Human Rights Violation in India

Introduction

Every person is born free and equal to the other regardless of their social status. The UN human

rights guarantees individual unalienable rights. Likewise, the constitution of India highlights the

need for fundamental rights for every citizen notwithstanding the culture, genders, religion,

originality, or any other basis of discrimination. Violating the human rights has serious

ramification in all spheres of life, and hence it’s undesirable. Despite the global concern on the

violation of human rights, it is so unfortunate that it is been prevalent in India. Most Indians are

denied their basics necessities, which can be attributed to the rapid population growth. This

paper provides a report on the violation of human rights in India as well as underscoring the

steps the government is taking to prevent or reduce its prevalence.

Record of human rights violation

Extra judicial killing

Undeniably, every citizen has the right to life and undergo the appropriate judicial process. This

implies that no individual should be executed without following the right course of the law. In

India, the cases of extrajudicial killing has incessantly increased over the years. In its report, the

national Human Right Commission of India, it is apparent that there were over 3,000 cases of

human rights violation in the last three years (Bunch 44). In fact, the security forces are

purported to be the ‘leaders’ in the violation of human rights. Citizens are subjected to arbitrary

arrest as well as torture.

Communal and religion infringements

The constitution of India provide individuals with the freedom of worship. That said, individuals

are not to be discriminated on the bases of the faith, culture or religion. However, India does not

appear to adhere to this principle of respecting individual’s faith (Roth 63). For instance, India

recorded over 800 violation of human raised based on the freedom of worship. This, along with

other limitations resulted to gross violation of the human rights. In 2014, for example, there were

constant clashes between Hindu and Muslims, culminating to the death of a significant number

of people.

Limitation on the freedom expression

While other nations have been stressing on the need of promoting the freedom of expression,

Indian has been lagging behind in violating this fundamental right (Kumar 11). With the ever

emerging technologies and the power of the internet, it is imperative to promote responsible frees

speech between the citizens. This would serve to promote democracy and accountability of the

government and the general society. Report show that besides leading in other violations of

human rights, India is second after USA in seeking private information about citizens (Steiner

57). On different occasion, the Supreme Court of India has sought to address the issue of internet

surveillance and phone monitoring. However, the country has not achieved much in promoting

this fundamental freedom. Human rights organization have criticised the restriction on the

freedom of expression among the Indian citizens.

Curtailing the freedom of associations

With all intent and purpose, the government of India has been involved in the violation of the

freedom of expression as enshrined in the constitution. In particular, the government has

continually curtailed the rights of the civil society. While these organisations are largely believed
to help in promoting the wellbeing of the society, the Indian government has constantly

frustrated them. Mostly, the government has been focusing on those opposing its repressive

policies.

A paradigm shift.

Creating robust laws

The government of India is adopting different steps to towards ensuring that the rights of

individual or groups are protected. In 2013, for example, the government strengthened the laws

protecting the minority groups, women and children. In the same year, the alleged security

personnel who were involved in the violation of human rights were prosecuted (Donnelly 78).

To address gender based violation of human rights, the India government established long-

overdue modifications to the existing laws. The government has often responded to public outcry

on the infringement of the basic rights by creating stronger and independent judicial system that

would help in investigating and punishing the perpetrators. These efforts shows that the Indian

society is accentuating on the need to have a just society.

The fourth estate

More so, there has been constant calls from the global community to end impunity and ensuring

the propagators are brought to book. The Media otherwise referred to as the fourth estate plays a

critical role in uncovering the incidence of human rights violation. As such, it is acting as the

watchdog in checking and exposing cases where the government has violated the human rights.

Intervention of the Supreme Court

In most case, the Supreme Court and human rights commission are the leading elements in

punishing individuals incriminated. When a perpetrator is found guilty for violating human

rights, they are fined or incarcerated.

Conclusion

Taken together, it is apparent that the India is leading in the violation of human rights. While it is

expected that the government should protected the rights embedded in the constitution, little has

been done to ensure that citizens are not humiliated. However, the government is taking some

desirable step such as prosecuting and incarcerating the prosecutors. To fully promote human

rights, the government should that no one is left to go scot free.

Works Cited

Bunch, Charlotte. "Women's rights as human rights: Toward a re-vision of human rights." Hum.

Rts. Q. 12 (2015): 486.

Roth, Kenneth. "Defending economic, social and cultural rights: Practical issues faced by an

international human rights organization." Human Rights Quarterly 26.1 (2004): 63-73.

Steiner, Henry J., Philip Alston, and Ryan Goodman. International human rights in context: law,

politics, morals: text and materials. Oxford University Press, USA, 2008.

Kumar, C. Raj. "Corruption and Human Rights: Promoting Transparency in Governance and the

Fundamental Right to Corruption-Free Service in India." ColUm. J. ASIAn l. 17 (2003): 31.

Donnelly, Jack. Universal human rights in theory and practice. Cornell University Press, 2013.