Human Rights Enactment in India: How “Human” Do We Feel?

By Anavil Jaiswal:

A community is democratic only when the humblest and weakest person can enjoy the highest civil, economic, and social rights that the biggest and most powerful possess. All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. India is a multiparty federal, parliamentary democracy with a bicameral parliament. U.S. Library of Congress believes that though issues exist in India, it is usually not much concerned about human rights as compared to its south Asian neighbourhood. Various statements exist supporting the exercise of human rights. Let us see if the framed policies only lie on the paper, or do they really get on to the field.

In the name of the economic development, many times the poor suffers being swept away in the flow with inadequate compensations in their hand. Harsh discrimination supported by a shocking violence leads to disastrous effects. A huge number of people strive to survive below the poverty line, even that which absurdly oscillates. From J&K in the north, states in the north-east up to the central India, civilians are trapped between armed insurgents and the security forces and subjected to abuses on both the sides. Incidents ranging from bomb blasts to plane hijacks, from terrorist attacks to natural calamities and from illegal detentions to custodial deaths, altogether present a clear picture of ‘how’ secure are we in terms of availing our rights of being a human.

An average Indian feels being deprived of his fundamental rights. A popular sitcom, ‘Office Office’ satirically depicts the pathetic situation of public offices. The Right to life, freedom from torture and slavery, right to a fair trial; none of the rights are fully enforced, not even considerably enough. Though LGBT rights are secured since 2009, human trafficking still wreaks havoc physically as well as mentally on the thousands of women and children, illegally brought from Nepal and Bangladesh, annually.

Human Rights Watch, an international NGO identified a lack of responsibility for security forces and impunity for abusive policing, while Amnesty International, a British NGO condemned the human rights abuses in Kashmir. Numerous prevailing issues reveal the depth of the roots of the human rights enforcement in India. What it seems, in fact, what it actually is that much needs to be done still, and it can be done if we honestly focus our attention on a cooperative and an integrated growth of our nation and prevent ourselves from merely blaming others, while proving the adage that success has many fathers, however failure is an orphan.