The basic rights and freedom that belong to every person in the world right from his/her birth until his/her death are collectively termed as “Human Rights”. These rights are applicable regardless of where you are from, what you believe in or how you choose to live your life. It follows that these human rights are fundamentally relevant to all of us, and not just to those who face repression or mistreatment. As far as India is concerned, Human Rights are generally understood as a set of inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled just by the dint of being a human being. So it is that, Human Rights are conceived as Universal and Egalitarian which are applicable to everyone and everywhere across the globe. One more characteristic of these rights is that they may exist as natural rights or as legal rights.
To talk of Indian laws on human rights – the crusader of human rights and chairman of drafting committee of Indian Constitution, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, incorporated several provisions of human rights in Indian Constitution under Part III of Fundamental Rights from Article 14 to 32 and Directive Principles of State Policy from Articles 36 to 51 that include Right to Equality, Right to Freedom, Right against Exploitation, Minorities Educational Cultural Rights, and Right to Constitutional Remedies.
Again, it is the constitutional mandate of judiciary to protect human rights of the citizens. The machinery for redress is provided under Articles 32 and 226 of the constitution. An aggrieved person can directly approach the Supreme Court or High Court of the concerned state for the protection of his/her fundamental rights, redressal of grievances and enjoyment of fundamental rights.
Over the years, the Courts have protected the right of the people in numerous cases whether it is a right against violence in custody, to live in a pollution free environment, right to health, right to adequate wages of the workers, safety of the women at workplace, compensation to rape victim, rights of the child laborers and so on. Apart from the government, there are several non-government entities (NGOs) which play an important role in protection of human rights. These organizations pick up the government’s deficits in service and help in protecting rights of the people.
The Constitution of India provides a number of safeguards for the protection of human rights. Additionally, for the effective implementation of the human rights, the Government of India has also enacted the ‘Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993’, which provides for the establishment of the National Human Rights Commission, State Human Rights Commission in a number of states and also the Human Rights Courts at the district level. Thus, the Indian judiciary is working hard to protect the human rights of the people of India as well as to provide faster remedy to the victim of human rights violation.
But, in spite of such efforts by the Government, the objectives have not yet been truly achieved due to the following reasons and challenges:
Ø Though the Constitution of India has enumerated various rights, but there are large number of people who are not even aware of these rights guaranteed by the Constitution due to their unsafe conditions and struggle for every day survival.
Ø There are millions of people in this country who still live in a state of abject poverty – without food, shelter, employment, healthcare and education. And, corruption, denial of gender equality and exploitation of women, terrorism are some of the other issues which are seriously impacting human life at the ground level.
Ø “All Human Rights for All” should ideally be the goal of the century and it should be ensured that human rights are universally accepted and respected. The aim here has to be to secure the freedom, well-being and dignity of all people everywhere.
Ø The Right to corruption-free governance is also a human right in many ways. This is because corruption in the institutions of governance derogates human dignity of the people and also adversely affects them in several ways, thereby violating their human rights.
Ø Health for all must also be an important item in the human rights agenda. The aim of linking health and human rights is to contribute to advancing human well-being beyond what could be achieved through an isolated health or human rights based approach.
Thus, the one major challenge to human rights in the new millennium is to ensure distributive justice in the national as well as the global context. And, if human rights theory has an urgent job to do in the present times, it is to turn the tension from its current destructive motion towards a creative balance between the individual whom democracy offers to empower on the one hand and the sources of power, both within and outside the state apparatus, on the other hand.