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(A Monthly Publication of Manavadhikar Samajik Manch)

Volume XVI No. 1 January 2019
President :Dr. A. Shanker Advisors: Bejon Mishra
Editor :Dr. Girija B. Nanda Manoj Kar
Managing Editor :Dr. Srimoy Patra
UP Chapter
Editorial Team : Swarup N. Panigrahi
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J. P. Pant Phone :0-9415320183
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Operations Head :Maheswar Singh Odisha Chapter
Reporter :Sanjeevani Umakanta Nanda, Adv, State Convenor
Legal Advisors :Biswajit Swain Amit Mishra, Associate State Convenor
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Human Touch
(A Monthly Publication of Manavadhikar Samajik Manch)

Human Touch is a platform for non-partisan portrayal of human rights issues in their different forms. Be it
the rights of the weaker sections of our population such as the women, the children, the aged and the
physically challenged, or the victims of some social customs, cultural traditions and economic & non-economic
policies, the publication brings out the issues objectively and in a manner that would give succour to the
people whose rights are either violated or put in jeopardy.

Human Touch acts as a forum for scholars, activists, concerned individuals and the common men &
women to ventilate their grievances, express their views and to highlight cases of human rights violations,
so that appropriate ameliorative actions can be taken by the concerned agencies. It is meant to help the
helpless and to speak for those whose voices are not heard. It engages in constructive and incisive debate
on issues that are not only of day-to-day concern but also on issues that are important for posterity. This
publication is a step forward in realising the vision of Manavadhikar Samajik Manch, i.e. creation of a
just and equitable society.

Owner : Manavadhikar Samajik Manch

Publisher/Printer/Editor : Dr. Girija B. Nanda
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Published from: Manavadhikar Samajik Manch, 39, Sant Nagar, New Delhi - 110065
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 In this issue...
International Day of Education: 5
Education is key to sustainable development

World Braille Day: 7

Empowering persons with disabilities and ensuring inclusiveness and equality

Custodial Violence: 8
The Worst Crime in a Civilised Society

Media Today: 11
Its Effect on Society

National News 14

News from the National Human Rights Commission 17

International News 21

Slums In Metropolis: 24
The Bane of Urban India

Practice of Child Labour: 26

An Inhuman Trend

Water Woes: 29
Liquid Life or Drier World?

Curing the Ills of India: 30

Need for Basic Comprehensive Social Security for All
 From the President’s Desk …
As we celebrate our Republic Day, it’s time for some soul searching. How much progress have we
made in the past seven decades and how vibrant is our democracy? When we talk of our seventy one
years as a democracy what immediately flashes before our eyes is a market that seems to stretch
across all our sensibilities, and technology in all its manifestations - most evident in the big cities by way
of flyovers and malls, with inner city railways close on the heels.

On the other hand, there is the poverty, the unimaginable squalor and inhuman living conditions of slum
dwellers that have migrated from villages for want of a basic livelihood. Poverty and illiteracy are linked
to each other. More illiteracy means more unemployment, which in turn, can encourage child labor.
According to a national committee report 3.7 million people live below the poverty line in India which
has over 35 per cent of the world’s total illiterate population. Meanwhile, about 40 million primary
school-age children in India are not in school, according to a UNESCO report.

Even when the country is fortunate enough to have a bumper crop, hungry households do not have the
purchasing power to buy the food they need. With employment in rural India becoming scarce, there
has been increasing migration to urban areas by desperate people in search of jobs, giving rise to more
slums and more urban problems, with health issues being high on the list. According to data from a
National Family Health Survey in 2005-6, only 45 per cent of households in the country had access to
adequate sanitation. Allocation for health this fiscal year was a mere 2.7 million rupees. Health is an
indispensable gauge for defining a person’s sense of wellbeing. In India, despite the existence of a wide
network of hospitals, private expenditure dominates the financing of health care. The effects are bound
to be regressive. Despite having had independence for more than half a century, progress in development
has been minimal as the accumulation of money and the politics of vested interests dominate thinking,
subduing all other considerations of ethics, the environment and sustainability. Most of our development
is in cities, especially the big ones, increasing urban populations to unsustainable levels, while places
elsewhere languish without infrastructure.

Even as ‘mobocracy’ redefines democracy, we have the Lokpal Bill, perceived by some as threatening
the very notions of democracy. Is it really, though? If every politician, bureaucrat and government
official is seen as unashamedly corrupt, if nation-building has become a dispensable dream, then where
is redemption to be found, or even sought?

The prime challenges faced by the country after seventy one years of being an independent democratic
nation are the need to root out corruption, make education more genuine and available, curtailing
population growth, better medical care, and alleviation of poverty. All these are achievable with honesty
of purpose, which makes character building the biggest challenge before us today.
Dr. A. Shanker

Vol. XVI No. 1 January 2019 4

 International Day of Education:
Education is key to sustainable development
Background
On 3 December 2018, the United
Nations General Assembly adopted
with consensus a resolution
proclaiming 24 January as
International Day of Education, in
celebration of the role of education
for peace and development.
The adoption of the resolution 73/
25 “International Day of Education”,
co-authored by Nigeria and 58 other
Member States, demonstrated the
unwavering political will to support
transformative actions for inclusive,
equitable and quality education for
all.
By doing so, the international
community reiterated that education
plays a key role in building sustainable
and resilient societies, and contributes
to the achievement of all other
Sustainable Development Goals.
With a view to enhance international
cooperation in supporting the
efforts towards the realization of
Sustainable Development Goal 4,
the resolution called on all
stakeholders including Member
States, organizations of the UN
system, and civil society, non-
governmental organizations,
academic institutions, the private
sector, individuals and other
relevant stakeholders to observe the
International Day of Education.
UNESCO, as the specialized United
Nations agency for education, will
facilitate the annual observance of the
Day in close collaboration with main
education actors.
Vol. XVI No. 1 January 2019
Education is a human right
The right to education is enshrined
in article 26 of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights. The
declaration calls for free and
compulsory elementary education.
The Convention on the Rights of the
Child, adopted in 1989, goes further
to stipulate that countries shall make
higher education accessible to all.
Education is key to sustainable
development
When it adopted the 2030 Agenda for
Sustainable Development in
September 2015, the international
community recognized that education
is essential for the success of all 17
of its goals. Sustainable Development
Goal 4, in particular, aims to “ensure
inclusive and equitable quality
education and promote lifelong
learning opportunities for all” by
2030.
Challenges to achieving universal
education
Education offers children a ladder out
of poverty and a path to a promising
future. But about 265 million children
and adolescents around the world do
not have the opportunity to enter or
complete school. More than a fifth
of them are of primary school age.
They are thwarted by poverty,
discrimination, armed conflict,
emergencies and the effects of
climate change. Migration and
forcible displacement also affect the
achievement of the education goals,
5
as presented in the 2019 Global
Education Monitoring report.
Celebrating the first International Day
of Education in 2019
By proclaiming the International Day
of Education, UN member states
recognized the importance of
working to ensure inclusive and
equitable quality education at all levels
– so that all people may have access
to lifelong learning opportunities that
help them to acquire the knowledge
and skills needed to access
opportunities to participate fully in
society and contribute to sustainable
development.
Resolution adopted by the General
Assembly on 3 December 2018
International Day of Education
The General Assembly, Reaffirming
its resolution 70/1 of 25 September
2015, entitled “Transforming our
world: the 2030 Agenda for
Sustainable Development”, in which
it adopted a comprehensive, far-
reaching and people-centred set of
universal and transformative
Sustainable Development Goals and
targets, its commitment to working
tirelessly for the full implementation
of the Agenda by 2030, its recognition
that eradicating poverty in all its
forms and dimensions, including
extreme poverty, is the greatest global
challenge and an indispensable
requirement for sustainable
development, its commitment to
achieving sustainable development in
its three dimensions – economic,
social and environmental – in a
balanced and integrated manner, and
to building upon the achievements of
the Millennium Development Goals
and seeking to address their
unfinished business,
Acknowledging the importance of
education for achieving sustainable
development, including in the context
of the achievements of the
Millennium Development Goals,
Agenda 21, the Plan of
Implementation of the World Summit
on Sustainable Development
(Johannesburg Plan of
Implementation), the Education for
All goals, the Global Action
Programme on Education for
Sustainable Development, and the
Incheon Declaration and Framework
for Action for the implementation of
Sustainable Development Goal 4,
Recalling its resolution 72/222 of 20
December 2017 on education for
sustainable development in the
framework of the 2030 Agenda for
Sustainable Development, as well as
its resolution 70/209 of 22 December
2015 and other previous resolutions
on the United Nations Decade of
Education for Sustainable
Development,
Reaffirming its resolutions 53/199 of
15 December 1998 and 61/185 of 20
December 2006 on the proclamation
of international years and Economic
and Social Council resolution 1980/
67 of 25 July 1980 on international
years and anniversaries, particularly
paragraphs 1 to 10 of the annex
thereto on the agreed criteria for the
proclamation of international years,
as well as paragraphs 13 and 14, in
which it is stated that an international
year should not be proclaimed before
the basic arrangements for its
organization and financing have been
made,
Recognizing that education plays a
key role in building sustainable and
Vol. XVI No. 1 January 2019
resilient societies and contributes to
the achievement of all of the other
Sustainable Development Goals; it
increases the productivity of
individuals and strengthens the
potential for economic growth,
develops the skills needed for decent
work, de velops the professional skills
needed for sustainable development,
including in the fields of water and
sanitation, green energy and the
conservation of natural resources,
helps to eradicate poverty and hunger,
contributes to improved health,
promotes gender equality and can
reduce inequality, and promotes
peace, the rule of law and respect for
human rights,
Acknowledging the importance of
working to ensure inclusive and
equitable quality education at all levels
– early childhood, primary,
secondary, tertiary and distance
education, including technical and
vocational training – so that all people
may have access to lifelong learning
opportunities that help them to acquire
the knowledge and skills needed to
access opportunities to participate
fully in societ y and contribute to
sustainable development,
1. Decides to proclaim 24 January
the International Day of
Education;
2. Invites all Member States,
organizations of the United
Nations system, other
6
international and regional
organizations and civil society
organizations, non-governmental
organizations, faith-based
organizations, academic
institutions, the private sector,
individuals and other relevant
stakeholders to observe the
International Day of Education in
an appropriate manner and to
continue to give consideration to
enhancing international
cooperation in support of the
efforts of all Member States
towards the realization of
Sustainable Development Goal 4;4
3. Invites the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization, as the
specialized United Nations agency
for education, to facilitate the
observance of 24 January of
every year as the International
Day of Education, mindful of the
provisions contained in the annex
to Economic and Social Council
resolution 1980/67;
4. Stresses that the cost of all
activities that may arise from the
implementation of the present
resolution should be met from
voluntary contributions;
5. Requests the Secretary-General to
bring the present resolution to the
attention of all Member States, the
organizations of the United
Nations system and civil society
organizations for appropriate
observance.
 World Braille Day:
Empowering persons with disabilities and ensuring inclusiveness and equality

W
orld Braille Day is
observed in order to raise
awareness of the
importance of braille as a means of
communication in the full realization
of the human rights for blind and
partially sighted people.
The first official World Braille Day
is celebrated on 4 January 2019.
What is Braille?
Braille is a tactile representation of
alphabetic and numerical symbols
using six dots to represent each
letter and number, and even
musical, mathematical and scientific
symbols. Braille (named after its
inventor in 19th century France,
Louis Braille) is used by blind and
partially sighted people to read the
same books and periodicals as those
printed in a visual font. Use of
braille allows the communication of
important information to and from
individuals who are blind or partially
sighted, ensuring competency,
independence and equality.
Organization, that globally further advanced the rights and well-
approximately 1.3 billion people live being of persons with disabilities in
with some form of distance or near the implementation of the 2030
vision impairment. People with vision Agenda for Sustainable Development.
impairment are more likely than those
without to experience higher rates of In November 2018 the General
Assembly decided to proclaim 4
January as World Braille Day in
recognition that promoting human
rights and fundamental freedoms in
poverty and disadvantage. the context of access to written
language is a critical prerequisite to
The impact of vision loss extends far the full realization of human rights for
beyond the prevalence of blindness blind and partially sighted people.
and vision impairment. For the 39
million people who are blind and the Support us for the creation of
253 million who have a vision a just and equitable society
impairment, vision loss often
represents a lifetime of inequality.
People with vision impairment often
have poorer health, and face barriers
to education and employment.
Building on many decades of UN’s
work in the field of disability, the
Convention on the Rights of Persons
with Disabilities, adopted in 2006, has

Braille is a means of communication

for blind persons, as reflected in
article 2 of the Convention on the
Rights of Persons with Disabilities
and is essential in the context of
education, freedom of expression
and opinion, and access to
information and written
communication, as well as for the
social inclusion of blind persons, as
reflected in articles 21 and 24 of
the Convention.

Background
It is estimated by the World Health

Vol. XVI No. 1 January 2019 7

 Custodial Violence:
The Worst Crime in a Civilised Society
C
ustodial Violence means torture
in police custody. However
“Torture” has not been defined
in the constitution or in other penal
laws in India. It is a serious violation
of human dignity which can destroy,
to a very large extent, the personality
of any individual.
Custodial violence ruins the victim
both physically and mentally. Custo-
dial violence, including torture and
death in the Lock-ups, Strikes a
heavy blow at the rule of laws which
demands that the powers of the ex-
ecutive should not only be derived
from law but also that they should
limited by laws. The quality of a na-
tion’s civilization can be largely meas-
ured by the methods it uses in en-
forcing criminal law. It is further ag-
gravated by the fact that persons who
are supposed to be protectors of citi-
zens, themselves commit violations
of human rights practicing custodial
violence.
The Indians is hardly different from
any of its neighbors. A true democ-
racy is where basic guarantees are
assured for the protection of per-
sons and property, and where life is
free from fear and repression. The
mere existence of a Constitution and
the possibility to cast a vote once in
awhile is not what democracy
means. Democracy involves and
demands good governance. Good
governance must be reflected in
every aspect of public life where
state agencies are respected and
considered as instruments and insti-
tutions of service, not as sources of
suspicion and fear.
Vol. XVI No. 1 January 2019
Instances of custodial torture are re-
ported all over India. It appears that
in general, investigation of a crime
begins and ends with a confession.
In most cases the arrest of a suspect
precedes the investigation of a case.
The arrest is often followed by a pro-
longed period of illegal detention dur-
ing which the detainee is tortured. If
the police are certain, according to
their "conviction," that the suspect in
custody was involved in a serious
crime, often the suspect is killed, al-
legedly in an "encounter." In fact,
"encounter killings" are reported in
alarming numbers in India.
In the remote villages of India, gov-
ernment means the local police con-
stable. The atrocities committed by
these uniformed state agents create
a fertile ground for anti-social and
anti-state elements to propagate and
advocate violence.
The National Human Rights Commis-
sion has failed in its efforts to pre-
vent or investigate custodial killings
and fake encounter deaths, the or-
8
- Ajay Kumar Chaubey
ganisation alleged. Out of the 1,502
encounter cases reported to the
NHRC since its inception in 1993, the
police claims were found wrong only
in 12 cases and compensation was
awarded to the victims’ families.
A custodial violence means a crime
against Humanity. It is in recogniz-
ing state liability, and in denuding the
defense of sovereign immunity. The
incidence of custodial violence, cus-
tody death, continues abated. There
is an increasing regularity in refer-
ring cases of custody death to the
CBI. The regularity with which cases
of custodial violence and death have
reached the courts has been one rea-
son for increasing credulity, and less-
ening disbelief, when complains are
made of police violence.
The Delhi High Court has said; “When
a person dies in police custody and
the dead body bears telltale marks of
violence or the circumstances are
such that indicate foul play, the court
acting under Article 226 of the con-
stitution will be justified in granting
monetary relief to the relative of the
victims. …… Any doubts that might
have persisted about the state’s re-
sponsibility for the safety of the per-
son in its custody has now been laid
at rest by the decision of the Supreme
Court in state of A. P. v Challa Rama
Krishana Reddy.
The labeling of a person as a mem-
ber of an extremist organization has
provided a shield to the police and
armed forces in cases of encounter
killing or in fake encounters. The
obstacles to enabling investigation in
cases of enabling investigation in
cases of alleged encounters were set
out in an earlier survey. The judicial
dictum adds an imperative to the reg-
istering, and investigation of alleged
encounter deaths, to determine the
veracity or otherwise of charges that
the encounter was staged, or fake.
According to the former Chief Jus-
tice of India A.S. Anand "One way
of curbing custodial violence is to
make such activity on the part of
police officers a crime punishable ei-
ther judicially or departmentally. But
experience shows that this sanction
has not proved effective. Section 7
of the Police Act 1861 empowers the
higher police officers to "dismiss,
suspend or reduce any officer of the
subordinate ranks whom they shall
think remiss or negligent in discharge
of his duty or unfit for the same."
Lesser punishments can also be
awarded. Section 29 of the Act pro-
vides that any police officer violating
the rules and regulations including any
police officer who shall offer any
Vol. XVI No. 1 January 2019
unwarrantable personal violence to
any person in his custody shall be
punished with three months'' rigor-
ous imprisonment. All this has meant
nothing in practice. This can be
changed only by developing a culture
of respect for human rights and rule
of law among the police personnel -
something akin to what obtains in the
United Kingdom.
Asian Centre for Human Rights
(ACHR) in its latest report Torture in
India 2009 states that in the last eight
years (from April 2001 to March
2009), an estimated 1,184 persons
were killed in police custody in In-
dia. Most of the victims were killed
as a result of torture within the first
48 hours after being taken into cus-
tody.
The highest number of custodial
deaths was reported in Maharashtra
(192 cases) followed by Uttar
Pradesh (128); Gujarat (113); Andhra
Pradesh (85); West Bengal (83);
Tamil Nadu (76); Assam (74);
9
Karnataka (55); Punjab (41); Madhya
Pradesh (38); Bihar and Rajasthan (32
each); Haryana (31); Kerala (30);
Jharkhand (29); Delhi (25); Orissa
(24); Chhattisgarh (23); Uttarakhand
and Meghalaya (16 each); Arunachal
Pradesh (11); Jammu and Kashmir
and Tripura (9 each); Puducherry and
Chandigarh (3 each); Himachal
Pradesh (2); while Manipur, Goa,
Sikkim, and Dadra & Nagar Haveli
recorded one case each.
“These deaths in custody do not how-
ever represent the actual number of
deaths in police custody in India.
Deaths in the custody of the armed
forces and the Indian Army under the
control of the Central government are
not reported to the NHRC as it does
not have jurisdiction to investigate vio-
lations committed by the armed
forces under Section 19 of the Hu-
man Rights Protection Act, 1993.
Widespread use of custodial torture
in India is not the result of govern-
ment neglect alone. It is also the re-
sult of the lack of seriousness in ap-
proaching this issue by the other jus-
tice mechanisms in India. Meager
compensations awarded after dec-
ades long court cases serves no bet-
ter deterrent than a scarecrow. To
punish a law enforcement officer
who has engaged in torture, as of
now, there is no law in India. In the
remote villages of India, government
means the local police constable. The
atrocities committed by these uni-
formed state agents create a fertile
ground for anti-social and anti-state
elements to propagate and advocate
violence. The increase of violence in
society has resulted in the loss of a
middle ground for those who do not
support violence.
Custodial violence is a dark reality in
our democratic country governed by
“Rule of Law”. There are many in-
stances when it has been examined
that how torture is inflicted or who
are the guilty persons or who get
what compensation in cases of cus-
todial violence. Torture is essentially
Vol. XVI No. 1 January 2019
an instrument to impose the “will of
the strong over the weak”. However,
the above statement merely states the
obvious. If we understand this “will”
which is being imposed, and then we
understand the causes of custodial
violence.
In recent years, third degree torture
and custodial deaths have become an
intrinsic part of police investigations
and the injury inflicted on the prison-
ers is sometimes unbearable. No
doubt, the police officers have con-
tributed towards the maintenance of
public order and their plans are also
enforced with purity, activity, vigi-
lance and description. But more of-
ten that, the police officers have been
abused and condemned for torturing
the public, particularly those who are
in custody and detention, and inflict-
ing injuries to their life and property.
In almost every state there are alle-
gations and these allegations are in-
creasing in frequency of deaths in
custody, generally prescribed by the
newspapers as lock-up deaths eve-
10
ryday, carrying reports of assault,
torture, rape, and death of persons
in police custody.
Conclusion
Indian Custodial Justice system must
be based on respect for human rights,
in particular the rights of the accused
and the rights of victims. Whichever
any reform of the Custodial Justice
system must take into account and
seek to eradicate the root causes of
its malfunctioning; the authority con-
ducting the investigation should be
separate and independent from the
detention authority. The length of
police custody should not be ex-
tended. The police to use third de-
gree methods and the informal de-
tentions Indian Custodial Justice sys-
tem must be based on respect for hu-
man rights.
- HT Bureau
Support us for the creation of
a just and equitable society

Introduction
Human mind is great on criticizing
front but when it comes to appreciate
we generally stand mute. These days’
media is known for its sensationalism,
violence, TRP race, Yellow
journalism. It is also considered as a
best possible propaganda tool of
different political parties in the
respective regions. To stand out,
every media tool is coming up with
innovative content to influence
audience in one way or other. Major
public attention has been paid to
potential negative effects of the media
on society which results in very less
acknowledgement for the positive.
We can differentiate the media
messages as potentially harmless or
pro-social in nature. Continuous
watching or inducing oneself to a
particular media condition a
behavioural pattern in him/her.
Pro-social behavior can be broadly
defined as any voluntary behavior
intended to benefit another person.
Friendliness, sharing, cooperation,
sympathy, and even acceptance of
others from different groups are
some of the qualities that a person
learns from media.
The term pro-social is often coined
by the media industry, federal
Regulators, academics, and
advocates; there is not necessarily a
shared definition within or between
groups. Lowery & DeFleur, author
of Television and Behavior defines
pro-social as that which is “socially
desirable and which in some way
benefits other persons or society at
large”.
Vol. XVI No. 1 January 2019
Media Today:
Its Effect on Society
Media is a communication tool which
is omnipresent, can be seen in form
of TV, Print, Radio, Films and Digital
world. Selective perception and
selective retention theory of mass
media defines nature of audience in a
way that the viewer or target group
looks for the content that interests
more to them and retain only that part
in memory.
When we talk about effects of media,
we focus more on children’s behavior
than others. They follow their
favorite cartoon characters or TV
artists or Film actors in their real life.
Social Interaction is counted nil when
a family or a person is lured to a TV
set. To keep the momentum going,
TV content producers try to poke
every character’s life one by one in
TV soaps. Screen media whether TV
11
- Akansha Aggarwal
or computer screen interfere with
children’s social interaction. Parents
spend less time talking with and
looking at each other when the
television set is turned on than when
it is off. Although the sheer amount
of time spent in front of a TV or
computer screen have detrimental
effects on social interaction, viewing
patterns of audience. These days
Media has emerged out as a parcel
of peer group in development of
social skills in a child.
Many a times a film or a TV
commercial or a TV serial series have
a lasting impact on children’s social
behavior. An example can be seen
when a child see a cartoon character
saving a tree by watering regularly
and saving a puppy from mud and
helping old people in work. Children
also learn values and tradition of their
culture and society from media
content they are exposed off. There
are various behaviour patterns that
society is accepting in current world
of media. Media has developed this
mark in society that acceptance for
others from different racial and ethnic
groups interacting with one another.
Helping others, donating for welfare
of others, helping the poor and
physically handicapped, going for
social work are other behavioral
patterns which are at high.
Films
Indian Cinema has been a great
catalyst in changing the behavioral
patterns of public at large. Guru Dutt
and Dev Anand have been known for
their opinion maker films and scripts.

Dorothy Verma, a filmmaker replied
with a firm reaction “We work as per
the need and demand of market.
Audience love to watch a movie
which influence them and make a
mirror effect. We make what
audiences like.” Raj Kapoor, Shyam
Bengal and Sanjy Leela Bansali have
diverted general public`s attention
from entertainment to problems of
society and their respective solutions.
Aamir Khan’s Taare Zameen Par and
3 idiots have changed the outlook of
teachers and parents towards
development of younger mind. Mrs.
Ragini Mehta says “I have developed
a habit to make my kid enjoying his
area of talent instead nagging him for
other forced work”.
Television
Hum Log was TV series that spell
bounded Indian audience during
1980s and taught values of joint
family. The show was a famous
contributor of displaying family
bonding and solving out troubles
together in a middle class family.
Showing TV content on promotion
of girl child and pointing against
Vol. XVI No. 1 January 2019
discrimination and caste system in
society by TV shows like Balika
Vadhu, Na ana iss Desh lado, Kaashi
and Agle janam mujhe bitiya naa kijo
has opened up the orthodox mind set
ups. Act of altruism, defined as
helping, sharing, giving, or donating
has been a landmark in building up
behaviour through media. These days
TV programmes shows altruism like
lift karade on Sony TV by Yash Raj
group where a celebrity star tries to
uplift a deprived person in terms of
money and other kinds. Crime patrol
by Sony on social crime and D3
commando force by UTV Bindass are
promoting patriotism and feeling of
brotherhood in society. These TV
series are teaching skill sets of self-
defense to audience and developing
a positive behavior in society. Reality
TV has been criticized for its negative
behaviour but on positive front it has
made significant contribution .Dance
India Dance and India got talent
shows has explored the talent from
remotest areas of Indian villages.
News TV professional, Nipunika
Shahid says Media works as a watch
dog of society and majority of the
12
time it is blamed for bringing up
negative behaviour amongst audience.
These days, there is hardly a debate
or show in TV to put up brighter side
of media which is making up positive
behaviour. Patriotism for country and
countrymen, participation at every
level of democracy, citizen
journalism, knowing about our very
own culture and business world has
come to the reach of common man
just because of media. Media plays a
vital role in building up positive side
of behaviour.
Radio
Red FM ka Mike an initiative to give
voice to public and make people
aware about all wrong deeds
happening in city. Media is a friend
of common man and it brings that
spark of accountability to everyone.
Whether one resides in a metro or in
a small town, radio is in everybody’s
reach. Lighter side of it makes every
listener to participate in each and
every good or bad happening. From
Traffic Jam updates to People’s view
on latest happening gives an idea how
general public is motivated to
participate in Radio.
Digital
Social networking websites and blogs
are encouraging youth to enter
various forums to stand for right.
Multi tasking has been a change in
behavior with the use of digital. More
and more freedom to access
anywhere and anytime has made
audience inquisitive for information.
Either it is reaching out the destination
with help of Google map. Or building
up the whole idea into workable plan
with Internet and animation, domain
is in demand. It has induced logical
thinking power into the netizen and
other sections of audience. E-
participation in democracy through
media is the latest move. Reference
Check, easy access to e-libraries,

world knowledge at one click and all
these are gifts from New media that
our younger generation should
preserve adds Ratnesh Dwivedi, an
Academician.
Print
Articles on health and environment
concerns like wellness column in Times
of India and Global Warming articles
in newspaper are the contemporary
example of pro-social effect of media
on society. Research findings by CSE
and world summit on Cophengam and
other initiative are helping people to
understand the need of hour. Print
Media are opinion makers of society.
Apart from giving deeper insight to any
issue or any event happening around,
print gives an option to readers to
associate themselves with changing
culture and tradition. Participation by
general public was a step taken by print
media first time.
Advertising
Advertisements like incredible India
and Atithi devo bhava have
inculcated many values in new
generation. These ads. have added
value to the Indian culture and its
popularity. In any form whether a TV
commercial or Radio Commercial or
Print advertisment, advertising as a
whole is spreading a message of
Vol. XVI No. 1 January 2019
oneness and inducing an initiative for
social betterment. All Public Service
Advertisements are great source of
inspiration for children. Mrs
Bhagirathi Sharma agreed to the
positive effect of media while
observing her kids behaviour. After
watching “Surf Excel-Daag acheche
he” TVC her son has started helping
his grandmother in her household
works. Above all these
advertisements are catalysts in
upbringing the socially neglected
sections of society. Women and under
privileged children are given due
13
respect, donation by buying a pack
of Washing powder or any sanitation
product,etc all these activities build
up community welfare habit in
consumers.
Conclusion
Media offers a window to society
that allows building up of behaviour.It
is the audience reception by which
we define the better or worst side of
media. Referring to the Dennis
MCQuil theory on Uses and
Gratifications model where audience
condition own behavior by identifying
with roles, values and gender
identities presented in the media.
There has been pattern of increase in
standard of living, urbanization,
literacy of people during the transition
from traditional to modern society.
Social Interaction, continuous change
in lifestyle, security, education and
information are the gifts from media
which we hardly recognize when it
comes to counting on media’s
relevance. There is no escapism to
the ill-effects of media on society.
- The author is a freelance writer
 National Human Rights Update
Maharashtra Human rights asks
health department to pay Rs 10
lakh to dead woman's family
The Maharashtra State Human Rights
Commission (MSHRC) has recently
ordered the state health department
to pay a compensation of Rs 10 lakh
to the family of a city-based woman
who died due to alleged negligence
of doctors at a civic hospital at Karad,
in Satara, after delivering her first
child in May.
According to the Commission,
Ravina Mane (21), was married off
in Karad a few years ago. She was
admitted to a local civic hospital in
May, during her pregnancy. "Right
after delivering a baby girl on May
26, Mane started developing post-
surgery complications like inversion
of her uterus. She was in a critical
condition and had to be shifted to
another hospital where she breathed
her last on May 28," an official from
the commission said.
The official further added that an
enquiry committee was set up by the
civic surgeon of the said hospital in
Satara, and it found a senior nurse
and attending gynaecologist Dr
Supriya Yadav guilty in the incident.
"While the nurse was sent on a long
leave, Dr Yadav's services were
terminated. The committee had
further recommended a in order to avoid repetition of such
compensation of Rs 25,000 under the
government project 'Kanya Mazi
Bhagyashri' to the family," the official
said.
"The only legal and logical conclusion
which can be drawn by this
Vol. XVI No. 1 January 2019
Commission is that the Mane's case
is a case violation of the human rights
as a child came to be deprived of a
mother's love, protection, which the
child needs most at such tender
stages. A husband lost his life partner
and the parents their daughter and that
too at a young age solely because of
the arbitrary, casual approach of the
attending doctors which eventually
took away her life," said Acting
Chairperson of the Commission, MA
Sayeed.
The Commission has ordered state
health department to pay a
compensation of Rs 10 lakh to the
legal heirs of Ravina Mane within
three months. "The amount has to be
deposited in the name of Ravina's
minor daughter, with a nationalised
bank with maternal grandparents as
her guardian, with a further embargo
that the amount on maturity would
be again reinvested in the fixed
deposit till the girl attains the age of
majority. In default to pay the
compensation amount, to pay an
interest of 12.50 percent on the
awarded amount till its actual
realization," said Sayeed.
The Commission has also advised that
incidence, sensitization training
should be given to the medical
officers attached to the government
hospitals throughout the state and
vacant vacancies to be filled up with
special attention to the posting of
experts and specialists like
14
gynecologist at civil hospitals as well
as Public Health Centres with proper
modern medical facilities. "Scheme
should be devised for appointment of
counselor to guide and advise
expectant mothers particularly in rural
areas," Sayeed said.
Pay Rs 2 lakh to family of
father-son duo who died in
manhole: MSHRC
The Maharashtra State Human Rights
Commission (MSHRC) has recently
ordered a man to deposit Rs 2 lakh
with the local civic body in Bhiwandi
to compensate the family of a father-
son duo who died while cleaning a
manhole in September this year.
The order has been hailed as
exceptional by activists.
According to the police, on
September 1, Chandrakant Rathod
(45) and his son Ramesh (21) were
asked by their employer, the owner
of a dairy farm at Bhiwandi, Atik
Ahmed Ismail Momin, to clean a
manhole on the property. But in the
absence of any safety gear, the duo
drowned while cleaning it.
Momin was booked under the Indian
Penal Code sections 304ii (culpable
homicide not amounting to murder)
and section 304A (causing death by
negligence). A charge sheet is
proposed to be filed against him.
The human rights body had taken
suo-motu cognisance of the incident.
It came to the notice of the
commission while going through the
details of the case that Momin
blatantly took the law into his own
hands by illegally removing the
concrete cover of the manhole
chamber and installing an electric
motor pump in a water pipeline for
the purpose of cleaning and washing
of cattle sheds.
The two people and some other
labourers had been hired by him.
On the fateful day, Chandrakant and
Ramesh climbed into the chamber to
start the motor pump and begin
cleaning. But they died while doing
the job, the commission's order
states.
"Momin who not only blatantly
committed breach of mandate of law
and in fact by his illegal action took
away the life of two victims, has to
be held responsible for the
occurrence of the unfortunate
incident," said acting chairperson of
the panel MA Sayeed.
"Facts and circumstances warrant
that for the serious breach and
omission of law on his part, he should
be asked to deposit compensation
amount of Rs 2 lakh with the office
of Municipal Commissioner of
Bhiwandi Nizampur Municipal
Corporation, who in turn should pay
this amount to the legal heirs of the
deceased."
He further stated: "The amount
cannot bring back the life of the
family's kin but would act as a solace
for the trauma and the loss suffered
by them. The local civic body should
strictly comply the direction and
submit their compliance to the
Commission within three months."
Rajasthan Assembly Elections
2018: Congress hits back after
'grab them by collar' remark by
Vol. XVI No. 1 January 2019
BJP chief Amit Shah
Rajasthan state Congress
Committee's Law, Human Rights and
RTI departments has lodged a
complaint to the Election
Commission against BJP national
president Amit Shah, state Minister
Shrichand Kriplani, BJP MLA Ramhet
Yadav over alleged violation of the
model code of conduct.
State Congress spokesman Sushil
Sharma said that during the Bikaner
tour, Shah told people that if leaders
of opposition parties visit their
villages, grab them by collar. They
said this was an attack on the
democratic process and is in violation
of the model code of conduct as it
provokes people to spread unrest.
Coming down heavily on the
Congress, Shah on Wednesday had
said that in all its years of rule,
Congress has promoted three malaise
in the country; casteism, family
affiliations and appeasement. "This
has killed merit and played foul with
the future of the youth." He told his
cheering audience, "I appeal to you,
when Congressmen come to seek
your vote, grab them by the collar
and ask them to tell you what their
governments did for Rajasthan."
Supreme Court blunts bid to
block Rohingya deportation;
govt sends 7 back
The Supreme Court on Thursday
gave marching orders to the seven
Rohingya Muslim migrants who
entered India illegally from Myanmar
in 2012. By doing so, the Court
showed the way forward that once a
competent court declared anyone as
"illegal migrant" it won't come in the
way of their deportation in the name
of human rights. India has not
deported any Rohingya Muslim in the
past years, although their population
in the country has steadily climbed
15
to approximately 40,000.
With their deportation already
underway, a last-minute attempt was
made by advocate Prashant Bhushan
who argued that even though they are
illegal migrants, such persons need
to be given refugee status as Article
21 as a right to life has been extended
even to non-citizens by the Court in
the past.
Blunting the suggestion, the bench of
Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justices
SK Kaul and KM Joseph shot back,
"You do not have to remind us of our
responsibility under Article 21" and
went on to dismiss the application.
Minutes before, the Court satisfied
itself of the facts about the seven
Rohingya Muslims. They had
crossed into India in 2012 along with
12 other Myanmar nationals. Chief
Judicial Magistrate Cachar found
them to be "illegal migrants" and
sentenced them to three months'
imprisonment under the Foreigners
Act. Once out of prison, they were
shifted to the detention centre at
Silchar. Meanwhile, the Centre
pursued talks with Myanmar
government on the deportation of 19
Myanmar nationals (including the
seven). The Embassy of Myanmar
confirmed the nationality of seven of
the 19 and issued a certificate of
identity (CoI) to facilitate their entry
into the country.
From this point on, hectic activity
began at Centre's end as the CoI
carried one-month validity. On
August 18, 2018, Ministry of External
Affairs requested Assam to prepare
a detailed plan for the repatriation of
the seven Rohingya Muslims. Finally,
on October 3, a team of officials of
the Assam government accompanied
the seven migrants to the Immigration
Check Post (ICP) at Moreh, Manipur.
On Thursday, the Indian officials
were supposed to hand over these
migrants to their counterparts in
Myanmar at this point.
Centre's law officer Tushar Mehta
pointed out that once Myanmar had
accepted them as its citizens there
was no point to hold them back. But
Bhushan insisted that the UN High
Commission for Refugees be allowed
to interview the seven persons.
That's when the Court put its foot
down and stamped its approval on
the decision to deport.
3 'dead' men return from
Pakistan Occupied Kashmir
Three men, who were presumed to
have been disappeared from security
force custody in 2015, were arrested
on the Line of Control (LoC) after
they infiltrated from Pakistan
Occupied Kashmir (PoK) in Keran
sector of Jammu and Kasmir's
Kupwara district.
Ali Muhammad Sheikh of Trehgam,
Ghulam Jeelani Khatana and Mir
Hussain Khatana of Dardpora,
Kralpora had disappeared in
November 2015. After their
disappearance, massive protests had
rocked Kupwara with people alleging
the trio had been taken away by a
local Territorial Army soldier
Manzoor Ahmad for "some work".
After that the three men were not seen
in public, people alleged that they
have disappeared in custody. Human
rights groups and separatists too
jumped on to the bandwagon creating
a tricky situation for the authorities.
Sensing trouble, police had arrested
Manzoor apparently to calm the
tempers. He was later remanded to
police custody before being bailed out
by the court.
Vol. XVI No. 1 January 2019
Three years later the trio was arrested
when they were infiltrating from
Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) in
Keran sector. Police sources said they
had crossed the border and entered
PoK as opposes to claims that they
were disappeared or killed in fake
encounter.
"They had illegally crossed into PoK
and now they have infiltrated illegally
as well. What they did there (in
Pakistan) would be known only after
investigations. There was allegation
that the army had disappeared them
in custody which turned out to be
false. They had gone to Pakistan
illegally. We will initiate legal action
against them," Ambarkar Shriram
Dinkar, Senior Superintendent of
Police, Kupwara, told DNA.
Police is investigating whether the trio
had undergone arms training in
Pakistan or not. "We will delve deep
into the case and unravel the truth.
There are so many missing links in
the case which needs to be unearthed.
The issue had snowballed into a major
controversy and the image of security
forces were besmirched by the
vested interests. It needs thorough
investigation", said another officer.
Since the trio has been caught, police
is now in process of closing the old
case registered under different
sections of the Ranbir Penal
Code."The case will not be admitted
now. We will dispose off the case
legally. All legal formalities will be
made in the case", said Shriram.
Activists protest against
purification ritual after women's
entry into Sabarimala temple
A group of human rights activist
protested outside the Parliament
House complex on Friday to express
their strong objection to the
16
"purification" rituals carried out by
priests at Kerala's Sabarimala temple
after two women of menstruating age
entered it on Wednesday.
All India Democratic Women's
Association, Students' Federation of
India and Democratic Youth
Federation of India assembled on Rafi
Marg and marched towards
Parliament, according to a joint
statement.
Bring violators of international
human rights laws to justice in
India
United Nations, India has called for
international efforts to bring to justice
those violating international human
rights laws and to ensure protection
of humanitarian workers in conflict
situations.
"The parties to armed conflicts,
including the non-state actors
continue to flout the international
humanitarian law and perpetrate
egregious abuses of human rights
with impunity," India's Deputy
Permanent Representative Tanmaya
Lal told the General Assembly on
Friday.
The resolution, however, included a
call to all nations to sign the Rome
Statute of the International Criminal
Court, which India has not signed
while Sweden has.
India has reservations about the court
because of its potential for over-reach
and the influence over it of the
Security Council's permanent
members.
When that paragraph was put to vote,
India absented itself rather than vote
against it or formally abstain. The
provision was retained by 95 votes
to 14, with 25 abstent.
News From the National Human Rights Commission
NHRC notice to the Government
of Bihar over a ward boy
reportedly throwing a patient out
from the Hajipur Sadar Hospital
in Vaishali
The National Human Rights
Commission, NHRC has taken suo
motu cognizance of media reports
that a patient from the Burns Ward
of the Hajipur Sadar Hospital of
District Vaishali in Bihar was allegedly
thrown out by a Ward Boy at a place
where the garbage is dumped. The
picture of the patient lying on the
waste has also been carried.
Reportedly, he was referred by Lal
Ganj Referral Hospital for treatment
there. The Commission has issued a
notice to the Chief Secretary,
Government of Bihar calling for a
report in the matter along with present
health status of the patient, within
four weeks.
The Commission has observed that
the contents of the news reports, if
true, amount to human rights violation
of the patient. The right to health and
proper medical care is one of the
basic human rights. Even if the
patient himself went out and
collapsed, the incident indicates
negligence on the part of the ward
attendants/ nursing staff of the
hospital as he could not be noticed
for a long time.
According to the media reports,
carried on the 30th December, 2018,
the Medical Superintendent of the
Hospital has stated that strict action
will be taken against the guilty Ward
Attendant and that the District
Magistrate of Vaishali has ordered an
Vol. XVI No. 1 January 2019
investigation in the matter. Reportedly,
the CCTV footage shows that the
patient collapsed while he himself
was going out of the ward. Once,
the patient was noticed, he was again
taken to the ward where he is under
treatment.
NHRC notice to the Union
Ministry of Human Resource
Development over the reported
suicide by 49 students at
residential Jawahar Navodaya
Vidyalays from 2013 to 2017
The National Human Rights
Commission, NHRC has taken suo
motu cognizance of a media report
that 49 students of the residential
Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas, JNVs
committed suicide at campus in five
years from 2013 to 2017. Half of
them were Dalit and Tribal students,
and a majority of them were boys.
Reportedly, all, except seven, were
suicides by hanging, and the bodies
were discovered either by classmates
or members of the school staff. The
JNVs are reported to be the central
government’s pace-setting residential
schools for the talented children from
rural India.
The Commission has observed that
the contents of the media report, if
true, cannot be ignored or overlooked
as this reported pattern of suicides
by so many students in JNVs might
still increase, if not checked in time
with appropriate measures.
Expressing its serious concern over
them, the Commission has issued a
17
notice to the Secretary, Union
Ministry of Human Resource
Development, calling for the
following information within six
weeks whether:-
A. Trained counselors are available
in the campus to whom these
adolescent can open up and talk
about their feeling.
B. There is a dedicated staff to
ensure that children are not left
alone in the rooms.
C. Emergency assistance through
telephone counseling and suicide
hotline services are available to the
students.
The Commission has further
observed that the intelligent students
with the rural background are
entrusted to the care of JNVs. They
are the strength and future of this
country. The proportion of the
suicides of the students form the
Scheduled Caste and Scheduled
Tribe communities is also a matter
of concerns for a society, which
aspires for an inclusive growth. It
is a matter of fact, that the teenagers
during this age face difficulties, as
they undergo a transition into
adulthood.
Teenagers may often get confused
and develop a feeling of being isolated.
It is also a matter of fact, that many
suicides are committed by the people,
who are depressed and are not able
to cope up with stress. As per the
medical science, the suicidal
tendencies don’t just appear out of
the blue, people usually display a
number of warning signs. If trained
counselors are available, behavioral
changes, suicidal tendencies and
depression among the students can
be spotted in time and with the
guidance and counseling of
counselors, suicides can be
controlled.
According to the media report,
carried on the 24th December, 2018,
the JNVs, which were started in
1985-86, have become a passport
out of poverty for thousands of
underprivileged children. Since
2012, these schools have
consistently recorded a pass
percentage of over 99 per cent in
Class 10 and over 95 per cent in
Class 12, which is far better than
private schools and CBSE’s national
average.
The news report also reveals that
according to norms, at least 75 per
cent of the seats in these schools
are set aside for rural children.
Hence, a JNV is never sanctioned
for a district with 100 per cent urban
population. A Navodaya Vidyalaya
starts from Class 6 and goes up to
Class 12. All admissions in Class 6
are done through a merit test. The
popularity of JNVs is evident from
the fact that less than 3 per cent of
the candidates appearing for the
entrance test every year make the
cut.
The news report further reveals that
41 out of 46 JNVs are facing a
serious challenge. The report further
reveals that there are 635 JNVs with
2.8 lakh students. A total of 2.53 lakh
students in the age group of nine to
19 were enrolled across roughly 600
JNVs for the year 2017. That same
year, the number of suicides touched
14. The news report reveals that the
suicide rate that is per population of
1,00,000 at JNVs for 2017 works out
to 5.5.
Vol. XVI No. 1 January 2019
NHRC, India Chairperson Mr.
Justice H. L. Dattu inaugurates
the Webcast service of the
Commission with the re-launch
of its Advanced video
conferencing system
Mr. Justice H. L. Dattu, Chairperson,
National Human Rights Commission,
NHRC, India today inaugurated the
webcast service of the Commission
(http://webcast.gov.in/nhrc/) with the
re-launch of its Advanced
videoconferencing system, which
will facilitate a dialogue with various
stakeholders from different parts of
the country. The webcast will be an
added feature to the all user friendly
website of the Commission, recently
launched by Shri Narendra Modi,
Prime Minister of India on the
Foundation Day of the NHRC on the
12thOctober, 2018. This will help the
NHRC to connect with the people
through the live telecast of its various
activities on time to time.
Addressing the gathering at a brief
ceremony at the Commission’s
headquarters in New Delhi, The
NHRC Chairperson said that the
Silver Jubilee is a milestone not only
in the journey of the Commission but
also a cause for celebration of human
rights protection mechanism in our
great nation. In this connection, the
Commission organized a series of
events and activities, primarily, aiming
at involving people’s participation in
the promotion and protection of
human rights. Because, the
Commission believes that institutions
can only motivate and provide
support and moral courage to the
people to guide them in the path of
valuing human rights but efforts have
to be made by themselves to walk on
this path.
He said that Online Human Rights
Pledge, Short Films on Human Rights
Competition, Human Rights Street
18
Theatre Festival, Walk for Human
Rights, Painting, Slogan and Logo
Designing competitions, Open Forum
Discussions, Dialogue with media,
besides various seminars,
conferences, Open Hearings and
Camp Sittings are some of the
programmes of the NHRC to connect
directly with the people.
Integration of NHRC’s online
complaint filing system with the
Common Service Centres and
starting of a Toll Free Number 14433
are the latest steps in line with the
Commission’s various silver jubilee
initiatives to expand its outreach.
He said that in a country of about 1.3
billion people, the NHRC’s humble
efforts to build awareness about
human rights may not be sufficient
but added that he was sure that with
the support of civil society,
legislature, judiciary, executive as well
as media, the echo of the
Commission’s efforts will be
amplified for the betterment of society
as a whole to reckon with. The
NHRC Chairperson said that he said
so, because the intent of the
Commission to expand its outreach
to every nook and corner of the
country may fall short of its own
expectations given the limited
manpower, financial and
infrastructure resources unless
supported in good earnest by all the
stakeholders.
He expressed the hope that various
national and State Commissions, as
well as the State Human Rights
Commissions, catering to the
requirements of protecting the rights
and welfare of different segments of
our society, would, by their pro-
active approach, augment the efforts
of the National Human Rights
Commission, India. We have to work
together for prevention of human
rights violations by inculcating
respect for them as a cultural value.
NHRC Members, Mr. Justice P.C.
Ghose, Mrs. Jyotika Kalra, Secretary
General, Mr. Ambuj Sharma, Mr.
Gurbachan Singh, Director
General(Investigation) and other
senior officers and staff were
present. The winners of NHRC
badminton Competition were also
awarded on the occasion by Justice
Dattu and Justice Ghose.
NHRC notice to the Government
Uttar Pradesh over the reported
allegations of harassment and
threats to the Unnao rape victim
by the State Government
agencies
The National Human Rights
Commission, NHRC has taken suo
motu cognizance of a media report
that the Unnao gang rape victim has
accused the Uttar Pradesh
Government of harassing her and her
family members through its various
agencies as she was trying to fight
against a ruling party lawmaker.
Allegedly, they have been told to
withdraw the case against the MLA
accused of raping her. Reportedly,
the victim could not believe that the
rapist is so powerful that he could
manipulate the law from the prison.
The Commission has observed that
the contents of the media report, if
true, amount to serious issue of
violation of the right to live with
dignity of the victim and her family
members. It is the responsibility of
the State to ensure safe and secure
environment for the victim of the
sexual assault, her family members
as well as the witnesses of the
criminal act.
The Commission has further
observed that it seems that its earlier
directions given under case No.
Vol. XVI No. 1 January 2019
8385/24/71/2018-AD on the 10th
April, 2018, were ignored, otherwise
the reports of harassment of the
victim would have not come to the
fore. Reiterating its directions to the
Government of Uttar Pradesh, it has
directed the Chief Secretary, Govt.
of Uttar Pradesh to personally look
into the matter and ensure that the
victim’s family is not subjected to any
further harassment or humiliation by
the accused local MLA or through his
aides in any manner.
It has also called for the detailed
reports from the Chief Secretary and
the DGP, Govt. of Uttar Pradesh on
the allegations of daily threats to the
victim. The response is expected
within four weeks, positively.
NHRC notice to the Government
of Uttar Pradesh over reported
death of a Dalit man in police
custody at Dhanora Mandi police
station in Amroha
The National Human Rights
Commission, NHRC has taken suo
motu cognizance of media reports
that a 30 year old Dalit man died in
police custody at Dhanora Mandi
Police Station in Amroha district of
Uttar Pradesh on the 26th December,
2018. He was arrested by the police
in connection with a case of theft on
the 23rd December, 2018. Reportedly,
the family members have reportedly
alleged that police personnel had
asked for a bribe of Rs. 5 lakh to let
him off which they could not give
and after that the victim was brutally
tortured.
The Commission has observed that
the contents of media reports, if true,
amount to gross violation of human
rights of the victim. Accordingly, it
has issued notices to the Chief
Secretary and the Director-General
of Police, Government of Uttar
Pradesh to submit a detailed report
19
in the matter within four weeks
along with explanation as to why
intimation with regard to this death
in police custody has not been given
to the NHRC in pursuance of its
guidelines on the subject. The report
should also indicate whether any
monetary and other relief has been
provided to the family in accordance
with the SC/ST (POA) Act and
Rules.
According to the media
reports,carried on the 27th
December, 2018, the family members
of the victim have alleged that he was
picked up while they were returning
home from a wedding. He was kept
in the lock-up without any complaint
and atrocities were allegedly
committed on him. 11 police
personnel, including the SHO of the
Police Station concerned, have been
placed under suspension.
NHRC notice to Tamil Nadu
Government and Union Health
Ministry to submit reports over
reported transfusion of HIV
infected blood to a pregnant
woman
The National Human Rights
Commission, NHRC has taken suo
motu cognizance of media reports
that a teenage donor, whose blood
infected a pregnant woman with
HIV, attempted suicide at his home
in southern Tamil Nadu on
Wednesday as the families struggled
to deal with the tragedy and more
details emerged of criminal
negligence on the part of public
health care personnel.
The Commission has issued a notice
to the Chief Secretary, Government
of Tamil Nadu calling for a detailed
report in the matter including action
taken against the guilty and relief/
counselling provided to the victims,
within four weeks.
It has observed that the contents of
the media reports, if true, amount to
violation of human rights of the
victims of medical negligence. As
reported, had proper action been
taken by the authorities when the
donor was first recognized as a case
of HIV+, the mishap could be
avoided. Now both, the donor and
the recipient woman are passing
through a trauma.
The Commission has further
observed that this reported painful
incident has raised a serious issue
regarding safe handling of blood
samples, detection of diseases like
HIV and transfusion of blood as per
set standards by taking all
precautions. A nationwide move is
required to be taken to examination
the procedures so that Right to Life
of the innocent people is not violated.
Accordingly, it has asked the
Secretary, Union Ministry of Health
& Family Welfare, Government of
India, to call for a status report on
the issue, from all the States/UTs and
submit a report to the Commission
within six weeks along with their
comments thereon.
According to the media reports,
carried today on the 27th
December,2018, a teenager donated
blood at a camp in Sattur area of
Virudhunagar district in Tamil Nadu
in the year 2016. His blood was
found infected with the HIV. The
counselors called him up and told him
to report to the Centre. As mentioned,
the counselors normally do not break
the news over telephone but it is also
a fact that the counselor did not try
to pursue the case when the donor
did not turn up. The same donor
donated blood, again on 30.11.2018,
at the Sattur Government Hospital,
and it was labeled safe by the lab
technicians. The same blood was
Vol. XVI No. 1 January 2019
given to a woman, who had come to fax, e-mail, online through NHRC
the hospital for anti-natal checks and website; www.nhrc.nic.in, can also
was advised blood transfusion by the send them through the Common
doctors. Service Centres. They can also
contact the NHRC at the Toll free
As mentioned in the news report, number for necessary guidance
four days later, the donor was tested regarding complaints.
positive for HIV at a private hospital
in Madurai and he was referred to Mr. Gurbachan Singh, Director
Sattur Government Hospital and the General(Investigation), Dr Ranjit
victim woman was also identified. Singh, J.S. (P&A) and other senior
The woman has lodged a complaint officers and staff of the Commission
against unknown doctors and nurses and the representatives of Common
for the transfusion, seeking stringent Service Centre team were present on
action against them. Three employees the occasion.
responsible for the tragic mix-up have
been reportedly sacked by the
Madurai Government Hospital. Please subscribe to
NHRC launches integration of Human Touch
its Toll free number 14433 and
online complaint filing system and support us for
with Common Service Centre creation of a just
Portal of Government of India
Mr. Justice H.L. Dattu, Chairperson, and equitable
National Human Rights Commission,
India today launched the
society
Commission’s Toll free number
14433 and integration of its online
complaint filing system with Common
Service Centre, CSC Portal of
Government of India at a brief
ceremony at Manav Adhikar Bhawan,
New Delhi. He said that these steps
have been taken by the Commission
to expand its outreach in line with its
various Silver Jubilee initiatives.
Mr. Ambuj Sharma, Secretary
General, NHRC said that as part of
the collaborative programme with the Visit our website at :
Common Service Centre team, the
NHRC, to begin with, has shortlisted www.humanrightsnews.net
750 Common Service Centres with
at least one each in a district. The and
service will be expanded to all the
CSCs in a phased manner. www.manavadhikar.net
Now people, in addition to sending for online
their complaints of human rights human rights updates.
violations to the Commission by post,
20
 International Human Rights Update
Rights Defender’s Conviction
Upheld in Bahrain
The Bahrain Court of Cassation, the
country’s court of last resort, on
December 31, 2018 upheld a five-
year sentence for Nabeel Rajab, a
prominent human rights defender,
Human Rights Watch said today.
The sentence arose from comments
criticizing torture in a Bahrain prison
and the Saudi-led military campaign
in Yemen. Rajab has already served
two-years on other charges related
to peaceful expression. The date of
the hearing, scheduled for New
Year’s Eve, raised concerns that the
authorities intended to uphold Rajab’s
conviction at a moment when it
would attract minimal media scrutiny.
“Nabeel Rajab’s conviction for his
refusal to stay silent on the
government’s rights abuses is further
proof of the Bahrain authorities’
flagrant disregard for human rights,”
said Lama Fakih, deputy Middle East
director at Human Rights Watch.
“Nabeel Rajab should not have been
arrested in the first place, and
upholding his sentence is a grave
miscarriage of justice.”
Rajab is one of dozens of human
rights defenders, political activists,
opposition leaders, and journalists
unjustly imprisoned since the
government quelled antigovernment
protests in 2011.
Rajab is the head of the Bahrain
Center for Human Rights (BCHR),
deputy secretary general of the
International Federation of Human
Vol. XVI No. 1 January 2019
Rights (FIDH), and a member of the
Human Rights Watch Middle East and
North Africa Advisory Committee.
Authorities first arrested Rajab on
April 2, 2015 because of his tweets
alleging torture in Bahrain’s Jaw
Prison. He was released provisionally
on humanitarian grounds on July 13,
2015, but re-arrested on July 13,
2016, for criticizing the Bahraini
authorities’ refusal to allow journalists
and rights groups into the country. A
court sentenced him in July 2017 to
two years for this criticism, which
the Court of Cassation upheld on
January 15, 2018. Rajab completed
this sentence in July.
On February 21, Bahrain’s criminal
court sentenced Rajab to five years in
prison for tweeting in 2015 about
torture in the Jaw Prison and criticizing
the Saudi-led military campaign on
Yemen. Public prosecution documents
Human Rights Watch reviewed cite
three criminal code provisions for the
charges against him. The documents
cite Article 133 for “deliberately
disseminating in wartime false or
malicious news, statements, or
rumors […] so as to cause damage to
military preparations.” They also cite
Article 215 for “publicly offending a
foreign country” and Article 216 for
“insulting a statutory body.”
The Manama Appeals Court upheld
Rajab’s five-year sentence on June
5. He appealed this decision on July
5.
21
Rajab’s conviction and sentence
violates Bahrain’s obligations under
international law.
On August 13, 2018, the United
Nations Working Group on Arbitrary
Detention (WGAD) published an
opinion regarding the legality of
Rajab’s detention. The WGAD
concluded that the detention was not
only arbitrary, as it resulted from his
exercise of his right to free speech,
but also discriminatory, based on his
political opinions and status as a
human rights defender. The WGAD
therefore stated that Rajab’s detention
violated the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights, as well as the
International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights (ICCPR), which
Bahrain ratified in 2006. The WGAD
requested the Bahraini government to
“release Mr. Rajab immediately and
accord him an enforceable right to
compensation and other reparations,
in accordance with international law.”
Rajab, who also spent eight months
in pre-trial detention, appears at times
to have been subjected to treatment
that may amount to arbitrary
punishment. He was held in solitary
confinement for more than two
weeks after his arrest in June 2016.
His family said that Rajab is held in a
cramped, dirty, and insect-infested
cell at Jaw Prison, where he remains
locked in his cell for 23 hours a day.
During his detention, Rajab’s health
deteriorated. He has had several
surgical procedures, suffered heart
palpitations that led to hospitalization,
and developed other medical
conditions, including a low white
blood cell count, his family said.
Bahrain should undertake a prompt,
impartial, and independent
investigation into his allegations of ill-
treatment in detention.
“Bahrain has chosen to mark the new
year by entrenching it attacks on
human rights defenders and
undermining free expression,” said
Fakih. “But Bahrain cannot hide its
abuses from public critique by jailing
dissidents. Bahraini rights defenders
are not backing down.”
Rights Defender’s Conviction
Upheld in UAE
The United Arab Emirates Federal
Supreme Court, the country’s court
of last resort in state security cases,
on December 31, 2018, upheld a 10-
year sentence for Ahmed Mansoor,
an award-winning human rights
activist.
In May, an Abu Dhabi court
sentenced Mansoor to 10 years in
prison for “defaming” the UAE on
social media. The date of the appeals
hearing, scheduled for New Year’s
Eve, raises concerns that the
authorities intended to uphold
Mansoor’s conviction at a moment
when it would attract minimal media
scrutiny. Mansoor won the
prestigious Martin Ennals award in
2015 and is a member of the Human
Rights Watch Middle East Advisory
Committee.
“The repeated legal persecution of
Ahmed Mansoor simply for
advocating basic rights exposes the
UAE’s extreme intolerance of any
criticism of its rulers and its policies,”
said Michael Page, deputy Middle
East and North Africa director at
Human Rights Watch. “This
devastating decision marks another
nail in the coffin of any hope for
justice in the UAE.”
Vol. XVI No. 1 January 2019
Authorities arrested Mansoor on
March 20, 2017. He was held in an
unknown location for more than a
year with no access to a lawyer and
only very limited family visits and
was sentenced on May 29, 2018.
On May 30, the UAE-based newspaper
The National reported that a court had
sentenced Mansoor to 10 years in
prison, a fine of 1,000,000 UAE
Dirhams (US$272,000), three years of
probation after completion of his
sentence, and confiscation of his
electronic devices. The court convicted
Mansoor of insulting the “status and
prestige of the UAE and its symbols,”
including its leaders, and seeking to
damage the UAE’s relationship with its
neighbors by publishing false reports
and information on social media, the
paper reported.
In the weeks leading up to his arrest,
Mansoor had criticized the UAE’s
prosecution of activists for speech-
related offenses. Mansoor had also
used his Twitter account to draw
attention to human rights violations
across the region, including in Egypt
and Yemen. He also signed a joint letter
with other activists in the region calling
on leaders at the Arab League summit
in Jordan in March 2017 to release
political prisoners in their countries.
In April 2011, UAE authorities
detained Mansoor over his peaceful
calls for reform and in November,
after an unfair trial, the Federal
Supreme Court in Abu Dhabi
sentenced him to three years in prison
for insulting the country’s top
officials. Although the UAE president,
Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan,
pardoned Mansoor, authorities never
returned his passport, subjecting him
to a de facto travel ban. He has also
faced physical assaults, death threats,
government surveillance, and a
sophisticated spyware attack.
22
Mansoor’s convictions and current
sentence, resulting from his exercise
of his right to free speech, his
political, opinions, and his status as a
human rights defender, represent an
act of brutal state repression that
violates Mansoor’s rights under
international human rights law,
Human Rights Watch said.
In August 2016, the Toronto-based
research group Citizen Lab reported
that Mansoor received suspicious
text messages on his iPhone
promising information about
detainees tortured in UAE jails and
urging him to click on a link. Citizen
Lab discovered that clicking on the
link would have installed sophisticated
spyware on his iPhone that allows an
outside operator to control the
targeted iPhone’s telephone and
camera, monitor chat applications,
and track the user’s movements.
Similar methods for breaking into
iPhones have been valued at US$1
million, leading Citizen Lab to call
Mansoor “the million-dollar
dissident.”
Al Nahyan has declared 2019 as the
Year of Tolerance, to shine a spotlight
on the UAE as a global capital for
tolerance, instilling the values of co-
existence and peace in local, regional,
and international communities, the
state news agency WAM reported.
“For the UAE to declare 2019 as the
year of tolerance while ending this
year with such a ruthless act of
injustice reveals a deeply hypocritical
stance on human rights,” Page said.
UN Members Thwart China’s Bid
to Gut Funds for Myanmar
Probe
United Nations member countries
thwarted an attempt by China to slash
proposed funding for investigations
into Myanmar’s ethnic cleansing
campaign against Rohingya Muslims.
This ensures that a newly established
UN body will have the necessary
financing to gather and preserve
criminal evidence for future trials.
After marathon negotiations – during
which China called for cutting the
proposed budget in half – the UN
General Assembly’s budget
committee approved without a vote
some US$28 million for investigations
in Myanmar, only slightly less than
the proposed US$29 million budget.
In September, the UN Human Rights
Council voted to establish an
international body to help prepare
evidence for future criminal
proceedings. A UN fact-finding
mission reported earlier this year that
Myanmar security forces committed
war crimes, crimes against humanity,
and genocide against ethnic Rohingya
in Rakhine State. The report also
examined abuses by the Arakan
Rohingya Salvation Army and by
government forces and ethnic armed
groups in Shan and Kachin States.
The UN Security Council, where
China holds a veto, has been largely
passive on the Rohingya crisis. It has
held a handful of meetings and
adopted several statements, though
Beijing has vigorously opposed
putting pressure on Myanmar with
targeted sanctions or other measures.
Unlike the Security Council, no
country has a veto in the General
Assembly so China was unable to
block the push by the European
Union, United States, Canada,
Switzerland, and Kuwait on behalf of
the Organisation of Islamic
Cooperation (OIC) to end debate and
approve funding for the investigation.
In recent years, the General
Assembly’s budget committee has
become one of the UN’s biggest
Vol. XVI No. 1 January 2019
human rights battlegrounds. China
and Russia have led an assault on
funding for human rights posts in
peacekeeping and political missions,
targeting for defunding virtually every
UN post with the words “human
rights” in the job description.
China and Russia seem intent on
destroying the UN’s human rights
pillar post by post. UN member states,
regional organizations like the OIC,
UN Secretary-General Antonio
Guterres, and senior UN officials need
to remain vigilant and use their
authority to thwart them every step
of the way. Otherwise the UN’s
ability to protect and promote human
rights and expose abuses could
become a thing of the past.
Ten Good News Stories for Kids
in 2018
A couple of years ago, a friend
following me on Twitter said he found
my feed really depressing. “Doesn’t
anything good ever happen for
children?” he asked.
Spreading doom and gloom
sometimes seems an occupational
hazard of human rights work. But
I’ve taken my friend’s words to heart
and now, as we approach the end of
the year, here are 10 good news
stories for kids:
1. A number of armed forces and
armed groups released child
soldiers from their ranks in 2018,
including more than 900 in South
Sudan, 833 in Nigeria, and 75 in
Myanmar.
2. Twenty-one US states now ban
sentences of life without parole
for crimes committed by children,
up from only five in 2012.
3. The number of children detained
in adult prisons in the US has
23
dropped by more than 80 percent
in the past 20 years.
4. The number of children and
adolescents who are out of school
has dropped by 110 million since
2000.
5. In 1979, only one country
prohibited all corporal punishment
of children: Sweden. Today, 54
do.
6. AIDS-related deaths are expected
to decline by 57 percent among
children under 14 by 2030.
7. Child marriage is on the decline.
In the past decade, rates have
dropped by 15 percent globally,
and by one-third in South Asia.
8. Rates of female genital mutilation
have also fallen dramatically
among girls in Africa since 1990.
A 2018 fatwa in Somaliland
forbids the practice.
9. Eleven countries endorsed the
Safe Schools Declaration in 2018,
bringing to 82 the number of
countries that have pledged to
protect students, teachers, and
schools during war. The UN
reports that military use of
schools has dropped by one-third
since 2014.
10.Since 2000, the number of
children in child labor globally fell
by 94 million, a drop of more than
one-third.
To be sure, millions of children
continue to experience exploitation
and abuse on a daily basis. But these
successes show progress is
possible. As we celebrate them, let’s
also renew our commitment to
advance the rights of children in
2019.
 Human Rights in India:
Introduction
In this modern era of information age,
the rapid development of computers,
telecommunication and other
technologies have led to the new
forms of social issues under the
umbrella of Globalization,
Liberalization and Privatization
(LPG). It is a well known fact that
media is very important for the
development of social capitals in
terms of mentality, psychology and
above all the culture.
Besides all the contributions of mass
media in the developmental journey
of the Indian social system, we can’t
ignore various ill effects of mass
media in Indian social system like
Objectification of women, Vulgarity
and obscenity, Criminalization in
society, Decline in concept of ‘Simple
Living and High Thinking’, The way
of fashion (media portrays),
Materialistic nature of human beings,
Suppression of human rights, etc.
Objective
• To find out the value and
devaluation of women’s image
through television
programmes.
• To mark out possible reasons
and remedies which are being
used to solve the problems
Methodology
The study was conducted in Delhi -
NCR region and subjects were selected
on the basis of random sampling.
Result and Discussion
In this research paper, the focus is
on one of the issues which needs
Vol. XVI No. 1 January 2019
Issues and Challenges
especial attention i.e. “Devaluation of
Women’s Image on Television”. The
role of Electronic Media especially
Television in the Indian society is that
of structured subordination to the
primary definers. Being wholly state-
controlled, the primary definer is the
state itself. In this research, more than
50 women based Television Serials
like Balika Vadhu,Jeet Jayenge Hum,
Antra,1224 Karol Bagh, Sajan Garh
Jana Hai, Godbharai, Pavita
Rista,Ganesh Leela, Laado etc. have
been analysed. The findings have
shown that the medium’s output is
biased in favour of male elites;
feminine genders are constructed as
polar opposites. As per the findings
there are five basic characteristics of
electronic media, identified as
common to all cultures:
• Women are under –
representation in general, and
occupy less central roles than
men in television.
• Marriage and parenthood are
considered more important to
women than, the traditional
division of labour is shown as
typical in marriage.
• Employed women are shown
in traditionally female
occupation as subordinate to
men with little status or power.
• Women on television are more
passive than men.
• Television ignores or distorts
the women movement.
24
- Jyoti Sharma
It was noted that such representation
was the consequence of the
development of a nation - popular will
aided through centuries of religious
and cultural indoctrination. The
electronic media is now expanding to
reach the whole world. It has
immense possibility for strengthening
hegemony; in the context of the
developing countries which are
oriented towards a communal
outdoor culture, the
institutionalization of studio-based
electronic media is unleashing a
corrosive, coercive force.
The modern trend towards
commercialization greatly expands
the hegemonial grip of the medium;
on the one side it consistently
devalues women, on other side it
holds up as desirable values of
bourgeois liberalism, individual gain
and subsequent consumerism. Thus,
educated persons view their own and
the country’s progress and
development in terms of goods and
services available to the elite. In
general TV serials, the woman in the
commercial is completely objectified,
other than displaying her body and
the fabrics she, does nothing of her
personality and achievement is
known. It is really an alarming
situation as there are number of social
crimes which may get powered by
the footage of such serials, people
may get positive wipes and act in the
same manner and it might result
increase in criminalization in Indian
family.
The most hackneyed feature films or
serial can attract more viewers than

non-fiction programmes, trend which
helps to inscribe values which are far
from empowering to women. It is
also very important to inform that
perception of Television output is both
horizontal and longitudinal. Actually,
India is ideologically highly developed
and the sophistication of its
ideologically apparatuses goes a long
way towards explaining why its
socio-economic inequalities’ continue
to persist. In the sample, all the
statement given by audience were
critically analyzed and the common
wordings in these statements are:
Bechari, Suppressed, Depressed,
Neglected, Weak women of typical
Indian society. Another disturbing
trend was also noted as the side-
stepping of the local government and
bureaucracy in favor of one
individual. Development is presented
as taking place therefore not as a
planned, ongoing, long term process.
All these finding in this analysis
clearly show that mass media is very
important for the development of
society as it improve the efficiency
and reliability of social values for
cooperation, politeness, tolerance for
people with different behavior and
customs, respect for law and order.
But if such message and script served
Vol. XVI No. 1 January 2019
regularly to the family, we can easily
judge the image of women
community in future.
Conclusion
It is well marked that the important
activities is associate with the content
of the script as it would be enough if
not better to change the attitude of
the audience so as to induce a
different decoding of the message
,such decoding can isolate the
denying consent to the hegemonial
order. Without such consent and
complicity the order can only
collapse. However, important the
movement media is the struggle to
alter the face of the maintain media
is equally important for three
reasons:-
• Since most of these are state-
owned, the citizens, whether
women or the poor, have a
right to equitable representation
on these media.
• The relentless negative
representation has the effect as
we have seen, of validating
women’s inferiority as real
and natural. Under such
conditions the messages of the
movement media are likely to
25
be decoded as aberrant.
• The processes by which
children acquire sex-
appropriate behavior. It was
noted in the theoretical
considerations one process as
explicated by the gender-
scheme theory. If children are
to acquire balanced
conception of both genders,
they need to be exposed to
equitable representation as the
norm. Stray-feminist films are
likely to be processed as
aberrations.
Hence, on a medium which is
insidiously influencing tomorrow’s
policy makers, the requirement is for
every programme to consider issues
of gender and class equity and it is
possible when media provides healthy
content to the family serials not only
to minimize orthodox philosophy but
also to protect the social culture by
maintaining positive standard of
media.
Reference:
1. M.K. Joseph, Socio. & Comm.
Revolution, Anmol Pub.1997
2. Mass Communication and
Development, B.R. Gupta,
Vishwavidyala Prakashan, Varanasi
- The author is a media
academician currently working in
Dubai
Contribute Articles
and Support Our
Cause in Creating a
Just and Equitable
Societyhuman rights
updates.
 Practice of Child Labour:
M
illions of children in today's
world undergo the worst
forms of child labour which
includes Child Slavery, Child
prostitution, Child Trafficking, Child
Soldiers. In modern era of material
and technological advancement,
children in almost every country are
being callously exploited. The official
figure of child laborers world wide
is 13 million. But the actual number
is much higher. Of the estimated 250
million children between the ages of
5 and 14 who are economically
active, some 50 million to 60 million
between the ages of 5 and 11 are
engaged in intolerable forms of labor.
Among the 10 to 14year-old children
the working rate is 41.3 percent in
Kenya, 31.4 percent in Senegal, 30.1
percent in Bangladesh, 25.8 percent
in Nigeria, 24 percent in Turkey, 17.7
percent in Pakistan, 16.1 percent in
Brazil, 14.4 percent in India, 11.6
percent in China.
We are facing problem of Child labor
in India is a human right issue for the
whole world. It is a serious and
extensive problem, with many
children under the age of fourteen
working in carpet making factories,
glass blowing units and making
fireworks with bare little hands.
According to the statistics given by
Indian government there are 20
million child laborers in the country,
while other agencies claim that it is
50 million.
Child labor is done by any working
child who is under the age specified
by law. The word, “work” means full
time commercial work to sustain self
or add to the family income. Child
Vol. XVI No. 1 January 2019
An Inhuman Trend
labor is a hazard to a Child’s mental,
physical, social, educational,
emotional and spiritual development.
Broadly any child who is employed
in activities to feed self and family is
being subjected to “child labor.
Some common causes of child labor
are poverty, parental illiteracy, social
apathy, ignorance, lack of education
and exposure, exploitation of cheap
and unorganized labor. The family
practice to inculcate traditional skills
in children also pulls little ones
inexorably in the trap of child labor,
as they never get the opportunity to
learn anything else.
Constitutional provision on child
labour:-
Article 21: Right to Education: - The
state shall provide free and
compulsory education to all children
of the age of 6 to 14 years in such
manner as the state, by laws, may
determine.
26
Article 24: Prohibition of
employment of children in factories
etc: - No child below the age of 14
shall be employed to work in any
factory or mine or engaged in any
other hazardous employment.
Article 39- E: The State shall direct
its policy towards securing that the
health and strength of workers, men
and women and tender age of children
are not abused and that they are not
forced by economic necessity to enter
vocations unsuited to there are and
strength.
Article 39 F: Children shall be given
opportunities and facilities to develop
in a healthy manner and in conditions
of freedom and dignity and that
childhood and youth shall be protected
against moral and material
abandonment.
Article 45: the state shall endeavor
to provide within a period of ten years
from the commencement of the
constitutional for free and
compulsory education for all children
until they complete the age of
fourteen years.
Nearly 30% of the populations in
poor countries are the poorest of the
poor who are not able to earn enough
for one day's food. Parents of these
children are mainly illiterate or semi-
literate. Some percentage of child
labour comes from brutality/
harassment by parents or step-
parents. They are mainly from urban
areas of lower middle-income group.
This percentage is easily controllable
by penalties to such parents and by
children's rights. But rural poverty,

lack of employment or partial
employment and illiteracy has given
birth to majority of child labour
problems.
According to UNICEF report an
estimated 158 million children aged
5-14 are engaged in child labour - one
in six children in the world. Millions
of children are engaged in hazardous
situations or conditions, such as
working in mines, working with
chemicals and pesticides in
agriculture or working with
dangerous machinery. They are
everywhere but invisible, toiling as
domestic servants in homes,
labouring behind the walls of
workshops, hidden from view in
plantations.
In Sub-Saharan Africa around one in
three children are engaged in child
labour, representing 69 million
children. In South Asia, another 44
million are engaged in child labour.
Unofficially, this figure exceeds 100
million but the fact that a large
number of these children work
without wages in fields or in cottages
alongside their parents, unreported by
census, makes it very difficult to
Vol. XVI No. 1 January 2019
estimate accurately. However, it is
estimated that if these working
children constituted a country, it
would be the 11th largest country in
the world.
A large number of children work in
cottage industries producing carpets,
matches, firecrackers, bidis,
brassware, diamond, glass, hosiery,
hand loomed cloth, embroidery, leather
goods, plastic, bangles and sporting
27
goods. The highest number of children
is found working in the agricultural
sector.
Ignorance is one of the main
problems; ignorance on the part of
the parents who believe that with the
children working, poverty will be
eradicated; and ignorance on the part
of the children who do not know
their rights in this country. The
working conditions of the children are
inhuman and the incomes given are
also meager. Eighty per cent of the
children work in hazardous
conditions.
At present, the legislations in India
only specifically outlaw child labour
in designated hazardous industries and
bonded child labour, but both Article
24 of the Indian Constitution and
Section 67 of the Factories Act
explicitly direct that children below
the age of 14 years are not to work
in factories. In addition, the Child
Labour (Prohibition and Regulation)
Act 1986 forbids the employment of
children in specified hazardous
industries.

Why child goes to work? This
situation is most urgent to be taken
care!!! Child goes to work only when
parents allow. And why parents seek
own child's support to sustain home
economy? This is what in my opinion
Governments need to understand and
bring policies in accordance.
Types of child labour
Self employed and employed with
others are two categories of child
labour:
• Self employed- street sellers,
rag or scrap pickers, street
entertainers, child prostitution
or pornography (but mostly
they are hired by notorious
gangs), begging, and other odd
jobs. These types of children
are mainly street children and
rural migrants. Most these
children are parentless,
abandoned by parents, riot or
war misery. The situation
Vol. XVI No. 1 January 2019
changes; in poor countries they
are helping hand to the parents.
• Employed with others- factory
or mine workers, domestic
servants, child prostitution or
pornography. Conducting
work in other’s premises or in
other’s custody. Such children
work with parents consent or
are parentless. Some are sold
or some work to help parents
to meet livelihood.
Nearly 40 - 50% children among
working-children are street children.
These children survive by begging,
stealing, shoe polish, street
performance, collecting scraps, street
selling and other. Some, particularly
girls, get involved into the flesh trade.
The majority of children on the
streets in developing countries are
rural migrants. Children migrate with
their parents and as a result of worst
economical condition of parents, get
28
involved into odd jobs. Some
percentage comes alone to urban
cities due to bad environment in their
own home such percentage is less.
Major percentages of such children
get addicted to use of drugs and their
main work is scrap collection or
stealing. With girls it is serious issue
as rural poor illiterate parents abandon
girl child to end up life in brothel or
street prostitution and of them some
escape to streets begging, scrap
collection and finally end up as
prostitutes. In developing countries;
girl child is considered as disgrace in
poor illiterate orthodox uncivilized
families. Nearly half of street beggars
and garbage collectors are girl
children. Most such girls are
neglected by parents as are
considered burden on them.
When we see child’s eyes you except
to see hope, trust and innocence, but
when we see these signs of childhood
are replaced by betrayal, hunger, fear
and suspicion, we need to take
serious stock of ourselves and the
society we have created. The children
are working for many reasons. In
most cases people would think that
these children are forced into
working; although in some cases
children go to work because their
family is extremely poor and they feel
they need to help get money. In other
cases these children are physically
forced into doing the work that no
one else will. In other cases a child's
family could all die or just plane out
leave him and they will be adopted
and forced to do the work. Some
children get sold to a manufacture
and they are forced into working.
Most of these children have no
choice but to work. These children
aren't always forced into doing this
work.
- HT Bureau

Liquid Life or Drier World?
Water has become a highly precious resource……..
there are some places where a barrel of water costs more than a barrel of oil -
W
hat are we supposed to
leave behind for the future
generations? When at
present one of the greatest
developmental challenges around the
world is access to clean water for
consumption. With the depletion of
the ground water, shrinking water
table and alarming levels of global
warming indicating the disruption of
our global eco system how far can
we go to sustain our life which is
water intensive? The solution lies
with us, because we as individuals
can do a lot to save that 3% of non
saline and fresh water on earth and
prevent it from getting saline before
the time runs out taking away all the
possible solutions.
The 3% non-saline water which is
distributed across glaciers, rivers,
lakes and groundwater can be saved
from mixing with the saline water.
The biggest problem that mankind
has created for himself is polluting
Vol. XVI No. 1 January 2019
Water Woes:
Lloyd Axworthy, Foreign Minister of Canada (1999 - News Conference)
the water sources where everything
ranging from industrial effluents to
human waste, is dumped in river and
lakes. The result is the heavily
polluted yamuna and other rivers
which are literally dying. This lack
of potable water has become directly
responsible for millions of deaths
worldwide with the estimation of
more deaths by 2020 due to lack of
clean water and water borne diseases
rather than HIV/AIDS.
The world water day which is
observed on march 22 every year is
an initiative to remind the individuals
their obligation towards keeping the
water clean and conserving it. We
need to realise that this essential
commodity if not saved will pretty
soon run out of our future so we need
to make sure:-
29
- Deeksha Batra
· To stop unnecessary tap
dripping because with each
drop of water being saved
we can conserve a lot more
water than we can imagine.
· To air dry our clothes
instead of using a dryer.
· To harvest rainwater, which
is the purest form of water
available on earth.
We all need to do our bit, before the
ice caps and glaciers melt becoming
saline due to global warming. Like
the earth hour observed on March
28th where in 85 countries
participated all over the world and
made sure to switch off all the
unnecessary lights to prevent global
warming. Many more such initiatives
should be created so that we all can
conserve fresh water, the most
important sustainer of human life.
- The author is a journalist
 Curing the Ills of India:
Need for Basic Comprehensive Social Security for All
C
omprehensive Social Security
(CSS) shoule be the utmost pri
ority of any government if real
governance is to be covered to all the
people of India, and this CSS should
address to the following most basic
social requirements of human beings,
in the given order:
(i) Food and Clothing,
(ii) Security,
(iii) Education,
(iv) Healthcare, and
(v) Housing.
It may be true that due to paucity of
resources in our country, it may not
be possible to provide funds for
catering to the aforesaid basic needs
of all the people of the country at a
high standard. But come what may,
the Government of India must arrange
for its people (i) basic minimum food,
cloth, and reasonable security for
their sheer survival, (ii) education at
least up to upper primary school
(Class VIII) for their further
development, (iii) primary healthcare
at least to take care of their most basic
natural requirements, like, child-birth,
fever, diarrhoea, injuries, prevention
from communicable diseases as well
as unforeseen ailments, such as,
cancer, and (iv) housing at least to
cover their heads from the open sky,
so as to enable all the citizens to stand
up on their own feet and forge ahead
to explore possibilities for further
empowerment of their lives. This
may look too simple or even over
simplified but sometimes even the
most complicated problems get
precipitated because of innocuous
looking causes at their roots.
Vol. XVI No. 1 January 2019
If the Government of India
undertakes to fulfil its obligation for
meeting out the basic requirements
of its people, the remaining problems
of the people, like, poverty,
unemployment, exploitation of
weaker sections, suppression of
human rights, population explosion,
degradation of natural environment,
mass discontentment manifested in
various dreaded forms, like,
naxalism; extremism; other heinous
crime-related activities; etc., will
gradually fade away in oblivion very
soon.
It is not that the Government of India
is not trying to uplift the level of
welfare of its people but the irony is
that it is not focusing on the right
target, instead, it is trying too many
piece-meal solutions which cannot
yield satisfactory results and are
bound to fail or at best can only
provide temporary succour to the
people. The hundreds of social
welfare schemes of the Government
of India and the governments of
various states of India are analogous
to cleaning up of leaves and brushing
of stems of a plant instead of applying
water to its roots.
The basic requirements of the people
should be chosen as per their natural
needs. It is apparent that neither a
child with empty stomach can be
educated nor a hungry adult can ever
be optimally productive. Similarly, if
a person feels insecure by way of
30
- Dr. Prem Kumar Sinha
apprehension to the well being of his
children, he will hesitate to send them
to any school or to a vocational
training centre. To clarify the point,
some recent incidents, which were
reported in newspapers, regarding real
life atrocities perpetuated against girls
in our country are provided:
(i) Young school girls of class III
& IV of an English medium
primary school, were being
exploited by their Principal,
who would call these girls for
extra tuitions on a Saturday
and instead of teaching them,
he would molest them and also
threaten them of dire
consequences including failing
them in the examinations if
they reported these things to
anyone.
(ii) An eighteen year old dalit girl,
taking training to be a primary
school teacher, was repeatedly
exploited by a few male
teachers for a long period with
the threat that she would be
failed if she reported the matter
to anyone.
People experience even more
harrowing incidents in their real lives.
However, a few samples have been
narrated just with the purpose of
highlighting the urgent need to provide
meaningful security to the people of
the country, otherwise lofty dreams
of the political masters of the
country, like, universal primary
education, universal healthcare,
abolition of child labour, and on the
top of all, empowerment of weaker

sections of the country, will just
remain pipe dreams for all times to
come. And the succeeding
generations of political leaders will
have to apologize to the people of the
country for the incompetence of the
earlier generations of political
masters in the same way as the
Canadian Prime Minister Stephan
Harper apologized on the 11th June,
2008, to the Aboriginal people of
Canada for the past abuses and
exploitation of various kinds suffered
by the Aboriginal children during their
schooling days. Not long ago, the
Prime Minister of Australia Kevin
Rudd had also apologized on the 13th
February 2008, to the Aborigines and
Torres Strait Islanders of Australia,
for the exploitation and maltreatment
suffered by the past generations of
these people.
In a nutshell, one can say that the
food and security are the most basic
needs of human beings. And many
poor people of India spend most of
their lives in search of food and
security, without their ever enjoying
the comfort and dignity, human
beings deserve on account of
advancement of their civilization and
superior intellect in comparison to
Vol. XVI No. 1 January 2019
other living creatures on this planet.
One can easily dispel the thought of
providing the basic CSS to all the
people of the county by counter-
arguments that the Indian
Government lacks resources for this
mammoth task of providing basic
CSS to all the citizens, however, the
truth is otherwise and the following
narration will demonstrate as to how
easily resources can be generated for
meeting out the basic requirements
of the people.
However, before we embark upon the
mission to find out resources for
providing basic CSS to all, first we
should try to estimate the total
requirement of funds for providing
basic CSS to all the people of India,
whether they belong to the Below
Poverty Line (BPL) group or the
Above Poverty Line (APL) group.
One may argue that the people of the
APL group, who would also be
comprising rich and super rich, need
not be considered for this CSS cover
as they do not need it apparently. FIt
is of course clear that rich and super-
rich surely do not need any kind of
subsidies. But because of existing
policies of the Government, the
31
people of the APL category are
already enjoying lion’s share of
government subsidies in their daily
lives, like, (i) low-cost food-grains
on account of suppressed Minimum
Support Prices which are thrust upon
hapless farmers, who are denied free-
market for marketing of their
agricultural produce in the country
as well as in the international market,
(ii) subsidized electricity, (iii)
subsidized fuel (LPG), (iii)
economical labour because poor
people have limited bargaining power
for seeking employment with decent
remuneration, whether they are
employed as farm-labour or factory-
labour or unskilled worker or even
when they are employed as domestic
help, (v) highly subsidized higher
education which is mostly enjoyed by
the upper crust of people whether
belonging to the general category or
the OBC category or the SC/ST
category, etc.
Just to illustrate this point of view, a
few areas are identfied where the
Government of India (GOI)
subsidizes, but a major portion of it
is consumed by 25% population of
the country, say 250 millions, who
comprise people of higher income
groups of the society:
1. Considering that a higher
income group household,
comprising four members,
consumes 12 LPG cylinders
per annum then as per the
estimated subsidy of Rs.300/
- per LPG cylinder (which
keeps on changing as per the
international prices of
petroleum products), a
subsidy of Rs.3600/- per
annum per household, i.e.,
Rs.900/- per person per
annum is enjoyed by these
higher income group people,
whereas the poor people even
 do not have means to avail of
benefits of subsidized LPG. In
fact, the rich people consume
even more LPG by way of
using LPG for their room
heaters and geysers in the
winter besides running their
motor vehicles and generators
on the subsidized LPG.
2. Similarly, if we take into
account the government
subsidy on fertilizers, which
is estimated by the Ministry of
Fertilizers of the GOI, to be
about Rs.1000 billion for the
fiscal 2007-08, it is
guesstimated that more than
half of this subsidy, i.e., more
than 500 billion, is enjoyed by
the upper crust of the people
by way of higher consumption
of food-grains, pulses,
vegetables, fruits, milk and
other products which are
derived from fodder
consuming animals. Thus, it
can be said that, on an average,
a subsidy of Rs.2000/- per
person per annum is enjoyed
by the people belonging to the
upper crust of the society on
this head, also.
3. Now, if we assume that on an
average, one child of a
household belonging to the
higher income group, receives
higher education
(undergraduate or above) for
a duration of 5 years in a
government-aided educational
institution, for which as per
conservative estimates, on an
average, Government spends
around Rs.0.1 million per
student per annum, then a total
subsidy of Rs.0.5 million is
availed of by this household on
this head, too. Considering
that a full span of birth and
Vol. XVI No. 1 January 2019
higher education of children,
takes a period of twenty five
years then it turns out that a
sum of Rs.20,000/- per annum
is spent by the Government on
every household of higher
income groups, which
amounts to a subsidy of about
Rs.5000/- per person per
annum (assuming 4 persons
per household) for the people
belonging to the higher income
groups.
4. Thus, the total value of the
aforesaid estimated subsidies
amounts to about Rs.7900/-
per person per annum, for the
people of the higher income
groups, even when many
other items on which subsidies
exist, like inexpensive food-
grains, economical manual
labour, as already discussed in
the beginning, have not been
included in this subsidy
estimate. Besides the above
estimated subsidies, there are
many other hidden subsidies
in the form of other amenities,
benefits of which mostly
percolate towards the people
of the urban areas where
majority of people of high
income groups reside, like, (i)
updated healthcare facilities,
(ii) better law and order
conditions due to closer
support of police and civil
administration, (iii) proximity
to various government
offices, (iv) better network of
electric and water supply, (v)
better infrastructure of road-
network, (vi) developed retail
and wholesale markets, etc.,
in which Government keeps
on investing millions of rupees
year after year. Whereas rural
and less developed areas where
more than 60% population of
32
the country resides, a large
majority of whom are poor,
remain deprived from the
aforesaid amenities.
Supposedly, if the existing regime of
disproportional subsidies is re-visited
and all the people of the country are
provided with the same amount of
subsidy in the form of basic CSS or
compensation in lieu thereof in other
measures then the net outgo from the
coffer of the Government of India
will not be substantially higher than
what is being spent, presently, by the
Central Government and the
governments of various states of
India in the form of various kinds of
subsidies, tax exemptions, and
hundreds of other populist welfare
schemes in vogue in the country,
which cater to the specified target
groups along with huge pilferages
and tremendous administrative costs
attached for their implementation.
Moreover, such populist welfare
measures only spoil those for whom
these are meant, besides eroding the
competitive spirit of the society at
large. I will delve later the various
measures which can be employed
effortlessly to generate massive
savings, from eliminating the
superfluous subsidies which are
being presently showered on the
people of the APL category.
But it should not be feared that the
cut of subsidies which are presently
enjoyed by the people of the APL
category, will in any way, lower the
quality of their lives, in fact, it will
improve their lives because from the
generated savings, the whole county
will prosper at a rapid pace and give
rise to the feeling of social security
among all the masses. Moreover, the
people on the verge of poverty or
those nominally above the poverty
line, will also not feel the impact of
reduction of subsidies. It will be only
those people, who belong to the
upper class and consume much more
resources than the average people,
who will experience some financial
impact but they are already well off
in comparison to others and thus they
are very well positioned to easily
withstand the effect of reduction of
subsidies. Further, how is this
justified that the extravagant living of
rich people should be subsidized from
the sweat and hard labour of poor
people of the country? In India, the
rich enjoy exclusive privileges, at the
cost of government resources and the
poor are denied even their basic dues
with the justification, as portrayed
beautifully in the following words of
John Kenneth Galbraith, “There is a
common tendency to ignore the poor
or to develop some rationalisation for
the good fortune of the fortunate”.
Presently, majority of the people of
the country feel insecure; the people
of the APL category remain
apprehensive that they are vulnerable
to assault on their property and lives
in the present day volatile
environment, while on the other hand,
the people of the BPL category feel
insecure as they always remain
sceptical about the future of theirs
and their families. People of the BPL
category remain unsure whether they
would even be able to provide
adequate food and take care of their
families, without interruption in
future? The questions of good
education, sound healthcare, and safe
housing, seldom occupy top priority
in the minds of the poor people,
because the worries of food and
security keep haunting them all the
time. The immediate impact of
equitable distribution of resources
among the masses would be that all
the young people of the country will
have reasonable opportunity for
growth in the early formative days
Vol. XVI No. 1 January 2019
of their lives, which are most crucial
for their sound development, which,
in turn, will usher in an era of all
round growth of the nation and
universal welfare of its entire
population.
Otherwise, the following words of
John F. Kennedy, former President
of the United States of America, will
come true who said, “If a free society
cannot help the many who are poor,
it cannot save the few who are rich”.
This quote is relevant all over the
world but more so in case of India,
where waging disparity among the
rich and the poor is increasing day
by day and sowing the seeds for all-
around bitterness, reflection of which
can be seen from the rising trend of
naxal related activities in the country
besides ever deteriorating law and
order situation in the country.
Because naxalism and extremism get
most of their feed from the vulnerable
sections of the society, which have
remained exploited and/or deprived
even from essential livelihood
support. Such oppressed youth are
easy targets of radical elements as
these youth are promised livelihood
support for themselves and their
families, besides this, they also smell
power through the barrel of the gun
for avenging the maltreatment
suffered by them and their families
at the hands of the powerful of the
society. If the Government can
provide the basic essential livelihood
support and meaningful security to
all then no one will experience
oppression in the society. And
everyone will have equitable chance
to grow in this world to realize his
dreams and, consequently, enjoy
recognition in the society, and
thereafter pursue for even higher goal
of self-actualization of his inner-self,
which will provide him ultimate
satisfaction in life.
33
However, if we fail to address these
legitimate concerns of the people, the
flame of retaliation which naturally
kindles in those who feel oppressed
by the society, will assume menacing
form when it is stoked and inflamed
further by the indoctrination at the
hands of radical elements. And then
in no time this will transform an
oppressed and hapless youth into a
dreaded extremist or revolutionary.
Extremists project that they are
fighting against oppressors and it
gives credibility to their doctrine.
Therefore, if somehow the feeling
among the people that they are
oppressed by the society, is weaned
away then the extremism will fade
away of its own and will usher in an
era of all-around peace and
tranquillity, and this is possible only
when essential livelihood support and
security is provided to one and all in
the country.
Now, we explore the ways whereby
the most basic Comprehensive Social
Security (CSS) cover can be
extended to all the people of the
country effectively and optimally so
that neither misappropriation of funds
takes place, which has so far
remained associated with almost all
the social welfare schemes launched
by the Government, nor will
administrative cost for providing this
basic CSS to the people shoots up
painfully.
- The author is working as the
Assistant Registrar (Academic) at
Dayalbagh Educational Institute,
Agra
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