Jharkhand cry for human rights
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Ranchi, July 24: Jharkhand is among the top five in the list of states when it comes to violation of human rights.
Chairperson of National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), justice S. Rajendra Babu told The Telegraph today that Jharkhand happens to be a state of "much concern".
Babu was here to inaugurate a separate academic block of the Ranchi Institute of Neuro-Psychiatry and Allied Sciences (Rinpas). "With regard to violation of human rights, Uttar Pradesh tops the list while Delhi is second. Bihar is third and Jharkhand comes in fourth or fifth," said Babu, a former chief justice of India.
Sources disclosed that as many as 84,000 cases of violation of human rights are in consideration with NHRC, of which more than 40,000 cases are from Uttar Pradesh.
"As far as I can recall, there are about 3,000 human rights violation cases from Jharkhand," said Babu.
NHRC only takes up cases when the state violates human rights.
Babu, however, clarified that there is no direct connection between the rise of Naxalism (in several states including Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and Jharkhand) and violation of human rights.
He revealed that NHRC is determined to widen its sphere and cover human rights violation in social, cultural and economic spheres.
Babu, who stays in Bangalore, described Jharkhand as "one of the best places to be", describing his home as "located between a crematorium and NIMHANS (another mental hospital)."
Referring to his judiciary days, Babu recalled that a lawyer had requested him to release all mental patients lodged in jails. "But where would they go? Families do not recognise them and they are looked down upon. The stigma has to end through proper awareness and education," said the NHRC chairman.
Babu also visited different wards of Rinpas and met patients with mental disorders in the morning along with Rinpas director retired brigadier P.K. Chakraborty, former NHRC rapporteur Chamanlal and secretary general of NHRC Ravi Kamal Bhargava among others.
posted by Resistance 7/25/2007 08:18:00 PM,
