Shah highlights need to redefine human rights
Union home minister Amit Shah on Saturday called for the need to redefine human rights in the Indian context, saying that the definition should not be limited to custodial deaths or extra judicial killings.
Speaking on the occasion of the National Human Rights Commission’s (NHRC) 26th Foundation Day on Saturday, Shah said, “Global parameters should not be only parameters. It’s the time to redefine rights violations with the Indian perspective and should include poverty and violence in our society.”
“We have approached the human rights issue with a narrow prism,” he added.
The home minister said terrorism or Maoism were the biggest cause of human rights violations, but those killed in such acts and their families did not get as much attention as those killed in police custody. The Centre, he said, had zero-tolerance on custodial deaths and extra judicial killings.
He said more than 40,000 people have been killed in Kashmir since 1990, while Maoism has thwarted the development of several districts. “Was this not a violation of the human rights of these people? But it was never discussed! Modi has solved the problems of these 70 crore people and protected their human rights.”
“Indian context is different from rest of the world. We have to redefine human rights according to our challenges and situation,” he added, while highlighting that denial of basic facilities such as housing, medical aid, cooking gas and electricity, among others should also fall in the purview of human rights violation.
The minister said protection of human rights of children, women, poor and marginalised sections were inbuilt in the social fabric of the country. “In our family system, the human rights of children and children are protected without any interference of law. In villages, there are many organisations which are helping the poor and the underprivileged as their duty for years.”
Underlining the welfare measures of the Narendra Modi-led government, he said five crore families did not have housing facilities, 3.5 crore household were deprived of electricity, 15 crore families did not had access to clean cooking fuel and 50 crore people had no medical insurance cover but the Narendra Modi government has tried to address this issue by taking these facilities to intended beneficiaries after 2014.
‘GOVT REDUCED NEED TO FILE RTI PLEAS’
The objective of the Modi government is to proactively put out as much information as possible in public domain to reduce the need for RTI applications, Union home minister Amit Shah said on Saturday. The success of a government does not lie in the high number of Right to Information (RTI) applications, Shah said while addressing the Central Information Commission convention.