UP tops in human rights violation cases: NHRC -Governance Now

UP tops in human rights violation cases: NHRC

The number of cases of human rights violations has gone up in India, shows a National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) report.

GN Bureau | September 14, 2016

#Haryana #human rights #UP #NHRC #Delhi

NHRC building, New Delhi

NHRC’s 2012-13 annual report, which was put in the public domain earlier this month, shows that cases of human rights violation increased to 107,655 from 95,174 in 2011-12.

As per the report, Uttar Pradesh registered maximum number of cases, with 47,000 incidents being reported. It was followed by Haryana having 9,440 cases of human rights violation and Delhi with 8,264 registered cases.

The NHRC team noticed that Banda district of Uttar Pradesh was prone to atrocities on Scheduled Castes. In 2011-12, a total of 249 cases of crimes related to SCs were reported. Though the commission sent a special rapporteur’s report containing suggestions, the UP government failed to revert on it.

The report also takes into account complaints of custodial deaths, torture, fake encounters, police high-handedness, starvation deaths, sexual harassment at work place, conditions prevailing in prisons, atrocities committed on women, children and other vulnerable groups and bonded and child labour.

During the one year period, the investigation division of NHRC received reports of 147 cases of death in police custody and 1,610 cases of death in judicial custody. The commission noticed that custodial deaths were reported much later after 24 hours.

NHRC compiles and analyses the statistics pertaining to prison population in the country and it observed that overcrowding was especially high in Chhattisgarh, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Punjab and Goa. Also, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra had significant number of female prisoners with children below the age of five years in jail.

The commission also monitors the functioning of three mental health hospitals in Agra, Gwalior and Ranchi as part of the mandate given to it by the Supreme Court in 1997. It found that in the absence of a clear data base, proper policy interventions and allocation of resources, these hospitals are not able to meet their requirements.

In its report, NHRC recommended that these institutions should be made completely autonomous in managing their own affairs and the managing committees of these institutions should have adequate administrative and financial powers to manage their affairs efficiently.

Also, the commission made recommendations on cases related to environment pollution, medical care in hospitals, inaction by the central government or state government officers and violations by security forces.

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