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Not NHRC’s finest hour
Rather than fighting for those displaced by the Muzaffarnagar riots, it appears to be parroting majoritarian, communal stereotyping. Written by Harsh Mander Published:Oct 5, 2016, 0:0
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) is India’s highest statutory body constituted for the defence of the human rights of vuSince it was created by a statute of Parliament in 1993, it has had a mixed and chequered record in the performance of duties that are critical in a country of such vast historical inequalities and embedded systems of oppression. Its finest hour was in the aftermath of the Gujarat communal riots in 2002, when it actively held the state government to account for relief, reparations and justice for the survivors. But for much of its tenure, the NHRC has often been criticised for inaction during human rights violations in contexts of communal, caste and gender violence and discrimination, extraand forced disappearances.
However, a recent report by the NHRC, for the first time, opens it up to grave criticism not just of inaction, but of actively contributing to a majoritarian, communally-charged discourse. Its team visited the Muslimof Kairana in western Uttar Pradesh in which some Muslim survivors of the communal violence in 2013 had migrated after homes and families had been attacked and they felt it was unsafe to return. The report, in effect, regards these Muslim migrants not as victims deserving the defence of the NHRC but as people responsible for contributing to railevels of crime and the harassment of women which resulted in the “exodus” of law-abiding Hindu residents from Kairana.
The NHRC states that it acted on the basis of a complaint by Supreme Court advocate Monika Arora, but the charge of a Hindu “exodus”because of the alleged criminal activities of riotraised by BJP MP Hukam Singh. His complaint was part of an old strategy of majoritarian communalists to paint thewhen Hindu communalists perpetrate communal attacks. His communally explosive charges were disproved by investigations byHindu and NDTV, which demonstrated have left Kairana did so much earlier in search of better opportunities, or were dead or still living in the town.
hour
Rather than fighting for those displaced by the Muzaffarnagar riots, it appears to be parroting majoritarian, communal
Published:Oct 5, 2016, 0:02
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) is India’s highest statutory body constituted for the defence of the human rights of vulnerable people. Since it was created by a statute of Parliament in 1993, it has had a mixed and chequered record in the performance of duties that are critical in a country of such vast historical inequalities and embedded systems of oppression. Its
t hour was in the aftermath of the Gujarat communal riots in 2002, when it actively held the state government to account for relief, reparations and justice for the survivors. But for much of its tenure, the NHRC has often been
ng human rights violations in contexts of communal, caste and gender violence and discrimination, extra-judicial killings, torture and forced disappearances.
However, a recent report by the NHRC, for the first time, opens it up to grave of inaction, but of actively contributing to a majoritarian,
charged discourse. Its team visited the Muslim-majority township of Kairana in western Uttar Pradesh in which some Muslim survivors of the communal violence in 2013 had migrated after being uprooted because their homes and families had been attacked and they felt it was unsafe to return. The report, in effect, regards these Muslim migrants not as victims deserving the defence of the NHRC but as people responsible for contributing to railevels of crime and the harassment of women which resulted in the “exodus” of
abiding Hindu residents from Kairana.
The NHRC states that it acted on the basis of a complaint by Supreme Court advocate Monika Arora, but the charge of a Hindu “exodus” because of the alleged criminal activities of riot-affected migrants was first
MP Hukam Singh. His complaint was part of an old strategy of majoritarian communalists to paint the Hindu community as victims even when Hindu communalists perpetrate communal attacks. His communally explosive charges were disproved by investigations by The Indian ExpressHindu and NDTV, which demonstrated that most of the 346 Hindus alleged to have left Kairana did so much earlier in search of better opportunities, or were dead or still living in the town.
Rather than fighting for those displaced by the Muzaffarnagar riots, it appears to be parroting majoritarian, communal
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) is India’s highest statutory lnerable people.
Since it was created by a statute of Parliament in 1993, it has had a mixed and chequered record in the performance of duties that are critical in a country of such vast historical inequalities and embedded systems of oppression. Its
t hour was in the aftermath of the Gujarat communal riots in 2002, when it actively held the state government to account for relief, reparations and justice for the survivors. But for much of its tenure, the NHRC has often been
ng human rights violations in contexts of communal, judicial killings, torture
However, a recent report by the NHRC, for the first time, opens it up to grave of inaction, but of actively contributing to a majoritarian,
majority township of Kairana in western Uttar Pradesh in which some Muslim survivors of the
being uprooted because their homes and families had been attacked and they felt it was unsafe to return. The report, in effect, regards these Muslim migrants not as victims deserving the defence of the NHRC but as people responsible for contributing to raised levels of crime and the harassment of women which resulted in the “exodus” of
The NHRC states that it acted on the basis of a complaint by Supreme Court from Kairana
affected migrants was first MP Hukam Singh. His complaint was part of an old strategy of
Hindu community as victims even when Hindu communalists perpetrate communal attacks. His communally
The Indian Express, The that most of the 346 Hindus alleged to
have left Kairana did so much earlier in search of better opportunities, or were
The NHRC still felt it fit to reinvestigate the same communally motivated charges that had been publicly disproved. It concurs in its report that because of “the post-rehabilitation scenario resulting in resettlement of about 25-30,000 members of Muslim community in Kairana town from district Muzaffarnagar, UP, the demography of Kairana town has changed in favour of the Muslim community becoming the more dominating and majority community”. The report agrees with “witnesses” and “victims” that “the rehabilitation in 2013 has permanently changed the social situation in Kairana town and has led to further deterioration of law and order situation.”
There is much that is extraordinary about these NHRC findings. In a recent report Living Apart: Communal Violence and Forced Displacement in Muzaffarnagar and Shamli, Akram Chaudhary, Zafar Eqbal, Rajanya Bose and I documented the exodus forced by communal attacks of around 50,000 Muslims, of whom around 30,000 were living in poorly resourced and self-settled refugee colonies. We described the enormous suffering of these displaced persons, forced forever to leave the villages of their birth in a continuing climate of hate and fear, moving from camps to tiny tenements, with education, livelihoods and social relationships destroyed. This exodus, caused by communal violence, spurred no action in support of the displaced persons by the NHRC. The thousands of Muslims forced to leave their villages because of targeted communal attacks are not “victims” or “witnesses” for the NHRC. They are, instead, the problem. The “victims” are the Hindu residents of Kairana town where the riot-displaced persons took refuge. It is also noteworthy that since 2013, the NHRC has taken no significant initiatives to assist riot victims.
Further, the figure of 25-30,000 persons having come into Kairana town after 2013 is a gross exaggeration. Our survey, reported in Living Apart, had found around 200 riot-affected families in Kairana. After the NHRC report, Akram Akhtar and his colleagues undertook a fresh survey in case they had missed any resettled families and found another 70 stray Muslim families in the outskirts of the town. Even if we assume an average family size of seven, this would still amount to around 2,000 persons, a far distance from the irresponsible figure quoted by the NHRC.
The 2011 census showed that Kairana had a population of 89,000 persons, of who more than 80 per cent were Muslim. It is difficult to see then how an addition of 2,000 persons had so drastically altered the demography of Kairana “in favour of the Muslim community becoming the more dominating and majority community”, as stated by the NHRC, when it was already an overwhelmingly Muslim majority town. What is even more regrettable is that this small increase of Muslim people internally displaced by hate-violence is stated by the NHRC to have resulted in a deterioration of the law and order situation in Kairana town. Once again, this conclusion is not based on any crime figures or other data presented by the NHRC; instead, this is based on
the statements of the Hindu “victims” that its team chose to speak with. The NHRC report states: “At least 24 witnesses stated that the youths of the specific majority community (Muslims) in Kairana town pass lewd/taunting remarks against the females of the specific minority community in Kairana town. Due to this, females of the specific minority community (Hindus) in Kairana town avoid going outside frequently. However, they could not gather courage to report the matter to the police for the legal action.”
Our enquiries with the local police revealed that there were no complaints of so-called “eve-teasing” or lewd remarks by Muslim youth made to them over the last year. It is highly unfortunate that the NHRC report plays into the communal stereotype that dates back to Partition — of Muslim young men sexually harassing Hindu girls. This is even more irresponsible because it was precisely this charge against Muslim youths that sparked off the 2013 communal massacre that led to the killings, arson and forced exodus of Muslims from mixed villages in the region. For the NHRC to accept these conclusions, without any credible independent evidence, reflects its unacceptable complicity in communal rumour-mongering and stereotyping.
This is a precipitous fall for the NHRC, from the heights it attained under the leadership of Justice J.S. Verma — after the Gujarat 2002 communal riots, it chose the mantle of the principal defender of the rights of a survivors of the gruesome attacks. The NHRC was unflinching and uncompromising as it documented the many failings of the state and central government in ensuring the protection, relief, compensation, rehabilitation and access to legal justice for the survivors. It was the NHRC which itself moved the Supreme Court to oversee the investigation and trial of the major massacres. From these heights, the NHRC slipped later to a record largely of wilful passivity during subsequent communal and caste massacres. But it has today allowed itself to echo communal majoritarian labelling of the victims. We have seen many public institutions enfeebled and compromised in recent years. The NHRC is too important a public institution, created as it was for the defence of the rights of the weak and oppressed, to be destroyed in this way.
NHRC seeks report on JE deaths
BERHAMPUR, October 5, 2016
Three more children die in the past 24 hours; toll 30; Health Minister camping in Malkangiri district
Even as death toll of children due to Japanese Encephalitis (JE) in Malkangiri district of Odisha rose to 30 on Tuesday, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) sought a detail report from Odisha government. Taking suo motu cognizance of media report, the NHRC directed the Malkangiri District Collector and secretary of the Odisha Health and Family Welfare Department to file report about the spreading of Japanese Encephalitis in the district within next four weeks. Meanwhile, three more children suffering from JE, who were under treatment in Malkangiri district hospital, died during the last 24 hours. A two-year-old girl had died on Monday night while another two-year-old girl and a three-year-old boy died on Tuesday. State Health Minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak and Health secretary Arati Ahuja are in Malkangiri district since Monday to take stock of the situation. The NHRC in its notice mentioned that the authorities had to be sensitive towards the need to maintain cleanliness in the area. The Commission also pointed out that the villagers should be made aware of the health hazard caused by the pigs. JE pathogen survives in bodies of pigs and is transmitted by mosquitoes to humans. According to social activists and district authorities, culling of pigs will not be possible and the only solution is vaccination, which can be done only from next year. The NHRC remarked that vaccination from next year will be too late.
After visiting JE-prone areas on Monday, Odisha Health Minister and Health secretary held a meeting with officials concerned and elected representatives of panchayat bodies on Tuesday in Malkangiri. Speaking to The Hindu , Malkangiri DC K. Sudarshan Chakravarthy said a special action plan has been prepared to check the spread of JE, which has no treatment available. With the provision of special vehicles and ambulances to every revenue block of the district, efforts would be made to bring suspected JE patients to Malkangiri district hospital as early as possible to increase their survival rate. Thirty more beds have been added up in the Malkangiri district hospital to accommodate suspected JE cases. Special nodal offices at panchayat and district level would monitor efforts being made to curb the killer disease. Free medicated mosquito nets will be distributed in JE prone areas. For early detection, volunteers and health officials would visit villages every evening. Officials of the veterinary department would monitor movement of pigs as well as their segregation from human populace. Apart from it eradication of mosquitoes is also on in the district. Medical teams from MKCG medical college, Berhampur and Bhubaneswar, are camping in Malkangiri to help in treatment.
Japanese Encephalitis death toll reaches 30, NHRC sends notice to Odisha officials
The NHRC said there was an urgent need to create awareness among villagers over the tradition of rearing pigs.
Written by Debabrata Mohanty
THE NATIONAL Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Tuesday served notice to the Malkangiri district administrationthe death toll due to Japanese Encephalitis rose to 30 in just about a month.
Asking the officials to submit a detailed report, including steps being taken by them, within four weeks, the NHRC said there was an urgentawareness among villagers over the tradition of rearing pigs.
Though officials are taking steps to contain the epidemic, twoMadkami of Badali under Korukondaold Dinesh Padiami of Namkogirl of Uskapali in Korukonda block died at the Malkangiri district headquarters hospital on Tuesday. The condition of four more children is said to be critical.
The Japanese Encephalitis virus, which develops inmosquitoes to humans.
Health Minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak, Health Secretary Arati Ahuja and Animal Husbandry Secretary Bishnupada Sethi, who visited Malkangiri Monday, said a committee would be formed at the district level to tadisease. “The district administration has planned to isolate pigs infected by Japanese Encephalitis. We have held a meetingmembers, block chairmen and blockin the affected villages,” said Nayak.
Japanese Encephalitis death toll reaches 30, NHRC sends
officials
The NHRC said there was an urgent need to create awareness among villagers over the
Debabrata Mohanty Bhubaneshwar Published:Oct 5, 2016, 2:1
THE NATIONAL Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Tuesday served notice to the Malkangiri district administration and the health secretary of Odisha as the death toll due to Japanese Encephalitis rose to 30 in just about a month.
Asking the officials to submit a detailed report, including steps being taken by them, within four weeks, the NHRC said there was an urgent need to create awareness among villagers over the tradition of rearing pigs.
Though officials are taking steps to contain the epidemic, two-yearMadkami of Badali under Korukonda block died on Monday night. Threeold Dinesh Padiami of Namkonda under Kalimela block and a two
of Uskapali in Korukonda block died at the Malkangiri district headquarters hospital on Tuesday. The condition of four more children is said
The Japanese Encephalitis virus, which develops in pigs, is transmitted by
Health Minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak, Health Secretary Arati Ahuja and Animal Husbandry Secretary Bishnupada Sethi, who visited Malkangiri Monday, said a committee would be formed at the district level to ta
“The district administration has planned to isolate pigs infected by Japanese Encephalitis. We have held a meeting with sarpanches, ward members, samiti members, block chairmen and block-level authorities for isolating the pigs
ected villages,” said Nayak.
Japanese Encephalitis death toll reaches 30, NHRC sends
The NHRC said there was an urgent need to create awareness among villagers over the
Published:Oct 5, 2016, 2:13
THE NATIONAL Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Tuesday served notice and the health secretary of Odisha as
the death toll due to Japanese Encephalitis rose to 30 in just about a month.
Asking the officials to submit a detailed report, including steps being taken by need to create
year-old Priya block died on Monday night. Three-year-
nda under Kalimela block and a two-year-old of Uskapali in Korukonda block died at the Malkangiri district
headquarters hospital on Tuesday. The condition of four more children is said
pigs, is transmitted by
Health Minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak, Health Secretary Arati Ahuja and Animal Husbandry Secretary Bishnupada Sethi, who visited Malkangiri Monday, said a committee would be formed at the district level to tackle the
“The district administration has planned to isolate pigs infected by Japanese with sarpanches, ward members, samiti level authorities for isolating the pigs
Japanese Encephalitis: Dussehra holidays of all Govt officials in M’giri cancelled 05 October 2016 By Prameya News7 (author
Bhubaneswar: Since there is no let up in the death of children due to Japanese Encephalitis in Malkangiri district, the State Government on Wednesday cancelled Dussehra holidays of all Government officand asked them to remain alert. At least 33 children were killed due to the vectorThough the State Government. The Japanese Encephalitis virus has broken out in more villages of Malkangiri. Meanwhile, taking suo motu cognizance of the media report on number of deaths due to deadly virus, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Tuesday put the Health and Family Secretary and Malkangiri district Collector asking them to submit a detailed reporthem, within four weeks. However, the district administration has set up health camps in affected areas. Though the Health and Family Welfare Minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak and Secretary Arti Ahuja spent two days in tsituation, there is no let up in the death rate. A team of doctors, which accompanied them to the tribalcurrently providing clinical support the health teams.
Japanese Encephalitis: Dussehra holidays of all Govt officials in
By Prameya News7 (author)
Since there is no let up in the death of children due to Japanese Encephalitis in Malkangiri district, the State Government on Wednesday cancelled Dussehra holidays of all Government officials of Malkangiri district and asked them to remain alert.
At least 33 children were killed due to the vector-borne disease in last 27 days. Though the State Government. The Japanese Encephalitis virus has broken out in more villages of Malkangiri.
ile, taking suo motu cognizance of the media report on number of deaths due to deadly virus, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Tuesday put the Health and Family Secretary and Malkangiri district Collector asking them to submit a detailed report, including the steps being taken by
However, the district administration has set up health camps in affected areas. Though the Health and Family Welfare Minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak and Secretary Arti Ahuja spent two days in the district and took stock of the situation, there is no let up in the death rate.
A team of doctors, which accompanied them to the tribal-dominated district, is currently providing clinical support the health teams.
Japanese Encephalitis: Dussehra holidays of all Govt officials in
Since there is no let up in the death of children due to Japanese Encephalitis in Malkangiri district, the State Government on Wednesday
ials of Malkangiri district
borne disease in last 27 days. Though the State Government. The Japanese Encephalitis virus has broken
ile, taking suo motu cognizance of the media report on number of deaths due to deadly virus, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Tuesday put the Health and Family Secretary and Malkangiri district Collector
t, including the steps being taken by
However, the district administration has set up health camps in affected areas. Though the Health and Family Welfare Minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak and
he district and took stock of the
dominated district, is
DD News
NHRC notice to Odisha over Japanese Encephalitis cases Updated on : 05-10-2016 08:49 AM
National Human Rights Commission has issued notice to the Odisha
government over reports about death of many children due to the spread of
Japanese Encephalitis in villages of Malkangiri district.
Taking suo-motu cognisance of the report, the Commission issued notices to the State Health Secretary and District Collector and called for a report including the steps taken in this regard within four weeks. Meanwhile Centre has assured all help to the Odisha government to contain and manage the rising cases of Japanese Encephalitis in Malkangiri district of Odisha. Union Health Minister J P Nadda has directed the officials of his Ministry to monitor the situation closely. The toll due to Japanese Encephalitis has risen to 30.
