Human Rights of Women Appear To Be Only Talking Points And Not Actionable: Justice Madan Lokur [Video&Full Text]

Retired Justice Madan B. Lokur while delivering a lecture on Human rights during First Justice Sachar Memorial lecture said, jurisprudence is an extremely vast topic of discussion and it is not advisable to limit it to human rights as defined in the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993. This Act limits human rights to mean the rights relating to life, liberty, equality and the dignity of the individual guaranteed by the Constitution or embodied in the International Covenants and enforceable by courts in India. He added the human rights of children are perhaps the most neglected of all human rights. Unfortunately, this neglect impacts almost 40% of our population and future generations. "The failure to implement the rights of children, as recognized by the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 (the JJ Act) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child is a matter of grave concern. Day in and day out there are reports of the exploitation of children in varied activities, including child labour in hazardous occupations (such as mica mining), non-payment or delayed payment of wages that are much lower than prescribed and of course other forms of exploitation. It has been reported that one out of every 10 workers in India is a child and that children between the ages of 14 and 17 years engaged in hazardous work comprise of more than 60% of India's child labour workforce." He said, the National Policy for Children, 2013 provides that children in difficult circumstances are tracked, rescued, rehabilitated and have access to their right to education. While the objectives of the National Policy are more than welcome, what is important is the level of achievement and success in the implementation of the objectives. There is nothing in the public domain on this. Similarly, the National Plan of Action for Children, 2016 also has some excellent objectives and draws upon the Sustainable Development Goals to provide a broad framework, but again, the question is of implementation. Even Though, the State has introduced some measures like Operation Muskaan and Operation Smile that have achieved occasional success, follow up action is also necessary with regard to the rehabilitation and reintegration of rescued children into society. He added, the human rights can be used not only as a shield but also wielded as a sword. While talking about the worst violations of the human rights of the child, the custom of child marriage, he added child marriages take place across the country in spite of the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 (and its predecessor, the Child Marriage Restraint Act, 1929) that specifically makes a child marriage a punishable offence. He said target 5.3 of the Sustainable Development Goals requires India to eliminate child, early and forced marriages by 2030 but the government did not provide any update on achieving the target during its Voluntary National Review at the 2017 High Level Political Forum. He emphasisied on the report prepared by the National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights in collaboration with Young Lives was released in June 2017 and is titled: "A Statistical Analysis of Child Marriage in India based on Census 2011". This report states, inter alia, as follows: "Child marriage is not only a violation of human rights, but is also recognized as an obstacle to the development of young people. The practice of child marriage cut shorts a critical stage of self-discovery and exploring one's identity. Child marriage is an imposition of a marriage partner on children or adolescents who are in no way ready and matured, and thus, are at a loss to understand the significance of marriage. Their development gets compromised due to being deprived of freedom, opportunity for personal development, and other rights including health and well-being, education, and participation in civic life and nullifies their basic rights as envisaged in the United Nations Convention on the Right of the Child ratified by India in 1989. Marriage at a young age prevents both girls and boys from exercising agency in making important life decisions and securing basic freedoms, including pursuing opportunities for education, earning a sustainable livelihood and accessing sexual health and rights." He also mentioned trafficking of young girls and even young boys is a matter of grave concern all over the country. He added, human trafficking is abominable per se and it is worse when children are trafficked in large numbers. He asked, "What could be more abhorrent than the trafficking of women and children for sexual favours? Are these human rights issues being addressed and remedial measures (if any) implemented?" He said, detailed report on trafficking has been prepared for the government, but for some reason it is not being released. "The tragedy of the public discourse about children is that...

Human Rights of Women Appear To Be Only Talking Points And Not Actionable: Justice Madan Lokur [Video&Full Text]

Arabhi Anandan

"The human rights of women and girls appear to be only talking points and not actionable points. I say this because there are more than enough funds available for women’s safety, but these are not being utilized"

Tags