Human rights in India

Human rights in India
Republic of India
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Politics and Government of India
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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.

According to the United States Library of Congress, 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.[1] Based on these considerations, the 2010 report of Freedom in the World by Freedom House gave India a political rights rating of 2, and a civil liberties rating of 3, earning it the highest possible rating of free[2]

In its report on human rights in India during 2010, Human Rights Watch stated India had "significant human rights problems".[3] They identified lack of accountability for security forces and impunity for abusive policing including "police brutality, extrajudicial killings, and torture" as major problems. An independent United Nations expert in 2011 expressed concern that she found human rights workers and their families who "have been killed, tortured, ill-treated, disappeared, threatened, arbitrarily arrested and detained, falsely charged and under surveillance because of their legitimate work in upholding human rights and fundamental freedoms.[4]

Contents

Chronology of events regarding 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 under 14 years of age 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 Acts 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-[5]
  • 1973 – Supreme Court of India rules in Kesavananda Bharati case 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 [6][7]
  • 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
  • 1987 - Hashimpura massacre during communal riots in Meerut.
  • 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.[8]
  • 2002 – Violence in Gujarat, chiefly targeting its Muslim minority, claims many lives.
  • 2005 – A powerful Right to Information Act is passed to give citizen's access to information held by public authorities.[9]
  • 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.[10]
  • 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.[11] See also: Homosexuality in India

Use of torture by police

The Asian Centre for Human Rights estimated that between 2002 and 2008, over four people per day died while in police custody, with "hundreds" of those deaths being due to police use of torture.[12] According to a report written by the Institute of Correctional Administration in Punjab, up to 50% of police officers in the state have used physical or mental abuse on prisoners.[13] Instances of torture, such as through a lack of sanitation, space, or water have been documented in West Bengal as well. [14]

Indian administered Kashmir

A soldier guards the roadside checkpoint outside Srinagar International Airport in January 2009.

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.".[15] 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."[16] 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."[17] In addition to this, there have been claims of disappearances by the police or the army in Kashmir by several human rights organizations.[18][19]

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;[20] 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[21] the Public Safety Act, since "a detainee may be held in administrative detention for a maximum of two years without a court order.".[22] One 2008 report determined that Indian Administered Kashmir, was 'partly Free',[23] (where as Pakistan administered Kashmir was determined 'Not Free').[23]

Freedom of expression

Main article: Freedom of expression in India

According to the estimates of Reporters Without Borders, India ranks 122nd worldwide in 2010 on the press freedom index (down from 105th in 2009). The press freedom index for India is 38.75 in 2010 (29.33 for 2009) on a scale that runs from 0 (most free) to 105 (least free).[24][25]

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 [26] (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.[27] The Official Secrets Act 1923 is abolished after right to information act 2005

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..." [28] 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

Main article: Homosexuality in India

Until the Delhi High Court decriminalised consensual private sexual acts between consenting adults on July 2, 2009,[11] homosexuality was considered criminal as per interpretations of the ambiguous Section 377 of the 150 year old Indian Penal Code (IPC), a law passed by the colonial British authorities. However, this law was very rarely enforced.[29] In its ruling decriminalising homosexuality, the Delhi High Court noted that existed law conflicted with the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution of India, and such criminalising is violative of Articles 21, 14 and 15 of the Constitution.[30]

Human trafficking

Main articles: Human trafficking in India and Child trafficking in India

Human trafficking is a $8 million illegal business in India. Around 10,000 Nepali women are brought to India annually for commercial sexual exploitation.[31] Each year 20,000–25,000 women and children are trafficked from Bangladesh.[32]

Babubhai Khimabhai Katara was a Member of Parliament when arrested for smuggling a child to Canada.

Religious violence

Main article: Religious violence in India

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. 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.[33] Other incidents include the 198, Hashimpura massacre during communal riots in Meerut, 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.[34] 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.[34] Other such communal incidents include the 2002 Marad massacre, which was 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.The Graham Staines and his children murder case and the various istances of killing and torture of minority christians along with burning of christian churches in Orissa and in other RSS stronghold states in India only multiply the cases of religious violence in India.

Caste related issues

Main articles: Caste system in India, Caste politics in India, and Caste-related violence in India

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."[35]

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.[36]

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.[37][38][39]

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.[original research?] Narcoanalysis is also alleged[who?] 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.

See also

Portal icon Human rights portal
Portal icon India portal

References

  1. ^ India, a Country Study,United States Library of Congress
  2. ^ "Freedom in the World 2006: Selected Data from Freedom House's Annual Global Survey of Political Rights and Civil Liberties"PDF (122 KiB), Freedom House, 2010
  3. ^ (in English) World Report 2011: India. Human Rights Watch. 2011. pp. 1–5. http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/related_material/india_3.pdf. 
  4. ^ "India’s human rights defenders need better protection, says UN expert". United Nations. http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=37339&Cr=human+rights&Cr1=. Retrieved 13 February 2011. 
  5. ^ http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2007/11/19/india-repeal-armed-forces-special-powers-act
  6. ^ http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/ASA20/019/2000
  7. ^ http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/publisher,NATLEGBOD,,IND,3ae6b52014,0.html
  8. ^ The Right to Food
  9. ^ Right to Information
  10. ^ Police Reforms ordered by Supreme Court
  11. ^ a b Mitta, Manoj; Singh, Smriti (2009-07-03). "India decriminalises gay sex". The Times Of India. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Homosexuality-no-crime-Delhi-High-Court/articleshow/4726608.cms. 
  12. ^ "Hundreds die of torture in India every year - report". Reuters. 2008-06-25. http://in.reuters.com/article/idINIndia-34225620080625. 
  13. ^ Malik, Saurabh. "Torture main reason of death in police custody". The Tribune. Archived from the original on 2009-03-31. http://replay.web.archive.org/20090303182313/http://www.tribuneindia.com/2007/20070313/punjab1.htm. Retrieved 2011-05-15. 
  14. ^ Custodial deaths in West Bengal and India's refusal to ratify the Convention against Torture Asian Human Rights Commission 26 February 2004
  15. ^ http://www.unhchr.ch/huricane/huricane.nsf/view01/1058F3E39F77ACE5C12574B2004E5CE3?opendocument
  16. ^ http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/kashmir/1996/India-07.htm
  17. ^ Blood Tide Rising – TIME
  18. ^ India
  19. ^ BBC NEWS | World | South Asia | Kashmir's extra-judicial killings
  20. ^ Behind the Kashmir Conflict – Abuses in the Kashmir Valley
  21. ^ India: Repeal the Armed Forces Special Powers Act
  22. ^ Behind the Kashmir Conflict: Undermining the Judiciary (Human Rights Watch Report: July 1999)
  23. ^ a b Freedom in the World 2008 – Kashmir (India), Freedom House, 2008-07-02
  24. ^ "Press Freedom Index 2010", Reporters Without Borders
  25. ^ "Press Freedom Index 2009", Reporters Without Borders
  26. ^ "The Prevention of Terrorism Act 2002". http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/countries/india/document/actandordinances/POTA.htm. 
  27. ^ Kalhan, Anil et al. (2006). Colonial Continuities: Human Rights, Antiterrorism, and Security Laws in India. 20 Colum. J. Asian L. 93. http://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=970503. Retrieved 2009-03-24. 
  28. ^ <Please add first missing authors to populate metadata.> (July 1982). "Freedom of the Press". PUCL Bulletin, (People's Union for Civil Liberties). http://www.pucl.org/from-archives/Media/freedom-press.htm. 
  29. ^ Letter to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh On the arrest of four men on charges of homosexual conduct in Lucknow letter by Scott Long, director of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights Program at Human Rights Watch
  30. ^ The Times Of India. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/photo.cms?msid=4728348. 
  31. ^ Human trafficking turning into organised crime in India Zee News
  32. ^ India among top human trafficking destinations India eNews
  33. ^ Nichols, B (2003). "The Politics of Assassination: Case Studies and Analysis". Australasian Political Studies Association Conference. http://www.utas.edu.au/government/APSA/BNichols.pdf. 
  34. ^ a b Human Rights Watch 2006, p. 265.
  35. ^ "India Events of 2007". Human Rights Watch. http://www.hrw.org/legacy/englishwr2k8/docs/2008/01/31/india17605.htm. 
  36. ^ "India's Unfinished Agenda: Equality and Justice for 200 Million Victims of the Caste System". 2005. http://www.amnestyusa.org/document.php?id=ENGUSA2005100705001&lang=e. 
  37. ^ Meena Radhakrishna (2006-07-16). "Dishonoured by history". folio: Special issue with the Sunday Magazine. The Hindu. http://www.hinduonnet.com/folio/fo0007/00070240.htm. Retrieved 2007-05-31. 
  38. ^ Repeal the Habitual Offenders Act and affectively rehabilitate the denotified tribes, UN to India Asian Tribune, Mon, March 19, 2007.
  39. ^ Suspects forever: Members of the "denotified tribes" continue to bear the brunt of police brutality Frontline, The Hindu, Volume 19 – Issue 12, June 8–21, 2002.

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