Actors for change: the growth of human rights institutions; India: a society in transition.

Human rights institutions have taken root firmly in India, and these roots go deep because they are in a society whose awareness level is growing by leaps and bounds.

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Sample this: Dinesh Chand Jaiswal, a young constable with the Central Reserve Police Force, is proud holding a small trophy won on a debate on human rights. "I feel really good since I've been participating in this debate in 2002, and this year I have won it", he says with a grin while his battalion mates crowd around listening to him. "Yes, I've learned that our operations, conducted while pursuing terrorists and anti-social elements, can be carried out by ensuring that human rights are not abused." Like what? "I know that innocent people, who may happen to be there, have to be protected at any cost, and its compulsory to involve elders from the community when carrying out search operations ... and always take along a woman constable to deal with women in such operations", he adds.

An eight-year-old girl has just found her way to the bustling community of "Prayas" (meaning the effort). Her mother earns 1,300 rupees (some $28) per month and has three other daughters to look after in her little slum house on the outskirts of New Delhi. At the Prayas-run shelter for destitute children, she will get an education, regular meals and a hope to make something of her life--her amputated arm notwithstanding. In another part of India's capital, in a small ordinary office sits a small group of researchers pouring over media reports and meeting "sources" to collect data on torture and extrajudicial killings. While local media reports are agog with stark pictures of a baby born and dying outside one of India's top hospitals, photographers persuade the distraught mother to uncover the tiny bundle on her lap for their shoot for the "audience".

At the same time, the citizens are divided over an army of bulldozers that have descended in some middle-class colonies on direction from the highest court to remove "unauthorized" portions of residential and commercial buildings. Some bay for blood of municipal officials who "allowed" these buildings to come up. "It is my home and I won't allow you to demolish it", says a young girl as she shakes her fists at two police officers sitting atop a crane, who are trying to persuade her to leave her balcony and allow officials to carry on their work.

"It is our right", says everyone in a society filled with a new found awareness fueled by media focus on abuse and violation, moving of the wheels of human rights institutions--an exceptionally devoted community of non-governmental organizations and a high-pitched, philanthropy-driven endorsement of social causes by celebrities.

Public debates focus on fairness, be it for the alleged "moll" of an international terrorist who had just been extradited to India by Spain, or the dropping out of a former captain of the country's cricket team, on which a debate was scheduled even in Parliament. Vigilant Indians are waking up to their rights and coming forward to fight for them. "Everyone is talking about rights, but the only drawback is that people do not know the process. The awareness is therefore incomplete", says Archana Chaturvedi of the Indian Social Institute, which publishes several magazines on the issues of human rights, women and civil society. "And the most vulnerable section is women and they have to be made aware of the processes", she adds.

"Laws are present, but awareness is not there", echoes Sadhana Ramachandran, a lawyer practising human rights law for the past ten years. "Laws relating to women's inheritance of property, domestic violence and dowry deaths have been made, but people still need to be adequately educated about them", she adds. Children, along with women, bear the brunt of societal and economic torment, even though all rights are guaranteed by the country's Constitution. "The right to move the Supreme Court for violation of a fundamental right is now almost a fundamental right", she says, so institutional support emanates from the top. "Political will is perhaps lacking in this support. There is so much child labour in India, which is equal to the number of unemployed adults, so why can't we just have policies to switch the two and send these children to be educated. The police, armed forces and the lower judiciary need to be sensitized the most to make human rights implementable in our country," Ms. Ramachandran says.

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"Torture in custody and extrajudicial executions are a major problem across South Asia", says Rineeta Naik of the South Asia Human Rights Documentation Centre. "This is evident from the number of complaints sent to the National Human Rights Commission of India (NHRC)." One of the main causes of the persistence of such violations is the lack of accountability. Certain laws grant immunity from prosecution to all public officials, she says, and under the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act of 1958, all security forces are given unrestricted and unaccounted power to carry out their operations once an area is declared disturbed. Even a non-commissioned officer is granted the right to shoot to kill based on mere suspicion that it is necessary to do so in order to 'maintain the public order'." Further, she adds, the NHRC is not allowed to independently probe violations by the army, which is a serious lacuna in the process of ensuring justice to victims.

The Commission has been seeking more power to increase its effectiveness in upholding the citizen's rights for the last few years. Justice (retired) A. S. Anand, the NHRC Chairperson, is a proponent of putting the Commission at the forefront of the battle to prevent violations of human rights in the country; and with 75,000 cases registered with it in 2004, it's a Herculean task to increase efficiency and effectiveness.

According to Mondeep Tiwana, co-author of a "citizen's handbook" on human rights commissions, the reform areas that are widely endorsed are powers of the commission and appointments. "Though the NHRC was set up under the Protection of Human Rights Act 1993, it is not fully in accordance with the Paris Principles. While commissions should be given as broad a mandate as possible, the NHRC only has powers to recommend to the Government", he says, adding that "these should be made binding to increase effectiveness and provide quick relief to victims of abuse and their families. The follow up by authorities is very poor both at the centre and the different states of India". Currently, 16 states have constituted commissions under the 1993 Act. "Also, they can get bogged down because of inadequate staff; and out of the 75,000 cases, many would be frivolous complaints by citizens", Mr. Tiwana says. He cites custodial deaths, torture by the armed forces and the police, trafficking of women and children, and child abuse as "serious" human rights issues that India is grappling with.

But that's not all, feels Lola Nayyar, a writer on development issues for the past 20 years. "Violence against individuals is not the only human rights abuse--it starts from day one. When a child is born and is not given proper medical care that is promised free of cost by the Government, and this child grows, the violations continue, be it pertaining to education, the right to clean drinking water, unpolluted environment or a safe society to live in", she says, adding that even a dangerous road to walk or drive on is a violation of a citizens right, and the violators are the States who fail to provide these basic living facilities to their citizens.

Ranjit Monga is founder and partner of Bright Lite Communications, a media consultancy firm specializing in social issues. Previously, he was a career journalist with over 15 years of experience in various organizations in India.

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