Human rights in India is an issue complicated by the country's large size, its tremendous diversity, its status as a developing country and a sovereign, secular, democratic republic. 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.
In India the idea of human rights is not a contribution of western countries. These rights are a common heritage of glorious past. Of course, the enjoyment of these rights was not open to all segments of the society. There was no uniform application of these freedoms as the society was a caste-ridden hierarchical one. Throughout the period of liberation movement, Indians fought for the protection of their human rights such as political freedom and right of self-determination.
After independence, the constitution of India was formulated with a guarantee of fundamental rights and freedom. In conformity with the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, Part III of the Indian Constitution provides six types of Fundamental Rights. All citizens are made equal in the enjoyment of rights and opportunities. At the same time special care is taken for protecting the interests of the weaker sections of the society through the policy of protective discrimination. There is reservation of seats for these weaker sections in the legislature and employment in government jobs.
The Constitution of India not only provides six fundamental rights to citizens but also has made them enforceable. The cases of the violation of human rights are alleged to be plenty which have taken different forms in different times. The examples are communal violence, caste rivalry, starvation death, exploitation of workers, domestic violence, custodian violence, sexual violence, social discrimination etc. For the eradication of this violence’s, a democratic polity, parliamentary form of government and an impartial and independent judiciary have been established.
India has been committed to ensure the protection and preservation of these rights. Judiciary has been separated from the executive. With the power of judicial review, the Supreme Court is empowered to strike down any law of the legislature and any order of the executive if they violate the fundamental rights of the people.
With the right to constitutional remedies, a citizen can move to court for getting the enforcement of the fundamental rights. For the eradication of poverty, hunger, disease, unemployment, illiteracy etc., India is committed to realize economic development through socio-economic planning. It has adopted the principle of economic liberalisation and world economy with its New Economic Policy of 1991 and has become the member of World Trade Organisation (WTO) in 1995.
Since 1980s, new types of mechanisms have been evolved for the protection of human rights of the poor, exploited and other disadvantaged groups of people. The system of free legal aid for the poor, the creation of Fast Track Courts and Special Courts for the speedy trial of cases, and the system of Public Interest Litigation are designed for the protection of the rights of the people.
The Supreme Court of India is recognizing Public Interest Litigations to a great extent. It enables social activists and conscious citizens to appeal for the protection of the human rights of the weaker sections of the society. The judiciary has been activated with these Public Interest Litigations and directing various governmental and private bodies to ensure the rights of the people. The Judiciary also orders for the appointment of Inquiry Commissions to investigate and report regarding the cases of violation of human rights.
Our legal help program focus on marginalized people who are exploited by corruption in govt system. This is done through network of selfless legal professionals and cooperative officers.
The nationwide network offers quick response and pro required expertise to those who have little or no access to the Lawyers offer legal representation and advice to people who cannot afford legal representation In the lower courts to filling public interest petition in the High courts and the Supreme courts experience is that a decisive and professional intervention at the level of the supreme court can bring about changes in state policies and bring relief to millions. It is necessary for lawyers simultaneously be engaged in routine work, because it is through such cases that. Universal principles are often derived from simple individual cases. A judicious mix of work in the trial courts and class action. Our principle is away an indigent person, but there remain basic guidelines for litigation.
Two-thirds of all married women in India are subjected to domestic violence and a shocking 57% of them think it is justified. These figures reveal that not only are the women of this country unsafe within their homes, many of them have been conditioned to accept their fate silently.
Domestic violence is very common in Indian society. But the common Indian woman is terrified of reporting it to the police or filing for divorce. Instead they become victims of the crime for their entire life and develop suicidal tendencies because of the taboo associated with a divorced woman and the fear of sustaining herself and her kids.
The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005 was brought into force by the Indian government from October 26, 2006. The Act was passed by the Parliament in August 2005 and assented to by the President on 13 September 2005. As of November 2007, it has been ratified by four of twenty-eight state governments in India; namely Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Odisha. Of about 8,000 criminal cases registered all over India under this act, Rajasthan had 3440 cases; Kerala had 1,028 cases, while Punjab had 172 cases registered.
Primarily meant to provide protection to the wife or female live-in partner from domestic violence at the hands of the husband or male live-in partner or his relatives, the law also extends its protection to women living in a household such as sisters, widows or mothers. Domestic violence under the act includes actual abuse or the threat of abuse whether physical, sexual, verbal, emotional or economic. Harassment by way of unlawful dowry demands to the woman or her relatives would also be covered under this definition.
The salient features of the Protection from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 are as follows:
The Act seeks to cover those women who are or have been in a relationship with the abuser where both parties have lived together in a shared household and are related by consanguinity, marriage or a relationship in the nature of marriage, or adoption; in addition relationship with family members living together as a joint family are also included. Even those women who are sisters, widows, mothers, single women, or living with the abuser are entitled to get legal protection under the proposed Act.
"Domestic violence" includes actual abuse or the threat of abuse that is physical, sexual, verbal, emotional and economic. Harassment by way of unlawful dowry demands to the woman or her relatives would also be covered under this definition.
One of the most important features of the Act is the woman’s right to secure housing. The Act provides for the woman’s right to reside in the matrimonial or shared household, whether or not she has any title or rights in the household. This right is secured by a residence order, which is passed by a court. These residence orders cannot be passed against anyone who is a woman.
The other relief envisaged under the Act is that of the power of the court to pass protection orders that prevent the abuser from aiding or committing an act of domestic violence or any other specified act, entering a workplace or any other place frequented by the abused, attempting to communicate with the abused, isolating any assets used by both the parties and causing violence to the abused, her relatives and others who provide her assistance from the domestic violence.
The draft Act provides for appointment of Protection Officers and NGOs to provide assistance to the woman w.r.t medical examination, legal aid, safe shelter, etc.
The Act provides for breach of protection order or interim protection order by the respondent as a cognizable and non-bailable offence punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to one year or with fine which may extend to twenty thousand rupees or with both. Similarly, non-compliance or discharge of duties by the Protection Officer is also sought to be made an offence under the Act with similar punishment.
Gender equality means a society in wherein both women and men enjoy the same opportunities, rights and obligations in different spheres of life. Equality in decision making, economic and social freedom, equal access to education and right to practice an occupation of one’s choice. In order to promote gender equality , we need to the empowerment of women, and concentrate on areas which are most crucial to her well being. Women’s empowerment, economic, social, political, is vital to growth of any nation and to protect and nurture human rights.
We live in a gynocentric society that rushes to help women who claim to be in distress, but that very society ridicules men making the same claim. This is the inherent gender bias we witness even in our daily routine lives. Realizing this, We associates men who are victims of gender bias and try to be the catalyst to bring changes in their lives.
To achieve this, We organizes programs, events, and protests to spread awareness about the issues and problems faced by men and encourage them to speak up against the harassment they are showered with. We organize awareness campaigns to end discrimination amongst the male gender across society and age groups.
We help the men who have been victims of false cases of gender-biased and wrong laws like IPC 498-A, rape, sexual harassment, domestic violence and other cases of similar nature.
Being a social animal, it’s our moral responsibility to give respect to both genders and provides equal rights to all, since no society, be it in humans or animals, is complete if anyone gender is discriminated against.
We not only to help men but also to educate society to understand the basic concept of true gender equality, focusing to bring harmony in families and safeguarding the social fabric, which has deteriorated to a large extent because of the ongoing hollow feminism.
We work for the rights of transgender through collaborations with individuals, organizations, and Government departments to provide them opportunities and to bring them into mainstream society.
In order to bring them to mainstream society and provide life with dignity- workshops on Financial Literacy, General Awareness and Personality Upkeep and Skill Trainings.
We work to ensure that all children enjoy their rights, including free education, and that they are protected from being forced into labour, which hinders their development.
We work at the grassroots level to help underprivileged children and women access quality education. Education is important for the social and economic development of any nation. Education is an important tool that enables women and girls to participate in decisions that affect their lives and in improving their social status. In order to end inequality, it is important that each and every individual in the country is educated and has access to better livelihood opportunities.
We work to improve the access to quality healthcare services for the poor and marginalised communities. By identifying the root causes of healthcare challenges, we work at the individual, community, and systemic levels to develop innovative solutions and help implement quality healthcare services. The ambit of our work includes improving of maternal and reproductive health, child health and nutrition, and early identification and treatment of communicable diseases.
We do Mental Health campaign, both to educate people about the importance of mental health and provide short applications designed to actively engage individuals in addressing mental health concerns or maintaining positive psychological behaviours.
We work at the grassroots level to fight human trafficking and other forms of abuse and exploitation. We make every effort to empower and protect vulnerable people, provide holistic support and ensure access to legal services to the survivors of trafficking and strengthen community resilience.
The solution to social injustice lies within us only. We should be aware of the expressions the poor, the backwards, social justice which are being used to undermine standards, to flout norms and to put institutions to work. Despite the well intentioned commitment of ensuring social justice through equalization or protective discrimination policy, the governmental efforts have caused some tension in the society. In the name of social justice even such activities are performed which have nothing to do with social justice. The need of hour is to ensure the proper and balanced implementation of policies so as to make social justice an effective vehicle of social progress.
While Liberalism puts freedom first it is conscious of the fact that such freedom is hollow unless it is accompanied by a sense of security and equality. A liberal social policy should aim at providing the most disadvantaged with access to opportunities and, at the same time create a social net that strengthens their ability to cope with crises. Successive governments have attempted to meet the basic needs of people by spending large sums of money on various subsidies, a variety of employment generation and poverty alleviation schemes. While these schemes have created a huge distributive bureaucracy only a small percentage of the sums sanctioned actually reach the intended recipient groups. They have bred corruption on a massive scale.
A phenomenal amount of resources are wasted, destabilising public finances, harming economic development and burdening future generations. Alongside of measures to liberalise the economy which would create new employment opportunities there is needed to encourage entrepreneurship and self-employment particularly in the light of fast developing technology. This would spur an upward movement of people and each entrepreneur can provide work for one or more persons. Jobs and self-employment opportunities have to be encouraged in sectors like agriculture, plantations, and in a variety of infrastructural activities, etc. Employing techniques that involve a judicial mix of machines and manual labour, the country’s enormous economic potential can be exploited to the benefit of the less fortunate sections of the population.
Without administrative and political decentralisation the goals of social justice may not be accomplished. Letting people decide what their development needs are will not only generate social and political awareness among them but also install a sense of self-respect and build strong leadership at the local and community levels.
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