join regular mainstream schools. Under the Scheme, funds are given to the District Collectors for running special schools for child labour. Most of these schools are run by the NGOs in the district.

Government has accordingly been taking proactive steps to tackle this problem through strict enforcement of legislative provisions along with simultaneous rehabilitative measures. State Governments, which are the appropriate implementing authorities, have been conducting regular inspections and raids to detect cases of violations. Since poverty is the root cause of this problem, and enforcement alone cannot help solve it, Government has been laying a lot of emphasis on the rehabilitation of these children and on improving the economic conditions of their families.

The coverage of the NCLP Scheme has increased from 12 districts in 1988 to 100 districts in the 9th Plan to 250 districts during the 10th Plan.

Strategy for the elimination of child labour under the 10th Plan

An evaluation of the Scheme was carried out by independent agencies in coordination with V. V. Giri National Labour Institute in 2001. Based on the recommendations of the evaluation and experience of implementing the scheme since 1988, the strategy for implementing the scheme during the 10th Plan was devised. It aimed at greater convergence with the other developmental schemes and bringing qualitative changes in the Scheme. Some of the salient points of the 10th Plan Strategy are as follows:

Focused and reinforced action to eliminate child labour in the hazardous occupations by the end of the Plan period.

Expansion of National Child Labour Projects to additional 150 districts.
Linking the child labour elimination efforts with the Scheme of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan of Ministry of Human Resource Development to ensure that children in the age group of 5-8 years get directly admitted to regular schools and that the older working children are mainstreamed to the formal education system through special schools functioning under the NCLP Scheme.
Convergence with other Schemes of the Departments of Education, Rural Development, Health and Women and Child Development for the ultimate attainment of the objective in a time bound manner.
The Government and the Ministry of Labour & Employment in particular, are rather serious in their efforts to fight and succeed in this direction. The number of districts covered under the NCLP Scheme has been increased from 100 to 250, as mentioned above in this note. In addition, 21 districts have been covered under INDUS, a similar Scheme for rehabilitation of child labour in cooperation with US Department of Labour. Implementation of this Project was recently reviewed during the visit of Mr. Steven Law, Deputy Secretary of State, from the USA. For the Districts not covered under these two Schemes, Government is also providing funds directly to the NGOs under the Ministry’s Grants-in-aid Scheme for running Special Schools for rehabilitation of child labour, thereby providing for a greater role and cooperation of the civil society in combating this menace.

Elimination of child labour is the single largest programme in this Ministry’s activities. Apart from a major increase in the number of districts covered under the scheme, the priority of the Government in this direction is evident in the quantum jump in budgetary allocation during the 10th Plan. Government has allocated Rs. 602 crores for the Scheme during the 10th Plan, as against an expenditure of Rs. 178 crores in the 9th Plan. The resources set aside for combating this evil in the Ministry is around 50 per cent of its total annual budget.

The implementation of NCLP and INDUS Schemes is being closely monitored through periodical reports, frequent visits and meetings with the District and State Government officials. The Government’s commitment to achieve tangible results in this direction in a time bound manner is also evident from the fact that in the recent Regional Level Conferences of District Collectors held in Hyderabad, Pune, Mussoorie and Kolkata district-wise review of the Scheme was conducted at the level of Secretary. These Conferences provided an excellent opportunity to have one-to-one interaction with the Collectors, who play a pivotal role in the implementation of these Schemes in the District. Besides, these Conferences also helped in a big way in early operationalisation of Scheme in the newly selected 150 districts.

The Government is committed to eliminate child labour in all its forms and is moving in this direction in a targeted manner. The multipronged strategy being followed by the Government to achieve this objective also found its echo during the recent discussions held in the Parliament on the Private Member’s Bill tabled by Shri Iqbal Ahmed Saradgi. It was unanimously recognized therein that the problem of child labour, being inextricably linked with poverty and illiteracy, cannot be solved by legislation alone, and that a holistic, multipronged and concerted effort to tackle this problem will bring in the desired results.



Md.Fahim
Human Rights Activist

Malnutrition is more common in India.......

Malnutrition is more common in India than in Sub-Saharan Africa. One in every three malnourished children in the world lives in India.


Malnutrition limits development and the capacity to learn. It also costs lives: about 50 per cent of all childhood deaths are attributed to malnutrition.

In India, around 46 per cent of all children below the age of three are too small for their age, 47 per cent are underweight and at least 16 per cent are wasted. Many of these children are severely malnourished.

The prevalence of malnutrition varies across states, with Madhya Pradesh recording the highest rate (55 per cent) and Kerala among the lowest (27 per cent).

Malnutrition in children is not affected by food intake alone; it is also influenced by access to health services, quality of care for the child and pregnant mother as well as good hygiene practices. Girls are more at risk of malnutrition than boys because of their lower social status.

1 in 3 of the world's malnourished children lives in India

Malnutrition in early childhood has serious, long-term consequences because it impedes motor, sensory, cognitive, social and emotional development. Malnourished children are less likely to perform well in school and more likely to grow into malnourished adults, at greater risk of disease and early death. Around one-third of all adult women are underweight. Inadequate care of women and girls, especially during pregnancy, results in low- birthweight babies. Nearly 30 per cent of all newborns have a low birthweight, making them vulnerable to further malnutrition and disease.

Vitamin and mineral deficiencies also affect children’s survival and development. Anaemia affects 74 per cent of children under the age of three, more than 90 per cent of adolescent girls and 50 per cent of women. Iodine deficiency, which reduces learning capacity by up to 13 per cent, is widespread because fewer than half of all households use iodised salt. Vitamin A deficiency, which causes blindness and increases morbidity and mortality among pre-schoolers, also remains a public-health problem.

MPs stage a Candlelight Vigil to highlight Child Malnutrition in India

Getting more than 100 Members of Parliament to sign a pledge was never going to be an easy task. Staging a candlelight vigil at the high-security India Gate area was also fraught with problems– permissions, security, crowds…etc.

India’s largest contributor to child mortality gears up to save its children

Sunken eyes, swollen belly, shrivelled skin. Listless, lifeless, weighing barely 4.5 kg, two-year-old Abhilasha had little hope of survival.




Md.Fahim
Human Rights Activist, JMI

Human rights Violation Still Continue in India....

The situation of human rights in India is a complex one, as a result of the country's large size and tremendous diversity, its status as a developing country and a sovereign, secular, democratic republic, and its history as a former colonial territory. The Constitution of India provides for Fundamental rights, which include freedom of religion. Clauses also provide for Freedom of Speech, as well as separation of executive and judiciary and freedom of movement within the country and abroad.

It is often held, particularly by Indian human rights groups and activists, that members of the Dalit or Untouchable caste have suffered and continue to suffer substantial discrimination. Although human rights problems do exist in India, the country is generally not regarded as a human rights concern, unlike other countries in South Asia. Based on these considerations, the report Freedom in the World 2006 by Freedom House gave India a political rights rating of 2, and a civil liberties rating of 3

Chronology of human rights in India

• 1829 - The practice of sati was formally abolished by Governor General William Bentick after years of campaigning by Hindu reform movements such as the Brahmo Samaj of Ram Mohan Roy against this orthodox Hindu funeral custom of self-immolation of widows after the death of their husbands.

• 1929 - Child Marriage Restraint Act, prohibiting marriage of minors is passed.

• 1947 - India achieves political independence from the British Raj.

• 1950 - The Constitution of India establishes a sovereign democratic republic with universal adult franchise. Part 3 of the Constitution contains a Bill of Fundamental Rights enforceable by the Supreme Court and the High Courts. It also provides for reservations for previously disadvantaged sections in education, employment and political representation.

• 1952 - Criminal Tribes Act 1871 repealed by government, former "criminal tribes" categorized as "denotified" and Habitual Offenders Act (1952) enacted.

• 1955 - Reform of family law concerning Hindus gives more rights to Hindu women.

• 1958 -Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958

• 1973 - Supreme Court of India rules in Kesavananda Bharati that the basic structure of the Constitution (including many fundamental rights) is unalterable by a constitutional amendment.

• 1975-77 - State of Emergency in India - extensive rights violations take place.

• 1978 - SC rules in Menaka Gandhi v. Union of India that the right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution cannot be suspended even in an emergency.

• 1978-Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act, 1978

• 1984 - Operation Blue Star and the subsequent 1984 Anti-Sikh riots

• 1985-6 - The Shah Bano case, where the Supreme Court recognised the Muslim woman's right to maintenance upon divorce, sparks protests from Muslim clergy. To nullify the decision of the Supreme Court, the Rajiv Gandhi government enacted The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act 1986

• 1989 - Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 is passed.

• 1989-present - Kashmiri insurgency sees ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri Pandits, desecrating Hindu temples, killing of Hindus and Sikhs, and abductions of foreign tourists and government functionaries.

• 1992 - A constitutional amendment establishes Local Self-Government (Panchayati Raj) as a third tier of governance at the village level, with one-third of the seats reserved for women. Reservations were provided for scheduled castes and tribes as well.

• 1992 - Babri Masjid demolished by Hindu mobs, resulting in riots across the country.

• 1993 - National Human Rights Commission is established under the Protection of Human Rights Act.

• 2001 - Supreme Court passes extensive orders to implement the right to food.

• 2002 - Violence in Gujarat, targeting its Muslim minority, claims more than 2000 innocent lives.

• 2005 - A powerful Right to Information Act is passed to give citizen's access to information held by public authorities.

• 2005 - National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) guarantees universal right to employment.

• 2006 - Supreme Court orders police reforms in response to the poor human rights record of Indian police.

• 2009 - Delhi High Court delcares that Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which outlaws a range of unspecified "unnatural" sex acts, is unconstitutional when applied to homosexual acts between private consenting individuals, effectively decriminalising homosexual relationships in India.

• Homosexuality in India

Custodial deaths

Despite state prohibitions against torture and custodial misconduct by the police, torture is widespread in police custody, which is a major reason behind deaths in custody. The police often torture innocent people until a 'confession' is obtained to save influential and wealthy offenders. G.P. Joshi, the programme coordinator of the Indian branch of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative in New Delhi comments that the main issue at hand concerning police violence is a lack of accountability of the police.[13]

In 2006, the Supreme Court of India in a judgment in the Prakash Singh vs. Union of India case, ordered central and state governments with seven directives to begin the process of police reform. The main objectives of this set of directives was twofold, providing tenure to and streamlining the appointment/transfer processes of policemen, and increasing the accountability of the police.

Indian administered Kashmir

Several international agencies and the UN have reported human rights violations in Indian-administered Kashmir. In a recent press release the OHCHR spokesmen stated "The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights is concerned about the recent violent protests in Indian-administered Kashmir that have reportedly led to civilian casualties as well as restrictions to the right to freedom of assembly and expression.".A 1996 Human Rights Watch report accuses the Indian military and Indian-government backed paramilitaries of "committ[ing] serious and widespread human rights violations in Kashmir." One such alleged massacre occurred on January 6, 1993 in the town of Sopore. TIME Magazine described the incident as such: "In retaliation for the killing of one soldier, paramilitary forces rampaged through Sopore's market setting buildings ablaze and shooting bystanders. The Indian government pronounced the event 'unfortunate' and claimed that an ammunition dump had been hit by gunfire, setting off fires that killed most of the victims." In addition to this, there have been claims of disappearances by the police or the army in Kashmir by several human rights organizations.

Many human rights organizations such as Amnesty International and the Human Rights Watch (HRW) have condemned human rights abuses in Kashmir by Indians such as "extra-judicial executions", "disappearances", and torture; the "Armed Forces Special Powers Act", which "provides impunity for human rights abuses and fuels cycles of violence. The Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) grants the military wide powers of arrest, the right to shoot to kill, and to occupy or destroy property in counterinsurgency operations. Indian officials claim that troops need such powers because the army is only deployed when national security is at serious risk from armed combatants. Such circumstances, they say, call for extraordinary measures." Human rights organizations have also asked Indian government to repeal the Public Safety Act, since "a detainee may be held in administrative detention for a maximum of two years without a court order.".A 2008 report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees determined that Indian Administered Kashmir, was only 'partly Free'.

Press Freedom

According to the estimates of Reporters Without Borders, India ranks 105th worldwide in press freedom index (press freedom index for India is 29.33 for 2009). The Indian Constitution, while not mentioning the word "press", provides for "the right to freedom of speech and expression" (Article 19(1) a). However this right is subject to restrictions under subclause (2), whereby this freedom can be restricted for reasons of "sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States, public order, preserving decency, preserving morality, in relation to contempt of court, defamation, or incitement to an offence". Laws such as the Official Secrets Act and Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) have been used to limit press freedom. Under POTA, person could be detained for up to six months before the police were required to bring charges on allegations for terrorism-related offenses. POTA was repealed in 2004, but was replaced by amendments to UAPA. The Official Secrets Act 1923 remains in effect.

For the first half-century of independence, media control by the state was the major constraint on press freedom. Indira Gandhi famously stated in 1975 that All India Radio is "a Government organ, it is going to remain a Government organ..." With the liberalization starting in the 1990s, private control of media has burgeoned, leading to increasing independence and greater scrutiny of government. Organizations like Tehelka and NDTV have been particularly influential, e.g. in bringing about the resignation of powerful Haryana minister Venod Sharma. In addition, laws like Prasar Bharati act passed in recent years contribute significantly to reducing the control of the press by the government.

LGBT rights

Homosexuality is criminalised in India by interpretations of the ambiguous Section 377 of the 150 year old Indian Penal Code (IPC). The punishment ranges from ten years to lifelong imprisonment. The law has been used to harass HIV/AIDS prevention efforts, as well as sex workers, men who have sex with men, and other groups at risk of the disease. Scott Long, director of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights Program at Human Rights Watch sent a letter to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh regarding the arrests of 4 men in 2006 in Lucknow and another 4 in 2001. However, in most areas of India, this law is very rarely enforced. The People's Union for Civil Liberties has published two reports of the rights violations faced by sexual minorities and, in particular, transsexuals (hijras and kothis)in India.

On June 2 2009, the Delhi High Court decriminalised consensual private sexual acts between adults saying "We declare that Section 377 IPC, insofar it criminalises consensual sexual acts of adults in private, is violative of Articles 21, 14 and 15 of the Constitution."

Human trafficking

Human trafficking is a $8 million illegal business in India. Around 10,000 Nepali women are brought to India annually for commercial sexual exploitation. Each year 20,000-25,000 women and children are trafficked from Bangladesh.eg.Babubhai Khimabhai Katara was a Member of Parliament when arrested for smuggling a child to Canada.

Religious violence

Communal conflicts between religious groups (mostly between Hindus and Muslims) have been prevalent in India since around the time of its independence from British Rule. Among the oldest incidences of communal violence in India was the Moplah rebellion, when Militant Islamists massacred Hindus in Kerala. Irrespective of the bias of British and Hindutva extremists to portray Mappila Lahala as a communal riot, Indian leaders such as Gandhi recognized it as the part of freedom struggle against the British . Communal riots took place during the partition of India between Hindus/Sikhs and Muslims where large numbers of people were killed in large-scale violence.

The 1984 Anti-Sikh Riots was a four-day period during which Sikhs were massacred by members of the secular-centrist Congress Party of India; some estimates state that more than 2,000 were killed. Other incidents include the 1992 Bombay Riots and the 2002 Gujarat violence —in the latter, more than 1,000 Muslims (no citation) were killed following a militant Islamist attack on a train full of Hindu pilgrims in the Godhra Train Burning, where 58 Hindus were killed.. Hindutva extremists blames Godhra train tragedy on Muslims, even after a government appointed, lead by a Hindu named Banerjee officially reported the train fire was an accident. Thus in essence for the ethnic cleansing of Muslims in Gujrat, Godhra train accident was used. The news channel 'Tehelka' got it on secret camera the perpetrators claiming the Gujrat massacre was done by the blessing, permission and protection of the Gujrat Chief Minister and Hindutva extremist sympathist Narendra Modi. Lesser incidents plague many towns and villages; representative was the killing of five people in Mau, Uttar Pradesh during Hindu-Muslim rioting, which was triggered by the proposed celebration of a Hindu festival. Other such communal incidents include the 2002 Marad massacre, which occurred after incident in which Muslims were killed and the Hindu community was infiltrated by Hidutva extremist groups, carried out by the militant Islamist group National Development Front, as well as communal riots in Tamil Nadu executed by the Islamist Tamil Nadu Muslim Munnetra Kazagham against Hindus.

Caste related issues

According to a report by Human Rights Watch, "Dalits and indigenous peoples (known as Scheduled Tribes or adivasis) continue to face discrimination, exclusion, and acts of communal violence. Laws and policies adopted by the Indian government provide a strong basis for protection, but are not being faithfully implemented by local authorities."

Amnesty International says "it is the responsibility of the Indian government to fully enact and apply its legal provisions against discrimination on the basis of caste and descent.

Denotified tribes of India, along with many nomadic tribes collectively 60 million in population, continue to face social stigma and economic hardships, despite the fact Criminal Tribes Act 1871, was repealed by the government in 1952 and replaced by Habitual Offenders Act (HOA) (1952), as effectively it only created a new list out of the old list of so-called "criminal tribes. These tribes even today face the consequences of the 'Prevention of Anti-Social Activity Act' (PASA), which only adds to their everyday struggle for existence as most of them live below poverty line. National Human Rights Commission and UN’s anti-discrimination body Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) have asked the government to repeal this law as well, as these former "criminalized" tribes continue to suffer oppression and social ostracization at large and many have been denied SC, ST or OBC status, denying them access to reservations which would elevated their economic and social status.

Other violence

Conflicts such as Anti-Bihari sentiment have sometimes escalated to violence.

Invasive methods like 'narcoanalysis' (controlled anesthesia)is now commonly permitted by Indian courts for crime investigation. Even though according to Indian constitution "nobody may be made a witness against himself", courts have recently proclaimed that even a permission from court is not necessary for conducting this practice. Narcoanalysis is now widely used to replace/circumvent the lack of skill and infrastructure for conducting scientific methods of crime investigation. Narcoanalysis is also alleged as against medical ethics.

It has been found that more than half of the prisoners of the country are detained without adequate evidence. Unlike in other democratic countries, the investigation in India generally commence with the arrest of the accused. As the judicial system is understaffed and sluggish, it is not uncommon to find innocent civilians languishing in jail for many years. For instance, the Bombay high court in September 2009 asked the Maharashtra government to pay Rs 1 lakh as compensation to a 40-year-old man who languished in prison for over 10 years for a crime he didn’t commit.

Md.Fahim

Human Rights Activist, New Delhi (India)

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