Setback in Human Rights for India

                                                             India and Human Rights
    India has experienced a setback when it comes to human rights. Women have continued to be targets of violence and so far nothing has been done to change this. Not only have these violent acts not been stopped, but nothing has been done in the protection of their freedom of speech. The Human Rights Watch made it known that they were unhappy with the lack of changes they saw in regards to sexual violence towards these women. Those in the public eye or in power (public officials) have also not been punished or held responsible for their acts. However, this is not for lack of trying. The government has been trying to fix these problems, but its problem is with executing these plans and getting them to start helping these victims. Although the government has made recommendations on fixing how these issues are handled and they are trying to change things it still has not happened. Part of that is because public officials and other people with power are not held responsible for their actions. Ms. Ganguly said, "India needs a stronger system of accountability for public officials and better training and sensitization of the police." Freedom of speech has also suffered a setback because of the lack of protection of this right. Social media has become a problem as well. The government in India is called "heavy handed" when it comes to restrictions on the use of social media. There has been a ban for youtube and facebook in Kashmir and two women in Mumbia were arrested for what they were doing on facebook. It was said that the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (lets soldiers violate rights) needs to be rejected as well. Although these are serious issued that they are still trying to fix some ground has been made in other areas of human rights. Within the last year children have been given protection from sexual abuse, more medical care centers have been encouraged, and suspects of the 2002 Gujarat riots have been convicted.
    I thought this was a very interesting article because it said several times how the government itself is trying to fix these problems. Just reading the title I thought the government was intentionally revoking human rights, but after reading this I learned that many are trying to fix this problem for these women. These issues are particularly important because everybody should be able to live without fear of being attacked. Anybody who violates that should be punished without a doubt. People should be able to live with the peace of mind that somebody cannot just walk up and do them harm regardless of their gender, race, class, sexuality, etc. This article was important, I thought, because it addresses the safety of people, their right to speak, governments ability to handle these issues, and people being held accountable by the government for any violation of basic human rights.

http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/01/human-rights-violation-on-the-rise-in-india-recent-report-says/

Molly Winfree
2/1/13
4:06 pm