New Delhi, Apr 19 (PTI) NHRC chairperson Justice (retd) Arun Kumar Mishra on Friday suggested that all seven national commissions in the country may frame “joint strategies” and find out ways for “more effective implementation” of sound legislations and schemes.
He also said that septic tanks should be “mechanically cleaned” and the National Human Rights Commission’s advisory on it should be followed.
The NHRC in a statement said the objective of the meeting was to discuss the issue of ensuring the protection of the rights of the vulnerable and marginalised sections and share best practices and annual action plans.
Meenakshi Negi, Member Secretary, National Commission for Women; Priyank Kanoongo, Chairperson, National Commission for Protection of Child Rights; Rajesh Aggarwal, Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities; Kishor Makwana, Chairperson, National Commission for Scheduled Caste; and Konthang Touthang, Joint Secretary, National Commission for Scheduled Tribes attended the meeting.
The country has various “sound legislations” to ensure the protection of human rights of different sections of the society and all the commissions, which are looking into various sectoral rights issues, along with the NHRC having an overarching jurisdiction, “may work together, frame joint strategies and find out ways” for more effective implementation of these legislations and schemes, Justice (retd) Mishra was quoted as saying in the statement.
The NHRC organised the Statutory Full Commission meeting of all seven national commissions, whose chairpersons are its ex officio members, the statement said.
“We must learn from each other’s experiences and take measures to ensure equality and dignity for SC-ST communities, women and marginalised sections of society,” he added chairing the meeting.
He said the Centre has framed a scheme regarding mechanical cleaning of septic tanks, which the states and local bodies should implement.
Negi, Member Secretary, NCW, said that it would be better to have a collaboration among all the commissions for research to avoid duplication as there are several common subjects on which the NHRC and the NCW are doing research.
She said the another area of concern is that the compatibility of state statutory provisions has to be worked out to ensure uniformity in property rights for women in the country.
Makwana, Chairperson, National Commission for Scheduled Caste, said the challenge is how to ensure the benefits of the new education policy and emerging technology reach the people.
He said change cannot be brought in mindset of people by way of laws only, but also with compassion and sensitivity.
Kanoongo, Chairperson, NCPCR, said that the panel has been proactively working to ensure the rights of children.
It is monitoring eight portals in this connection. The commission has ensured that more than one lakh orphan children were monitored. They have been rehabilitated into families. It was ensured that they were not compelled to live in orphanages, he was quoted as saying in the statement.
The Commission has been ensuring the installation of CCTV cameras at chemists’ shops to ensure children are not given scheduled drugs for substance abuse. The Commission has issued nine guidelines and SOPs to ensure protection of child rights besides preparing 19 research reports over the years, the statement said.
Aggarwal, Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities, said over the years with the increase in rights consciousness among ‘divyangjan’, so have the related challenges. The problems relating to admission in schools and assistance to the differently-abled students in exams continue to be a problem. The visually-impaired have been facing the problem of captcha codes while accessing online services.
D M Mulay, Member, NHRC, said there is a lot of scope for cooperation among the commissions. However, it should be more structured to serve the purpose of protecting of rights of various sections of society.
Rajiv Jain, Member, NHRC, said studies suggest that despite a provision of the compensation under the SC-ST Act, its payment is delayed. A lot of time is lost in the registration of complaints and distribution of compensation.
The victim compensation schemes in all states need to be studied to know whether these are in conformity with the statute or not. Likewise, he said, the compensation under NALSA also needs to be enhanced, the statement said.
Jain said the states cannot refuse to intervene in the matters of the violations of rights of children in private schools, merely on the ground that these are owned by private entities.
Bharat Lal, Secretary General, NHRC, said such interactions among these institutions are useful in forming a “common platform” on some key issues of human rights and collectively ensure quick relief to the victims.
They can collaborate on preparing advisories on various rights issues and ensure their implementation as well as preventive steps. He also said that the seven national commissions may onboard the HRCnet portal of the NHRC to increase synergy and stop duplication of cases and efforts in resolving them. PTI KND AS AS
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